The effect of data element agglomeration on green innovation vitality in China

Green is the base color of high-quality development. In the strategic convergence period of dual-carbon goals and innovation-driven development, enhancing green innovation vitality is an important part of cultivating new drivers of innovation-driven green development and enhancing new high-quality productive forces. Whether data element agglomeration can serve as the “main engine” for enhancing green innovation vitality warrants urgent theoretical explanation and empirical testing. This article conducts a case study of 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2021 to address this issue. It examines the complex effects of data element agglomeration on enhancing green innovation vitality. The results reveal that: firstly, data element agglomeration can directly affect green innovation vitality, and presents a gradient decline feature of “central > western > eastern”. Secondly, data element agglomeration can indirectly enhance green innovation vitality by strengthening government support and enhancing public environmental concern. Finally, based on regional heterogeneity, data element agglomeration has different threshold effects in driving the improvement of green innovation vitality. When government support and public environmental concern are greater than the threshold value, data element agglomeration can more positively affect green innovation vitality. This article offers valuable insights and serves as a reference for achieving the objective of “promoting data element agglomeration and enhancing green innovation vitality.”