Management Review ›› 2026, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (4): 28-40.

• Economic and Financial Management • Previous Articles    

Digital-Real Economy Integration: A Synergistic Drive from Digital Innovation Ecosystems

Li Xiaodi, Tang Weiyi   

  1. School of Economics and Management, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001
  • Received:2024-02-13 Published:2026-05-14

Abstract: The digital innovation ecosystem blurs the boundaries between the digital economy and the real economy, providing a convergent environment of industrial intersection and data connectivity for the integration of the digital economy and the real economy. Based on the ecosystem theory, this paper takes 30 Chinese provinces as samples, and utilizes the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the configuration paths of multiple elements within the digital innovation ecosystem for the integration of the digital economy and the real economy. The results show that: (1) The configuration paths leading to high digital-real economy integration and non-high digital-real economy integration are asymmetric. Three configuration types leading to high digital-real economy integration are identified: infrastructure-technology driven, multi-factor joint driven and innovation stakeholder driven; three configuration types leading to non-high digital-real economy integration are identified: ecological active inhibition, governance-diversity inhibition, and infrastructure-synergy inhibition. (2) This paper further deconstructs the integration of the digital economy and real economy into two dimensions for analysis: digital industrialization and industrial digitization. Two configuration types leading to high digital industrialization are identified: infrastructure-economy driven and economy-synergy driven; while three configuration types leading to high industrial digitization are identified: environment driven, economy driven, and infrastructure-synergy driven. This paper explores the synergistic driving path of digital innovation ecosystems for digital-real economy integration, laying a theoretical foundation for Chinese provinces to promote this integration by developing digital innovation ecosystems.

Key words: digital innovation ecosystem, digital-real economy integration, configuration analysis