ABSTRACT The interactive relationships among multiple entities within the digital industry innovation ecosystem (DIIES) profoundly influence its evolution path and overall efficiency. From the perspective of multisubject symbiosis, the evolution mechanism of China's DIIES is revealed, which provides a theoretical basis and decision‐making reference for optimizing the system structure and promoting its healthy and sustainable development. By constructing a multiagent Lotka–Volterra evolution model, this study identified the symbiotic pattern of DIIES in 30 provinces and revealed its evolution mechanism and influencing factors. The research results show that (1) the symbiotic model of the DIIES in various provinces presents four types of differentiation characteristics: ‘competition‐dominated type’, ‘parasitic‐dominated type’, ‘symbiotic‐dominated type’ and ‘multiple symbiosis type’. (2) The evolution process of the innovation population in the DIIES under different symbiotic models shows significant differences. The mutual‐benefit symbiotic model is the ideal model for maximizing the overall benefits of the system and achieving healthy and sustainable development. (3) The growth rate and initial size of the population do not affect the final equilibrium state of evolution, but the maximum size of the population directly determines the final development level that the system can achieve.
Ma et al. (2026) studied this question.