How Does the Digital Economy Promote a Culture of Business Innovation? A Study Based on Human Capital Allocation Perspective

Human capital is the driving force of enterprise innovation. By clarifying the impact of the digital economy on enterprise innovation from the perspective of human capital allocation, we can understand the underlying mechanisms that enable high-quality development dividends on a more nuanced scale. This study incorporated the 'Broadband China' strategy to construct a quasi-natural experiment, empirically investigating the impact of digital economy development on micro-level enterprise innovation from a human capital perspective. The findings show that digital economy development can effectively reduce the demand gap and recruitment costs for research and development personnel and significantly improve their efficiency, thereby promoting corporate innovation. Heterogeneity tests show that the micro-level effects of the digital economy are more pronounced for firms with younger entrepreneurs, those registered in eastern Chinese cities, or those that are strongly influenced by Confucian culture. Further analysis shows that by streamlining these channels of human capital, the digital economy can not only boost the overall output of corporate innovation but also significantly improve its quality.