Data Empowerment: Data Element Sharing and the Integration of Digital and Real Economy Technologies in Enterprises

The deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy is characterized by significant data-driven features. Public data opening, as an important channel for the supply of data elements, lays a crucial data foundation for enterprises to achieve the integration of digital and real economy technologies. This study constructs a quasi-natural experiment based on the public data opening platforms of various prefecture-level cities in China and uses a multi-period difference-in-differences method to examine the impact of public data opening on the integration of digital and real economy technologies in enterprises. The results show that public data opening can promote the integration of digital and real economy technologies in enterprises, mainly through the mechanisms such as reducing transaction costs, promoting digital transformation, and enhancing innovation efficiency. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that public data opening has a more significant promoting effect on the integration of digital and real economy technologies in small-scale enterprises, non-high-tech enterprises, and enterprises located in cities with low levels of digital infrastructure construction and high economic development levels. Based on the research on the quality dimensions of opening, it is found that the overall quality of public data opening, data quality, and platform construction quality play a major role in the integration of digital and real economy technologies in enterprises, while the role of policy guarantee strength has not yet been highlighted, and the intensity of policy supply in digital economy plays a reverse regulatory role in this process. The conclusions of this study provide empirical evidence for improving data empowerment policies and realizing the dividend effect of public data opening in promoting the integration of digital and real economy technologies.