China′s digital transformation and innovation development trends have attracted widespread attention. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out that reinforcing the principal role of enterprises in innovation and giving full play to the guiding and supporting role of key high-tech enterprises. How corporate strategies can improve digital innovation performance and promote the development of the digital economy is now a hot topic in industry and academia. Based on 1,612 unbalanced panel data of A-share listed digital enterprises in China from 2007-2017, this paper studied the mechanism of the impact of digital transformation strategy on corporate digital innovation performance. The research results showed that: (1) corporate knowledge absorptive capacity plays a partially mediating role in digital transformation strategy and corporate digital innovation performance; (2) the nature of ownership positively moderates the positive relationship between knowledge absorptive capacity and digital innovation performance; and (3) the concentration of ownership negatively moderates the positive contribution of knowledge absorptive capacity to digital innovation performance. This study will help enterprises clarify the digital innovation performance path, help companies succeed in digital innovation, enhance the digital innovation capabilities of Chinese companies, and serve the development of the digital economy.

Under the requirements for the goals of “carbon dioxide peaking and carbon neutrality” and high-quality development strategies, how to effectively use digital innovation to drive green development has become an important practical problem to be solved urgently. Based on the observed data of manufacturing enterprises from 2013 to 2020, text analysis and word frequency statistics were used in this paper to measure enterprise digital innovation. The comprehensive index system of green development of manufacturing enterprises was constructed from three dimensions: economic profit, social value and environmental benefit. This paper studied the impact of digital innovation on the green development of manufacturing enterprises, the effective digital innovation intensity threshold, the supporting effect of entrepreneurship and the fiscal and tax policies on the green development driven by digital innovation.

The findings of this paper are as follows: (1) Overall, digital innovation has a significant positive impact on the green development of manufacturing enterprises, and there is a significant industry heterogeneity effect. The driving effect of digital innovation on green development is mainly concentrated in agricultural and sideline food processing industry, paper and paper products industry, general equipment manufacturing industry and electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry. (2) The threshold effect of digital innovation intensity on the green development of manufacturing enterprises is significant. Only when the digital innovation intensity exceeds 141.707 can the green development of manufacturing enterprises be significantly promoted; otherwise, either the digital innovation effect is not significant, or the digital innovation will inhibit the green development of enterprises. (3) Entrepreneurial innovation spirit and entrepreneurial environmental protection spirit have a significant supporting effect on the green development of digital innovation-driven enterprises, but the entrepreneurial social responsibility spirit weakens the promoting effect of digital innovation on the green development of enterprises. (4) Tax incentives negatively regulate the driving effect of digital innovation on enterprises' green development, but the regulatory effect of financial subsidies on digital innovation to drive green development is not significant.

These conclusions will provide a new way and practical inspiration for manufacturing enterprises to use digital innovation to drive green development. At the same time, they will also provide some theoretical inspirations for designing effective fiscal and tax policies, choosing appropriate digital innovation intensity, shaping excellent entrepreneurial innovation spirit and entrepreneurial environmental protection spirit.

   The digital transformation and green transformation of enterprises are key paths to achieve high-quality development in China. Exploring how the digital transformation of enterprises affects their green innovation model holds both theoretical significance and practical insights. Amid digital transformation, enterprises face the critical issue of how to allocate their limited innovation resources. Will they prioritize breaking free from resource constraints, environmental limitations, or from both? The choice between energy-saving and environmentally-friendly green innovation becomes an urgent matter necessitating practical and theoretical exploration. However, few scholars in the academia have delved into this crucial issue. In order to investigate these issues, this study differentiated the content and models of green innovation, using energy-saving and environmentally-friendly green innovation models as the foundation. Against the backdrop of the new generation of information technology and digital technologies leading the development of green and low-carbon technologies, and with a focus on the Chinese context, this paper systematically examined the impact of digital transformation on the choice of enterprise green innovation models. This analysis was based on the panel data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2002 to 2021, thus making a comprehensive investigation into the influencing mechanisms involved.The study′s findings are as follows: (1) Digital transformation significantly boosts enterprises′ choice of energy-saving green innovation, which is mainly driven using digital underlying technologies. This conclusion still holds after considering endogeneity issues and a series of robustness tests such as replacing the green innovation level indicator and excluding specific samples. (2) Green R&D investment in digitization plays a mediating role in digital transformation and the choice of green innovation models. Digital transformation prompts enterprises to invest more digital resources in energy-saving green R&D, which in turn promotes the choice of energy-saving green innovation. (3) Market competition and government innovation subsidies strengthen the role of digital transformation in influencing the choice of energy-saving green innovation. Meanwhile, informal environmental regulations imposed by the public strengthen the impact of digital transformation on the choice of environmentally-friendly green innovation. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the impact of digital transformation on promoting the choice of energy-saving green innovation is particularly pronounced in the manufacturing sector with a high demand for green technological transformation.This study has several theoretical significances: (1) Our conclusions provided additional confirmation for the previously posited perspective that “digital capabilities have differing impacts on various facets of green transformation, including environmental management, improved resource utilization efficiency, and alterations in energy structure”. It also classified green innovation in terms of energy-saving and environmentally-friendly and clarifies the impact of digital transformation on enterprises′ choice of green innovation models. (2) This study revealed the mechanisms through which digital transformation influences the choice of green innovation models. (3) We incorporated the factors of the triadic co-management of environmental governance into the unified analytical framework. Within this framework, we examined the moderating effects of market competition, informal social environmental regulations, and government innovation subsidies, thus effectively avoiding the fragmented limitations present in current research.The study proposed the following policy insights: (1) The triadic co-management system should be comprehensively considered to promote the coordinated development of energy-saving and environmentally-friendly green innovation. (2) Manufacturing enterprises, especially heavily polluting enterprises, should be promoted to carry out digital transformation. (3) Deep integration of digitalization and greening should be facilitated, the foundational role of digital technology in the green development of enterprises should be actively leveraged and the application of data elements in the core processes of enterprise production should be encouraged to comprehensively reduce energy consumption.

