Drawing upon supply chain data from Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies between 2007 and 2022, this study examines the impact of core enterprises' digital transformation on suppliers' innovation. Findings reveal that digital transformation in core enterprises stimulates suppliers' innovation, with a stronger effect on substantive innovation than on strategic innovation. Mechanism analysis indicates that core enterprises' digital transformation primarily drives supplier innovation through financial spillovers, knowledge spillovers, and innovation facilitation. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promotional effect is more pronounced when client-supplier relationship dependency is low, suppliers operate in high-tech industries, and suppliers are non-state-owned enterprises. Adopting a supply chain perspective, this study refines the existing research on client enterprises' digital transformation influencing supplier innovation, offering insights for advancing corporate innovation and fostering collaborative innovation within supply chains.
Yun Zhao (Mon,) studied this question.