The role of digital transformation of higher education institutions in promoting regional economic competitiveness

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Robustness test: Results of spatial estimation based on economic weight matrix

Variable	SAR	SAR	SEM	SDM	SDM
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)
UDTit	1.1234**	1.1056**	0.7234**	0.6524**	1.3584**
	(3.1843)	(4.1286)	(4.1318)	(5.6869)	(9.1002)
ADit	0.5325**	0.5163***	0.6521***	0.7437***	0.5022***
	(2.5643)	(4.0108)	(3.2511)	(4.0672)	(3.5504)
Inpgdp	0.7255	0.6833	0.7806	0.8083	0.8155
	(1.3042)	(1.2528)	(1.3591)	(1.2204)	(1.4485)
Inaggfin	1.7456***	1.5862***	1.5689***	1.7777***	1.7056***
	(3.0838)	(3.1826)	(3.6856)	(5.1127)	(4.1053)
Inaw	0.3356**	0.3482**	0.3128**	0.3455**	0.3458**
	(3.1227)	(3.2205)	(3.2287)	(3.3228)	(3.1324)
Intnf	0.2084***	0.2285***	0.2899***	0.2306***	0.2872***
	(4.4817)	(4.8821)	(4.8721)	(4.5952)	(4.8751)
Inopen	0.0128	0.0106	0.0531	0.0027	0.0110
	(1.6751)	(1.6556)	(1.6504)	(1.6684)	(1.6841)
Inindus	0.3117***	0.3051***	0.3227***	0.3284***	0.3205***
	(-3.4284)	(-3.5455)	(-3.5064)	(-3.5061)	(-3.5011)
Ingov	0.0248	0.0342	0.0385	0.0228	0.0398
	(1.1522)	(1.1855)	(1.1751)	(1.1911)	(1.1921)
high	0.5824**	0.5057**	0.5257**	0.5062**	0.5078**
	(2.2831)	(2.2627)	(2.2218)	(2.2537)	(2.2683)
Inscape	0.6384***	0.6358***	0.6385***	0.6582***	0.6339***
	(2.2534)	(2.5855)	(2.8725)	(2.7527)	(2.8931)
ρ	0.2064***	0.1819**		0.1919***	0.1833**
	(2.2534)	(2.1173)		(2.7158)	(2.0902)
λ	0.2928***
	(3.6343)
Log L	158.4560	59.0680	58.4822	152.6930	58.4052
R-squared	0.7714	0.3358	0.3317	0.7562	0.3779

Descriptive statistics of main variables

Variable type	Name	Symbol	Mean	SD	Minimum	Maximum
Explained variable	Regional economic competitiveness	RECit	0.0091	0.3721	-0.7312	2.3431
Core interpretation variable	University digital transformation index	UDTit	0.0581	0.0074	0.0019	0.8515
Mediation variable	Government subsidy	ADit	0.0122	0.0158	0.0000	0.1497
Control variable	Level of economic development	Inpgdp	10.5105	0.6827	4.4559	13.0447
	Financial development level	Inaggfin	0.1511	0.0667	0.0521	0.7338
	Wage level	Inaw	10.7042	0.4905	8.5155	12.3481
	Entrepreneurship	Intnf	10.3106	0.9927	4.3038	13.7856
	Degree of opening up	Inopen	-4.5246	1.3872	-13.2442	0.8047
	Industrial structure	Inindus	-0.1431	0.1018	-0.6976	0.0678
	Government support	Ingov	-1.7317	0.4921	-3.1616	0.8933
	Transportation facilities upgrading	high	0.4256	0.4951	0	1
	Administrative space scope	Inscape	9.3771	0.8348	2.6033	12.7892

Digital transformation and regional economic competitiveness - baseline regression results

Variable	RECit (Full time period)		RECit (Stage of resistance)		RECit (Recovery period)
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
UDTit	0.8056**	1.1234**	-2.1147**	-2.2107**	0.3727**	0.7138**
	(2.4837)	(4.0856)	(-2.3842)	(-2.5034)	(1.5192)	(3.2241)
ADit		0.6037***		0.0571		0.9006***
		(3.4188)		(0.4006)		(8.9874)
Inpgdp		0.8736		-0.4772		0.8424
		(1.3482)		(-0.6797)		(1.4551)
Inaggfin		1.7479***		2.8332***		0.8332***
		(3.0567)		(3.0888)		(2.7751)
Inaw		0.3552**		0.2041		0.1086*
		(3.1281)		(0.9738)		(1.6109)
Intnf		0.2177***		-0.0085		0.1081***
		(4.8890)		(-0.1557)		(4.2654)
Inopen		0.0137		-0.0127		0.0121*
		(1.6705)		(-0.6526)		(1.8016)
Inindus		0.3102***		-0.1738		0.2333***
		(-3.5011)		(-1.1855)		(-3.2428)
Ingov		0.0398		0.0252		-0.0222
		(1.1921)		(0.7531)		(-1.3652)
high		0.5063**		-0.5429		0.3756*
		(2.2612)		(-0.6175)		(1.6686)
Inscape		0.6327***		0.0572		0.9332***
		(2.8834)		(0.4003)		(8.3251)
(Constant)	-0.088***	-17.332***	0.131***	2.8344	-0.091**	-16.372**
	(-5.0633)	(-5.4482)	(4.9633)	(0.3731)	(-7.2056)	(-6.5171)
Individual effect	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time effect	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
R-squared	0.4503	0.5667	0.8653	0.8776	0.6225	0.8303

Moran’s-I index of economic competitiveness of 291 prefecture-level cities in China

RECit (Stage of resistance)			RECit (Recovery period)
Year	Moran’s I	p-value	Year	Moran’s I	p-value
2008	0.233	0.005	2017	0.306	0.000
2009	0.234	0.003	2018	0.312	0.000
2010	0.295	0.000	2019	0.333	0.000
2011	0.297	0.000	2020	0.321	0.000
2012	0.309	0.000	2021	0.302	0.000
2013	0.403	0.000	2022	0.292	0.000
2014	0.407	0.000	2023	0.283	0.000
2015	0.418	0.000			0.000
2016	0.355	0.000