   The Chinese-style innovation is an essential part of the Chinese-style modernization and an important direction for the development of SMEs in the context of digitalization. In order to stimulate the innovative development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the context of digitalization, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People′s Republic of China (MIIT) has announced the list of specialized, refined, differential and innovative "little giant" enterprises in several batches. Great superiority in strengthening S&T innovation has been shown and the resilience of the industrial chain supply chain has been improved in order to accelerate the resolution of the stranglehold problems.In view of the research gaps and the necessity of Chinese innovation paths for specialized, refined, differential, and innovative "little giant" in the context of digitization, CiteSpace software was used in this paper to analyze and propose 7 necessary influencing factors. In addition, the hybrid NCA and modified dynamic fsQCA methods were used to exam the core conditions and group effects of 200 companies so as to refine the corresponding innovation pathways, with the Resource-Based View and the TOE theoretical framework as a sufficient support.The findings from this research are as follows: (1) Innovation in "little giant" firms in the context of digitalization is not driven by a single factor, but rather by the synergy of technological, organizational and environmental conditions. (2) R&D intensity, digital emphases and government subsidies have a significant effect on the SMEs′ Chinese-style innovation, of which government support is an important feature of Chinese-style innovation, reflecting China′s institutional advantages. (3) Four innovation paths are proposed, namely, technology endowment, government-dependent, production-orientation, and integrated development, and they are supported by typical enterprise cases.The practical inspirations drawn from this research are as follows. For individual managers, it is correct and necessary to shift from a single mindset to an integrated one in the context of digitization. For the organization as a whole, the choice of path should be based on the reality of the enterprise′s technological, organizational and environmental resources. With regard to the formulation of national macro-policies, the government should play an active role in the “signaling effect”, which can guide specialized, refined, differential and innovative “little giant” enterprises to develop more efficiently and innovatively in the context of digitization.

    Promoting green innovation and comprehensively achieving green transformation of economy are significant strategic layouts for China to vigorously promote high-quality economic development. At present, China′s extensive development mode of "high input and low efficiency" has led to more serious problems such as overcapacity, environmental pollution, and resource depletion. In particular, energy-intensive, highly polluting, and inefficient manufacturing companies have become a major source of increased carbon emissions. In this regard, it is urgent to change the disadvantage of low "green concentration" of Chinese enterprises at the technical level, so as to stimulate technological innovation and move up the value chain. Fortunately, digital transformation is pushing more flexible and greener production processes, and optimizing the mobility and integration of production factors, which has a momentous impact on stimulating enterprises′ green innovation. In view of the lack of existing literature on the antecedents of green innovation from the perspective of digital transformation, the present paper proposes the following questions: Can digital transformation directly improve green innovation and what is its potential transmission mechanism? Is there industry heterogeneity in the influence examined? Identifying the results of these problems has far-reaching significance to promote sustainable development and help the government to formulate targeted digital policies.The paper examined the relationship between digital transformation and green innovation by using the data of China′s A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2019 and constructing an industry-time dual fixed effect model. The research results indicated that: digital transformation not only directly improves the green innovation level of enterprises, but also indirectly stimulates green innovation by increasing absorptive capacity and strengthening internal controls. The analysis of industry heterogeneity indicated that compared with non-state-owned enterprises, digital transformation plays a greater role in promoting state-owned enterprises′ green innovation. The digital transformation of non-technology-intensive enterprises has no significant impact on green innovation. Compared with enterprises in areas with weak environmental regulations, digital transformation has a stronger incentive effect on the green innovation of enterprises in areas with strong environmental regulations. With the improvement of the level of green finance, the positive correlation between digital transformation and green innovation remains basically unchanged. The findings will help to provide feasible and favorable policy directions for deepening digital transformation to facilitate green development.The possible innovation of the paper lies in that, on the one hand, the relationship between digitalization and green innovation is clarified from the perspective of micro-subjects, thus solving the long-standing disputes and enriching the understanding of the antecedents of green innovation. On the other hand, the paper provides a framework of "benchmarks-influence mechanism-extensibility analysis (heterogeneity investigation)" and for the first time demonstrates the mediating role of internal control and absorptive capacity between digital transformation and green innovation. This helps to provide clear path guidance for enterprises′ green innovation practice.The findings of this paper have three pivotal policy implications. First, companies need to firmly grasp the idea that digital transformation is an important driver of corporate green innovation. For enterprises, to stimulate technological innovation and construct a cornerstone for green development, they should strengthen the deep integration of digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence with enterprises′ product manufacturing and organizational management. Second, it is necessary to open up the dynamic transmission mechanism of "digital transformation - absorptive capacity / internal control - green innovation", continuously accumulate internal and external knowledge, skills, and experience, and gradually establish confidence in green knowledge restructuring and a good internal governance environment. Ultimately, this ensures the integrity and coordination of building intelligent production systems and intelligent management systems using digital technologies. Third, combined with the results of the heterogeneity test, the government should accurately grasp the unique role of digitalization in different enterprises, attaching importance to the rational allocation between policy formulation, enterprise characteristics, and external conditions, and advocate green development.

