Abstract: The digital transformation of enterprises is an important foundation for promoting the development of China's digital economy. Maximizing the driving effect of patent pledging on digital transformation is of great significance to the sustainable and healthy development of enterprises and the high-quality growth of China 's digital economy. Based on the data of China's A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2005 to 2022, this paper uses the multi-period difference-in-differences model to evaluate the impact of the patent pledging pilot policy on enterprise digital transformation and its underlying mechanisms. Research has found that pilot projects of patent pledge financing can promote the digital transformation of enterprises. Mechanism tests indicate that the pilot policy achieves this primarily by alleviating financing constraints and fostering technological innovation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the promotion effect of pilot policies is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises and capital-intensive enterprises, and mainly concentrated in the fields of big data and business models, with no significant impact on enterprise intelligent manufacturing and informatization. This study theoretically enriches the research on the influencing factors of enterprise digital transformation and the economic effects of patent pledge, which has reference significance for promoting enterprise digital transformation and improving patent pledge financing pilot policies.

Key words: patent pledge financing, enterprise digitization, financing constraints, technological innovation