The impact of digitalization on urban sustainable development – An economic perspective

IF 13.3 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS Technological Forecasting and Social Change Pub Date : 2025-03-01 Epub Date: 2025-01-23 DOI:10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124005

Yi Yang , Liyin Shen , Meiyue Sang , Xinyi Ding

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Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that the application of digital technology has certain impact on urban economy. The role of urban digitalization has been reflected in many policies in order to promote sustainable urban economy. It is considered important to clarify the mechanism of digitalization's impacts on sustainable urban development from an economic perspective. The mechanism is interpreted by designing and testing four research hypotheses based on two related theories. The PLS-SEM model is employed for the validation of the hypotheses by applying the data collected from 35 typical Chinese cities for the period of 2017 to 2021. The main findings are summarized as follows: (1) Digitalization can drive urban economic sustainability through promoting innovation, stimulating living consumption, and increasing human resources vitality. (2) Human resources vitality is the strongest mediator to affect the digitalization's contribution to economic sustainability. (3) The mediator of innovation is more influential in large cities, whilst the mediator of living consumption is more influential in small-medium cities. Therefore, cities of different sizes should choose different policies to promote economic sustainability in the digital age, such as strengthening digital infrastructure, encouraging human resource flow and innovation. However, the small number of samples limits the in-depth comparative analysis.

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数字化对城市可持续发展的影响——一个经济学视角

以往的研究表明，数字技术的应用对城市经济产生了一定的影响。城市数字化的作用已经体现在许多政策中，以促进城市经济的可持续发展。从经济学角度阐明数字化对城市可持续发展的影响机制具有重要意义。在两个相关理论的基础上，通过设计和检验四个研究假设来解释这一机制。利用PLS-SEM模型对中国35个典型城市2017 - 2021年的数据进行验证。研究结果表明：(1)数字化可以通过促进创新、刺激生活消费和增强人力资源活力来推动城市经济的可持续发展。(2)人力资源活力是影响数字化对经济可持续发展贡献的最强中介。(3)创新中介对大城市的影响更大，而生活消费中介对中小城市的影响更大。因此，不同规模的城市应该选择不同的政策来促进数字时代经济的可持续性，例如加强数字基础设施，鼓励人力资源流动和创新。然而，由于样本数量较少，限制了深入的对比分析。

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来源期刊

Technological Forecasting and Social Change Multiple-

CiteScore

21.30

自引率

10.80%

发文量

813

期刊介绍： Technological Forecasting and Social Change is a prominent platform for individuals engaged in the methodology and application of technological forecasting and future studies as planning tools, exploring the interconnectedness of social, environmental, and technological factors. In addition to serving as a key forum for these discussions, we offer numerous benefits for authors, including complimentary PDFs, a generous copyright policy, exclusive discounts on Elsevier publications, and more.