  The 14th Five-Year Plan of China calls for accelerating digital development, building a digital China, giving full play to the advantages of massive data and rich application scenarios, promoting the deep integration of digital technology with the real economy, and enabling the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. As an important social technological and institutional phenomenon, digital transformation is gradually becoming an important starting point for the innovative development mode of global enterprises. At present, China′s manufacturing industry is facing great pressure. Faced with this dilemma, how to give full play to and release the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics, integrate government and market resources, use digital and information technology, and concentrate on promoting the digital transformation of manufacturing industry has become the core issue of common concern of politics and industry.At present, how institutional pressures affect the process mechanism of enterprises′ response to digital transformation needs further research and discussion.From the perspective of institutional theory and organizational cognition, this paper discussed the institutional motivation and process of digital transformation of manufacturing and digital transformation of business model. Based on the theoretical path of "institutional environment-organizational cognition-digital transformation", this paper used the structural equation model to test the influence of institutional pressures (regulation, cognition and norm) and organizational cognition (urgency and manageability cognition) on enterprise digital transformation with data from 287 manufacturing enterprises. The results showed that: firstly, different institutional pressures have different impacts on the two types of digital transformation. The digital transformation of manufacturing is more response to normative pressure, and the digital transformation of business model is more response to cognitive pressure, while the regulative pressure from the government is not the primary institutional pressure to be responded by the two digital transformation modes, indicating that the digital transformation of enterprises is more based on the requirements of market legitimacy, rather than responding to the demands of government system. Secondly, in the process of digital transformation of manufacturing and digital transformation of business model, organizational cognition plays a mediating role between institutional pressure and enterprise digitalization response. The research results will enrich the research on the process mechanism of enterprises′ response to digital transformation, and provide theoretical guidance and policy suggestions for China′s manufacturing enterprises to carry out digital transformation.The theoretical contribution of this paper lies in three aspects: First, based on the institutional theory and starting from the "government-market" dual institutional context, this paper found that enterprises will have different responses to digital transformation when facing institutional pressures from different sources of government and market, and extends the relevant research on institutional theory and corporate strategic response. Second, from the perspective of organizational cognition, this paper focused on the process of organizational evaluation of strategic issues, and discussed how urgency cognition and manageability cognition deconstruct the "black box" of the influence process of institutional environment on enterprises′ response to digital transformation. Third, the research on digital transformation of enterprises can be divided into digital transformation of manufacturing and digital transformation of business model. It is considered that the digital transformation of enterprises will not only increase the use of digital technology in enterprises, but also include the integration and cross-application of digital technology in company products and services, internal and external activities, which will expand the existing research based on the coupling perspective of "technology-market" and enrich the research results of digital transformation of enterprises.

