Digital Economy Policy Exposure and Firms' Innovation in Key Core Technologies

Digital policy can influence strategic innovation through policy exposure, complementary organizational investment, and lengthy technology-conversion cycles. This study examines whether intelligent manufacturing policy is associated with firms' innovation in key core technologies among Chinese listed companies. Policy exposure is defined by whether an industry was prioritized by the policy and whether the observation falls in the post-policy period. A difference-in-differences framework with firm and year fixed effects is used to estimate relative changes in patent outcomes. The results show a positive post-policy association for granted key core technology patents, including alternative outcome measures based on transformed grants and patent citations. The financing-constraint result does not support a financing-relief mechanism, whereas the decline in industry concentration is consistent with a more competitive market structure. The technical-personnel share does not change significantly. Estimated associations are stronger among firms with greater digital-technology use and higher robot penetration. However, the event-study evidence does not adequately support parallel trends. The findings should therefore be interpreted as conditional associations rather than definitive causal effects.