Abstract: This paper utilizes data from A-share listed companies and prefecture-level cities from 2015 to 2022 to construct indicators for local government innovation attention and enterprises' new quality productive forces, exploring the effects and mechanisms through which local government innovation attention empowers the development of enterprises' new quality productive forces. The findings reveal that “rule-based” local government innovation attention promotes the development of enterprises' new quality productive forces. Mechanism analysis shows that “rule-based” local government innovation attention facilitates the development of enterprises' new quality productive forces through four channels: optimizing the innovation environment, advancing industrial modernization, strengthening fiscal incentives, and enhancing talent support. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that “rule-based” local government innovation attention has a more pronounced effect on enterprises with low financing constraints, high resource allocation efficiency, and high supply chain efficiency. Further analysis demonstrates that improving both the external environment (including economic policy, market competition, and green governance) and the internal environment (such as ownership structure and organizational management) amplifies the promoting effect of “rule-based” local government innovation attention on the development of enterprises' new quality productive forces.

Key words: local government innovation attention, new quality productivity, four-chain integration