Digital Economy and Corporate Innovation-Washing--An Empirical Study on How Information Mitigates Policy Distortion  

作　　者：Li Jian Zhao Lexin Yao Nengzhi Bai Junhong 

机构地区：[1]Jiangsu Rural Finance Research Base,Nanjing Normal University,Nanjing,China [2]School of Business,Nanjing Normal University

出　　处：《China Economist》2025年第1期29-54,共26页中国经济学人(英文版)

基　　金：supported by the National Social Science Fund of China(NSSFC)project“Research on the Market Mechanism and Policy Pathway for Technological Breakthrough under the New Whole-Nation System”(Grant No.21&ZD122).

摘　　要：As stated in the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC),innovation remains at the heart of China’s modernization drive,and it is vital to optimize the allocation of innovation resources,deepen structural scientific and technological reforms,and enhance the overall performance of China’s innovation system.Government incentives have boosted firm R&D and innovation efforts;however,they have also triggered an innovation dilemma where enterprises,capitalizing on their informational advantages,resort to innovation-washing behaviors that undermine the intended purpose of the policies.Based on the information asymmetry theory,this paper conducts an empirical study on how the digital economy affects firms’innovation-washing behavior.The development of the regional digital economy could suppress firm innovation-washing behavior in the region,and such a mitigation effect is primarily caused by an increase in the number of digital industry professionals.According to our heterogeneity analysis,the digital economy has a greater impact on firm innovation-washing behavior for certain types of enterprises,including non-state-owned enterprises(non-SOEs),small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs),enterprises in less competitive industries,and enterprises in unfavorable business environments.Our mechanism analysis revealed that the digital economy may restrain innovation-washing behavior by reducing information asymmetry between enterprises and external stakeholders.In terms of economic outcomes,the digital economy has the potential to directly influence firm innovation output while also indirectly mitigating the subsequent decline in innovation output by discouraging innovation-washing.This paper enriches the research findings on how the digital economy breaks down“information silos”and offers a potential solution to the“emphasis on input and quantity over quality and efficiency”phenomenon in science and technology innovation practices.

关 键 词：Digital economy innovation-washing behavior information asymmetry industrial policy 

分 类 号：F42[经济管理—产业经济]