    Under the background of the accelerated development of digital economy, human economy and society has rapidly entered a "digital" era. Driven by both policy orientation and practical development, digital transformation is also deeply engraved in the evolution of Chinese enterprises. Although digital technology provides new development opportunities, the effect of digital transformation of most enterprises in practice is not ideal. It should be noted that the essence of digital transformation lies in the reconstruction of productivity and whether enterprises carry out all-round innovation with digital technology in the process of transformation is the key to realize digital drive and build core competitiveness. However, the research on enterprise digital transformation and innovation output has long been controversial. For that reason, a more systematic study on how digital transformation affects enterprise innovation output and what is the internal mechanism of the complex relationship between digital transformation and innovation output has significant theoretical value and practical significance.Based on the data of A-share listed companies in China from 2007 to 2020, this paper empirically tested the nonlinear impact of digital transformation on enterprise innovation output and its mechanism. In the research design, this paper used the natural logarithm of the number of invention patents to measure the innovation output. Meanwhile, the ratio of digital intangible assets to total intangible assets and the natural logarithm of the frequency of digital related words in the annual reports of listed companies were used to measure the digitization degree of enterprises. The empirical analysis results showed that digital transformation has a significant inverted U-shaped impact on enterprise innovation output. With the transformation of digital degree from low to high, enterprise innovation performance presents a nonlinear evolution trend of first rising and then falling. The above conclusions are still valid after the endogenous tests of enterprise level and industry level with the fixed effect model, two-stage least squares model, sys-GMM dynamic panel model and a series of robustness tests. The further mechanism tests by stepwise regression and bootstrap sampling showed that R&D authorization and human capital structure play an inverted U-shaped mediated role between digital transformation and innovation output. On the one hand, digital technology promotes the upward movement of the information cost curve and the downward movement of the agency cost curve to realize R&D authorization, but the limitations of departmental decision-making and resource constraints increase accordingly, making R&D authorization play an inverted U-shaped mediated role between digital transformation and innovation output; On the other hand, digital technology optimizes the human capital structure of enterprises through "substitution effect" and "complementary effect", but the advanced digital construction has a crowding out effect on human capital investment, making the human capital structure act as an inverted U-shaped intermediary between digital transformation and innovation output.The conclusion has enriched and expanded the nonlinear logical exploration between digital transformation and enterprise innovation benefits, and provided important enlightenment for enterprises to improve digital transformation strategy and improve innovation benefits from the following aspects: (1) enterprises should grasp the opportunity of the rapid development of digital economy, actively and steadily implement digital transformation, and continuously improve the integration of enterprises and digital technology in the process of transformation. Meanwhile, At the same time, enterprises need to combine their resource capacity endowment in digital construction to avoid the negative effect of blindly expanding digital investment on innovation output. (2) When using digital technology to reconstruct and integrate the original innovation mode, enterprises should attach great importance to the allocation of R&D power suitable for digitization, and make systematic planning according to the organizational characteristics. (3) Highly skilled talents should play a key role in the process of digital transformation. When introducing digital technology, enterprises should not only systematically consider the coordination of digital investment and human capital investment, but also strengthen the work commitment to employees and give full play to the role of human capital structure in promoting innovation output.

   With the wave of a new round of scientific and industrial revolution, digitalization has become an important engine for leading global economic and social changes and promoting high-quality development of China′s economy. This paper focuses on the following questions: Can digital transformation of enterprises improve total factor productivity? If so, what is the mechanism of action? The empirical test on this issue, on the one hand, has provided a new perspective for theoretical researchers to understand the consequences and mechanism of enterprises′ digital transformation; On the other hand, it has also provided unique empirical evidence for practitioners to promote the digital transformation of enterprises and the high-quality development of economy.This paper has taken Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share non-financial listed companies from 2007 to 2019 as research samples, and the study found that: (1) when enterprises pay more attention to digitization, their total factor productivity will be improved significantly. The results remained robust after the test of instrumental variable method, propensity score matching and substitution variable. (2) The heterogeneity test found that the information collection and processing advantages of data production factors can help enterprises with farther distances from suppliers and customers and enterprises with higher business complexity to improve the efficiency of resource allocation. In addition, when the enterprise is a growing one or a small and medium-sized one, strengthening the construction of its own digitization level is more conducive to improve its total factor productivity. (3) The mechanism test found that the digital transformation of enterprises improves the total factor productivity by improving investment efficiency, reducing external transaction costs, expanding customer resources and increasing innovation ability. (4) The economic consequence test found that when the total factor productivity of enterprises increases with the digital transformation, it can help enterprises improve their competitive position.The possible theoretical contribution and practical significance of this paper are as follows: firstly, this paper has enriched the relevant research on the consequences of digital transformation. The existing literature mainly studies the impact of digital transformation on the survival and development of traditional industries, internal organizational change and enterprise investment. There is still no empirical discussion on how digital transformation affects the resource allocation efficiency and even the competitive position of non-financial enterprises. This paper found that enterprise digitization does improve the efficiency of enterprise resource allocation, and will eventually help enterprises obtain competitive advantage, which provides a new perspective for academia to understand the value creation results of digitization. Secondly, this paper tested and found the path of digitization on the efficiency of enterprise resource allocation from four ways: investment efficiency, transaction cost, customer channel and innovation ability, which provides a new perspective and verified basis for the theoretical and practical circles to understand the mechanism of digital transformation. Thirdly, this paper introduced four scenarios: the distance between enterprises and suppliers and customers, business complexity, enterprise size and growth. On the one hand, it verified that the information collection and processing advantages of data production factors can promote enterprises to improve the efficiency of resource allocation. On the other hand, it found that digitization is an important support for small and medium-sized enterprises or growing enterprises to shape their competitive advantage.This paper has the following important policy suggestions and implications: firstly, this paper proves the driving effect of digital transformation on enterprise total factor productivity through empirical evidence, indicating that the advantages of enterprise digital transformation outweigh the disadvantages, which is consistent with the policy guidance direction in the era of digital economy. Government should continue to facilitate the integration of digital technology with the real economy, guide and support enterprises to empower traditional industries with information technology. Secondly, for enterprises that are far away from suppliers and customers and face information asymmetry with upstream and downstream members of the supply chain, as well as enterprises with high business complexity, they should make full use of information collection and processing advantages of emerging information technology to realize optimal allocation of resources. For growing enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, they should realize that digitalization plays a stronger role in optimizing the efficiency of resource allocation, and actively participate in and realize digital transformation. Finally, in the process of digital transformation, enterprises should focus on using digital and internet platforms to gain insight into market information and explore investment opportunities, reduce external transaction costs by using the characteristics of digital technology, accurately identify the diversified needs of customers and expand their own customer resources when efficiently dealing with massive data information, and strengthen the innovation driving role of digital change.

