Digital economy development and regional innovation resilience: mechanism and empirical analysis

Improving the resilience of innovation systems is a prerequisite for achieving high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology. This study defines a conceptual framework of innovation resilience. It delves into its theoretical and empirical aspects to thoroughly examine the impact and transmission mechanisms of digital economic development on the resilience of regional innovation systems. The research findings reveal that the digital economy positively impacts regional innovation resilience (RIR), a result that persists even after a series of robustness tests. Second, the digital economy can effectively enhance RIR by expanding the scale of the digital industry, strengthening intellectual property protection, and increasing innovation. Third, there is a threshold effect on the influence of the digital economy on RIR, which becomes more pronounced with the developing digital economy and increasing levels of innovation personnel, funding, and output. The conclusions of this study provide new policy tools to strengthen innovation resilience and promote the optimization of regional innovation policies.