Research on the impact of digital-intelligent transformation on corporate knowledge base: evidence from cooperative innovation of Chinese listed companies

Purpose With the rapid development of digital-intelligent technology and its profound changes in the acquisition model of enterprise innovation knowledge, this paper aims to discuss the impact and mechanism of digital-intelligent transformation on enterprise cooperative innovation based on the theory of knowledge-based view. Design/methodology/approach Using data from China’s listed companies from 2005 to 2023, the authors construct a firm-level digital-intelligent transformation index and a firm-level cooperative innovation. Findings Research has found that digital-intelligent transformation has a significant promoting effect on cooperative innovation among enterprises, and this promoting effect is mainly reflected in samples of companies with strong monopoly power and in industries with high technological levels. The mechanism analysis results show that the digital-intelligent transformation mainly promotes cooperative innovation among enterprises by improving business expectations, enhancing information disclosure levels, and improving knowledge acquisition capabilities. Expansion analysis shows that the digital-intelligent transformation has mainly promoted cooperative innovation and green patent cooperation among enterprises, but has not significantly improved the quality of cooperative innovation. Originality/value This study defines enterprise cooperative innovation as a knowledge synergy issue, bridging the knowledge-based view and digital-intelligent transformation research. It clarifies three paths and two boundary conditions for digital-intelligent empowerment of cooperative innovation. The revealed heterogeneous effects and insufficient innovation quality challenge the notion of digital-intelligent equally promoting innovation, clarify the green innovation orientation, enrich relevant theories, and provide empirical evidence for policy implementation.