   With the acceleration of the construction process of digital China, the application of digital technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence has been continuously strengthened in various regions of China. The digital environment formed by this has brought new opportunities for the business model innovation of manufacturing enterprises. In order to truly obtain the innovation effect of digital technology and quickly adapt to the new situation of digital development, it has become the key for manufacturing enterprises to rapidly improve their own dynamic capability. Furthermore, any innovation covers at least two-level phenomena of innovation subject and environment, that is, the research perspective of antecedents of business model innovation needs to be expanded to multiple levels. However, few studies have researched the relationship between digitalization level and business model innovation from the cross-level perspective yet. And researchers have not explored the influence of dynamic capability on the relationship, and the research conclusions lack the support of empirical analysis. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between regional digitalization level and business model innovation, and the cross-level moderating effect of dynamic capability.
    To reveal the influence mechanism of digitalization level on manufacturing enterprises′ business model innovation, this paper constructs a cross-level theoretical model of the impact of digitalization level and dynamic capability on business model innovation based on the dynamic capability theory and the iceberg theory of business model and use the hieratical linear model and the 415 manufacturing enterprises in 59 cities to conduct the empirical analysis. The results show that: digitalization level has a positive influence on manufacturing enterprises′ business model innovation. Absorptive capability, adaptive capability and innovation capability can directly boost business model innovation. Absorptive capability, adaptive capability and innovation capability positively regulate the influence of digitalization level on business model innovation in manufacturing enterprises. In addition, typical case is selected to verify the above empirical results. The case analysis results provide evidence for the conclusions that regional digitalization level and dynamic capability are important antecedent variables of manufacturing enterprises′ business model innovation, and dynamic capability is an important driving force of business model innovation under digital environment.
    The contributions of this paper include the following aspects. First, this paper confirms that the digitalization level is an antecedent variable of business model innovation with significant predictive power, which expands the research findings on business model innovation in the digital environment. Second, this paper further expands the research scope of the iceberg theory of business model and provides theoretical guidance for enterprises′ business model innovation in the new digital environment. Third, dynamic capability is incorporated into the research framework of regional digitalization level and business model innovation, and the cross-level moderating effect of dynamic capability in this relationship is discussed, which enriches the research results of antecedents of business model innovation.
    Furthermore, based on the research results, this paper proposes the following management implications: first, local governments should strengthen the top-level design and system planning of digital development, so as to promote the deep integration of digitalization and manufacturing. Second, local governments should pay attention to the coordinated development of soft and hard infrastructure construction to provide basic guarantee for regional innovation activities. Third, manufacturing enterprises should conform to the trend of digital development and strengthen the endogenous dynamic capability, so as to provide support for the realization of business model innovation, such as establishing a flexible and capable digital team, introducing and cultivating digital talents, and increasing R&D investment.

