Assessing the effect of digital platforms on innovation quality: mechanism identification and threshold characteristics

In the digital era, digital platforms are gradually changing the ways of life and social production and are becoming the centre of digital services in various industries. Additionally, they break the established institutional framework of social recognition and promote technological change and innovation. Thus, examining the quality of innovation facilitated by digital platforms has become an important area of research. This paper utilises China's 2011–2021 provincial panel data and examines digital platforms, resource mismatches and innovation quality within the same research framework. The direct, indirect and nonlinear effects of digital platforms on innovation quality are explored using the fixed effects model, intermediary effect model and dynamic threshold regression model. The findings indicate that digital platforms have a significant positive direct effect on innovative quality, and resource mismatches play intermediary and threshold roles in the process. These findings offer policy guidance for constructing robust digital platform ecosystems and enhancing innovation quality.