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Industrial Technology Progress

Digital Economy, Green Technology Innovation and Transforma⁃ tion and Upgrading of Manufacturing Industry 

Guo Na1, 2 , Chang Yunting1 

(1.School of Economics, Hebei University of Economics and Business, Shijiazhuang 050061, China; 2.Modern  Business and Trade Service Industry Research Center, Hebei University of Economics and Business, Shijia⁃ zhuang 050061, China)

Abstract: The digital economy has changed the way of knowledge acquisition and the alloca⁃ tion efficiency of resources, becoming a new driver of sustainable social development and an im⁃ portant driver of the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. As a major  manufacturing country, China should capitalize on the new digital economic revolution to  achieve the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy. At the same time, with  the advancement of China's industrialization and urbanization, ecological and environmental  problems have emerged as a critical factor limiting the high-quality development of China's  economy. Therefore, achieving high-level development in China's manufacturing industry re⁃ quires optimizing and upgrading the manufacturing industry's structure and also paying attention  to the application of green technology innovation. While existing research has examined the connection between the digital economy and the  transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, it has not fully explored the relevant  mechanisms and regional differences in manufacturing industry development levels. There is  also a lack of intermediary mechanism testing for green technology innovation. Furthermore, re⁃ search on the nonlinear dynamic impact of the digital economy on the transformation and upgrad⁃ ing of the manufacturing industry needs further exploration. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2021, this paper constructs  an indicator system using the entropy method to analyze how the digital economy drives the  transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry and explore the intermediary trans⁃ mission mechanism of green technology innovation by considering its role in this process. In  short, the author hopes to provide some references for better promoting the development of  China's manufacturing industry. The results show that at the national level, the improvement of  the digital economy has a significant promoting effect on the transformation and upgrading of the  manufacturing industry. The heterogeneity test of manufacturing provinces and nonmanufacturing provinces reveals that the digital economy has a more significant promoting effect  on non-manufacturing provinces than on manufacturing provinces. The multidimensional hetero⁃geneity test of the digital economy shows that the improvement of the digital technology applica⁃ tion can promote the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, while the im⁃ provement of the digital infrastructure construction and digital technology innovation cannot sig⁃ nificantly improve the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. The mecha⁃ nism test shows that green technology innovation is an important way to realize the transforma⁃ tion and upgrading of the manufacturing industry driven by the digital economy. The panel  threshold model with green technology innovation as the threshold variable shows that there is a  double threshold effect in the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry em⁃ powered by the digital economy. Accordingly, in the future, the development of the digital  economy should be accelerated by strengthening the construction of digital infrastructure, en⁃ hancing digital technology applications, and focusing on digital technological innovations, to  help the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. At the same time, it is nec⁃ essary to customize strategic measures to leverage the comparative advantages of manufacturing  and non-manufacturing provinces to fully realize the potential of the integrated development of  digital technology and manufacturing. Finally, by promoting green technology innovation, the  driving role of the digital economy in the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing in⁃ dustry will be enhanced, and the transformation will be further accelerated. 

Key words: digital economy; transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry; green  technology innovation; threshold effect