   Digital transformation has upended practical experience over long periods of incremental innovation by changing resources allocation and value-creation logic. Therefore, how to unveil the mechanism between digital transformation and enterprises′ innovation performance has gradually become one of the frontier topics in the study of strategic management of innovation, as well as a key practical problem for enterprises to cope with highly turbulent environment in digital era. Meanwhile, the innovation ecosystem nurtured by digital technology facilities has gradually become the enterprises′ innovation center due to its flexibility and openness. Although existing studies has stated how to establish a platform or business ecosystem based on the digital technology and improve the synergy with complementary partners in terms of the hub firm, specifically, the governance mechanism to inhibit conflicts between stability and generativity of the innovation ecosystem, ignoring the role of the platform′s technological architecture which represents another key means to achieve complementor engagement. In order to bridge the discord between digital technology embedding and traditional business practices, the paper explores the mutual interdependence between technology architecture and governance mechanism, thus theorizes its implications for configurations of hub enterprises′ organizations, which in turn leads to superior performance.
   Drawing on the modularity theory, we proposed the leveraged as well as collaborative mechanism which well mediate the effects of digital transformation on enterprises′ innovation performance, accordingly we construct the chain mediation model, rooted from the research paradigm of "strategy-structure-performance". That is, digital transformation facilitates the leverage mechanism with the modular product architecture of the hub firm, then affects their coordination mechanism enabled by modular organizational architecture, and finally acts on enterprises′ innovation performance. Furthermore, this paper uses Structural Equation Model for empirical test based on 191 samples from hub enterprises of the innovate ecosystem, and thereby tries to propose the dynamic evolution path between technology architecture and governance mechanism from the perspective of dynamic coevolution of modular architecture within and across firm boundaries. 
   The research results demonstrate that: (1) digital transformation exerts a significant positive influence on enterprises′ innovation performance; (2) digital transformation indirectly influences enterprises′ innovation performance by modular product architecture and modular organizational architecture respectively; (3) modular product architecture and modular organizational architecture play a chain mediating effect between digital transformation and enterprises′ innovation performance; and (4) The architecture evolution of modular product architecture and its isomorphic modular organizational architecture is an important structural support for hub enterprises to deal with the challenges of digital transformation in its infancy, and put forward the dual coevolution paths of intra- and inter-firm architecture and governance mechanism, which are starting from intra-firm integral product architecture, and transferring to inter-firm integral product architecture, and ultimately to modular product architecture and its isomorphic modular organizational architecture, or starting from intra-firm integral product architecture, and transferring to intra-firm modular product architecture, and ultimately to modular product architecture and its isomorphic modular organizational architecture respectively. 
   In conclusion, this paper contributes mainly to the existing research from three aspects: First, the study reveals the influence mechanism and economic consequences of the digital transformation, and constructs a chain mediation model to explore the positive influence mechanism between digital transformation and enterprises′ innovation performance, which fills the relevant research gap in empirical research at the micro level. Second, this paper builds a theoretical framework which contains digital transformation strategy, modular architecture and innovation ecosystem, which supplies a new perspective for the theoretical study of digital transformation and innovation ecosystem. Third, this paper enriches the research of the governance mechanism between multiple complementary participants. Moreover, the results suggest that enterprises should build a guarantee mechanism through modular architecture relying on its innovation ecosystem strategically, in order to compete in the digital innovation iteration by a stable core and flexible periphery, and that enterprises should also accumulate experience and skills continuously through the dynamic cycle of "architecture design - leverage coordination - ecological landing - continuous iteration", so as to ensure the integrity, collaboration and sustainability of digital transformation.

   With the vigorous development of digital economy and the deep promotion of industrial digitalization, traditional manufacturing enterprises have accelerated the pace of digital transformation. In this context, advanced equipment manufacturing enterprises urgently need to realize digital transformation in design, production and sales, and build a new model for development. Enterprise digital maturity was defined as the degree of completion in the process of digital transformation. The evaluation and analysis of digital maturity is an important means to promote digital transformation. Therefore, it is necessary to measure the digital maturity of advanced equipment manufacturing enterprises and explore the main restrictive factors. However, there was a lack of research in this field. 
   Firstly, based on the "input-output" perspective, this paper proposed a conceptual model of digital maturity of advanced equipment manufacturing enterprises, including four dimensions: human resource investment, capital investment, efficiency of operation and innovation efficiency. Then, through literature analysis, fuzzy rough set method and stochastic frontier approach, the digital maturity index system with 4 primary indicators and 12 secondary indicators was finally constructed. The "VHSD-EM" evaluation model was used to weight the indicators. First, based on the weights under "VHSD" and "EM" method, two comprehensive scores were calculated respectively. Second, Spearman rank correlation test was used to explore the consistency of the two measures. The results showed that the evaluation results had strong positive correlation, indicating that the two methods had good consistency. The final weight of each index could be obtained by averaging the weights determined by the two methods. 
    Secondly, based on the characteristics of advanced equipment manufacturing industry and the desirability of statistical data, 49 listed companies were selected as the research object. Using data from annual reports of these enterprises, this paper finally measured the digital maturity scores of 49 enterprises from 2015 to 2020. Then, K-means method was used to cluster the evaluation objects. It was observed that there were significant differences in the digital maturity of advanced equipment manufacturing enterprises, with aggregation effect in distribution. Combined with the definition of maturity model, the digital maturity of advanced equipment manufacturing enterprises was divided into five levels (the highest, higher, average, lower, the lowest). The above maturity hierarchy further enrich the research on capability maturity model in theory and provide new insights for the development of digital maturity model. In practice, it is helpful for advanced equipment manufacturing enterprises to evaluate their own digital transformation level and potential, and then scientifically and comprehensively plan the transformation path.
    Thirdly, based on Tobit model, it was concluded that government subsidies and the development of Fintech had positive impacts on the digital maturity of advanced equipment manufacturing enterprises. Among them, the government′s financial support is an important factor to accelerate the digital transformation. The research enriches the relevant literature on the influencing factors of enterprise digital maturity, further verifies the conclusions of relevant scholars, and provides empirical support for the view that government service resources and means of production are also the key inputs of output in the "input-output" theory. 
   Finally, based on the above analysis, this paper put forward some suggestions to promote the digital maturity of advanced equipment manufacturing enterprises. First, enterprises should increase digital investment in human resources and capital, and formulate reasonable investment plans according to the characteristics of industry attributes, scale, technical advantages and so on. At the same time, enterprises should make full use of digital technologies such as internet of things, cloud computing and big data to improve operation efficiency and innovation efficiency. Second, local governments should increase financial subsidies, promote the development of Fintech, improve the digital and intelligent level of public services and social governance to create good external conditions for the digital transformation of advanced equipment manufacturing enterprises.

