Abstract:     The digital innovation capability serves as a pivotal source for firms to acquire and uphold sustainable competitive advantages in the era of digital economy. However, its evolutionary logic and formation mechanism have not yet been fully explored. Hence, drawing upon the theory of innovation ecosystem, this paper investigated the dynamic evolutionary process and driving mechanism of core firms′ digital innovation capability. The findings are as follows: first, within the firm innovation ecosystem, the digital innovation capability of core firms can be divided into collaborative digital innovation capability and unique digital innovation capability, and its development process has undergone three stages: cultivation, formation and promotion. Second, the collaboration mechanism among multiple entities is an essential prerequisite for the development of core firms′ digital innovation capabilities, which can be divided into distributed collaboration and integrated collaboration, each driving the development of different types of digital innovation capabilities. Third, knowledge coupling is the driving force for the development of core firms′ digital innovation capability, which reflects the internal mechanism of multi-subject collaboration on the formation of firms′ digital innovation capability. Loose knowledge coupling builds a bridge between distributed collaboration and collaborative digital innovation capabilities, while tight knowledge coupling builds a bridge between integrated collaboration and unique digital innovation capabilities. The research conclusion analyzes the formation mechanism of firm digital innovation capability from the new perspective of multi-agent collaboration, which not only enriches the theoretical literature of firm digital innovation capability, but also provides practical reference for firms to effectively develop digital innovation capability.

Key words: enterprise innovation ecosystem, collaboration mechanism, enterprise digital innovation capability, knowledge coupling