    Digital transformation is the best way for modern enterprises to fulfil industrial upgrading and innovation. Enterprises′ digital transformation has put forward new requirements on the internal capabilities and external environment, and traditional enterprises are generally immersed in the anxiety of ‘digital capability’ acquisition.  Based on the organizational imprinting theory, this study extends the imprinting rebound effect of organizational imprinting. Taking digital era as emerging market enterprises′ imprinting rebound background and focusing on the Chinese context. This research explores the organizational characteristics of imprinting rebound effects and process mechanisms that facilitate the acquisition of digital capabilities. In this research, organizational learning and organizational unlearning are two endogenous characteristics of imprinting rebound effect, and organizational resilience is the process mechanism between of acquiring digital capabilities. Furthermore, this research introduces firm network′s digital atmosphere as exogenous context to influence firms′ digital capability. 
    In order to follow the logic of imprinting rebound effect, the study on 259 Chinese enterprises which are subordinated to inferior industries as samples.  The empirical results showed as follows. Firstly, organizational learning has positive impact on organizational resilience and digital capability. Secondly, organizational unlearning has positive impact on organizational resilience and digital capability. Thirdly, result proves there has positive relationship between organizational resilience and digital capabilities. Thus, it indicated that organizational resilience plays partially mediating effect between organizational learning and digital capability and also between organizational unlearning and digital capability. Fourthly, firm network′s digital atmosphere positively moderates the relationship between organizational learning and organizational resilience, and between organizational unlearning and organizational resilience. Moreover, the research has taken response surface analysis to further explore the relationship among organizational learning, unlearning and digital capability. Results show that organizational unlearning is more important than organizational learning. 
    The research also brings out some theoretical implications. Firstly, focusing on the Chinese context, research extends the organizational imprinting theory through existing Chinese management phenomenon. In other words, firms′ external environment of the founding phase not only exerts imprinting adapting effect which can assist firm to deepen sensitive period′s imprints, but also imposes imprinting rebounding effect which can facilitate firm to weaken the founding phase′s imprints. Thus, imprinting rebound effect is the opposite of imprinting adapting effect, and rebound effect often appears in the context of emerging economies and provides a perspective to explain emerging market firms′ development path. Secondly, this research also responds the existing research of other scholars to conclude firm′s specific characteristics to weaken firm′s sensitive period′s imprints. Therefore, this research verified Chinese firms which are established in the environment technology backward, and can counterattack in the digital era through the imprinting rebound effect.  
    The practical contribution indicates that emerging economies especially Chinese firms are not supported by abundant external resources in their founding period, and there is a huge technology gap between advanced nations′ firms and emerging economies firms. Chinese firms can rebound in the digital era by learning and unlearning which are endogenous characteristics and digital atmosphere as exogenous driving force in the subsequent development. This is a feasible path to get rid of the deep imprints given by founding environment, and carry out continuous technology iteration in the subsequent rebound process. Therefore, Chinese firms can shorten the technological gap with advanced economies and assist China to become innovative country in 2035. 
   However, this study only selected the enterprises in some regions of China as samples. The research conclusion can be applied to other Chinese regions need to be further verified by collecting data from firms in other provinces. In addition, future studies can further explore how enterprises′ behaviors are shaped when these two distinct influences affect simultaneously. Thus, the explanatory power of imprinting theory can be improved.

   Digital transformation is defined as the use of new digital technologies to enable strategic changes in organizations. Companies, particularly those in traditional industries, now are increasingly considering digital transformation as a strategic way to deal with the dynamic environment and to gain strategic advantages. Although a variety of diversified organizations have attempted to achieve organizational transformation by leveraging new digital technologies, this phenomenon of digital transformation has remained surprisingly unnoticed in the literature. In particular, we know very little on the processes and inherent mechanisms of digital transformation in these companies in traditional industries. These knowledge gaps may account for the difficulties encountered by most companies in traditional industries when considering digital transformation.
  To fill these knowledge voids in the literature, this study conducts an explorative analysis on the processes and the underlying mechanisms of digital transformation via a longitudinal case study on a typical company in traditional industries-Double Star Group (DSG). After nearly going bankruptcy in 2012, DSG started a journey of "fulfilling the second undertaking" by primarily leveraging digital technologies (including information technology, the Internet of things, cloud computing, robotics, etc.) to instigate managerial innovations, business model innovations and organizational transformation, and now it has evolved into an international enterprise group with the integration of tire manufacturing, smart equipment, smart logistics (e.g. Robot) and smart cyclic utilization of wasted rubber. The results of the digital transformation at DSG are evident: not only has its profit ratio significantly been improved, but also it has been listed in the "Asia′s 500 Most Influential Brands" and the "China′s 500 Most Valuable Brands" for three consecutive years.
  By applying technology affordance theory and sensemaking theory to the phenomenon of digital transformation and the case analysis, this study uncovers that the digital transformation of traditional companies is a top-down process, including three phases, e.g., the initialization of transformation, the consensus formation of transformation and the actualization of transformation. In each phase, the perceived digital strategic affordance for transformation (i.e., transformation cognition for each phase) arises from the dual social structure composed by both actors and digital technology. This study then further reveals four digital affordances that enable organizational transformation, including the perceived digital strategic affordance, the shared digital strategic affordance, the perceived digital business affordance and the actualized digital business affordance. Sensemaking is the primary mechanism to enable the formation of digital affordance that supports organizational transformation in each phase. Sense-breaking and sense-giving are the primary mechanisms for the actors in higher organizational levels to influence the sensemaking of the actors in lower organizational levels, and thereby, they are the primary mechanisms that enable the process transition in digital transformation. 
   This study reveals the processes of digital transformation for traditional companies and offers deep understandings on the underlying relations among actors, digital technologies and transformation cognitions, providing three contributions to existing research. First, the top-down processual perspective not only helps to provide detailed description and deep explanations to the complex phenomenon, but also is helpful to analyze the conditions and transmitting mechanisms for each phase. Thus, this paper opens the black box of digital transformation processes conducted by the traditional companies, making good complements to the IT-enabled organizational transformation research. Second, existing research that adopted technology affordance theory focused on team and individual level; however, this research rarely paid attention to the strategic level. This study indicates that the dual "actor-digital technology" social structure acts as the foundation of digital transformation, and thereby expands technology affordance theory to the strategic research. The digital affordances enabling organization transformation identified in this study, e.g. the perceived digital strategic affordance, could be used as the constructs to be explored by future studies. Third, this study suggests that digital transformation is significantly different from the IT-enabled organizational transformation. In the digital context, the digital technology begins to fuse with the organizational strategy. This fusion thus embodies not only in the dual "actor-digital technology" structure, but also in the proactive role of actors in making sense of the potentials of digital technologies in enabling transformation. 
   This study also offers two managerial implications for practitioners. First, for government agencies that make polices, this study indicates that digital technologies are the major transformative forces that enable organizational transformation, as well as the new and old kinetic energy conversion in our country. Thus, when making policies and guidance, government agencies should think highly of the effects of transforming, leading and fusing of digital technologies, and guide traditional companies to conduct digital transformation via subsidies, demonstration promotion, etc. Second, this study reveals that digital transformation is a top-down process with a gradual improvement, following the path from "the strategic cognition by the initiator" to "the collective and shared cognition by the key actors" to "the collective cognition by the actors in the operational level". This study then offers the top managers of traditional companies a reference process model that will guide their practices for digital transformation. Digital transformation should pay more attention to the leadership framework and the top-level design, as well as the relationships between digital technologies and human actors in organizations. 

The related issues of digital transformation have gradually been integrated into the innovation, entrepreneurship, and many other research areas, and become one of the important research directions of the current. In view of the lack of systematic and exploratory retrospective research in this field, this paper systematically combs the economic and management literature in the field of digital transformation, and focuses process of the development of digital transformation research and the evolution of application scenarios. Focusing on the impact of digital technology on the overall development of different industries, this paper explores the evolution process of digital transformation research. The research combines the specific research content of important documents and the degree of integration of digital technology and social development, and analyzes the evolution process of digital transformation research from three stages by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. There are three innovations in this paper：First, around the impact of digital transformation on social development, this paper comprehensively combs the economic and management literature. The systematic analysis is carried out by combining quantitative and qualitative methods, which complements the existing research gaps; Secondly, this study analyzes the evolution process of digital transformation from three stages by combining the specific research content of important literature and the degree of integration of digital technology and social development. The research combines the evolution of theory, the iteration of research hotspot and the change of application scenario, which provides a new perspective for the research of digital transformation；Third, combined with the actual situation of the current global economic development, the future research direction in the field of digital transformation is prospected. Specific chapter arrangement: In Chapter 1, bibliometric analysis is carried out on the development process of digital transformation research; Chapter 2 systematically analyzes the evolution process of digital transformation research. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, as the main content of this paper, specifically expounds the hot spot distribution and changes of digital transformation research and development. Finally, Chapter 3 summarizes the research conclusions of this paper, and prospects the key research and development direction of digital transformation in the future. The research results prove that: First, The application of digital technology brings new challenges to the development of traditional industries, prompts the transformation of innovation theory and practice at the industrial level, and promotes the academic circles to continuously focus on the research of digital technology innovation and its application scenarios; Secondly, In the era of digital transformation, digital technology changes the industry by creating new products, and promotes the academia to focus on the research on key issues such as its value acquisition and value creation methods; Third, Digital innovation has become an important basis for industrial digitalization, digital entrepreneurship has become an important support for digital industrialization and an important practice for value creation of digital innovation, which promotes the continuous emergence of "digital-based"research in academic circles. On this basis, the paper looks forward to the future research of digital transformation. It focuses on the analysis of five main contents of the future research: innovation governance digital transformation, the structure of production factors in the era of digital transformation, the process of industrial digital transformation, the construction of digital transformation into the social development environment, and the normative development of platform economy and regulatory governance. The conclusion provides knowledge increment for the development of theoretical research and industrial practice innovation in this field.