Drone technology platforms as open innovation ecosystems: Spatial spillovers and entrepreneurial dynamics in the low-altitude economy

The low-altitude economy (LAE)-encompassing commercial unmanned aerial vehicles, aerial logistics, and low-altitude digital infrastructure-functions as a platform technology with significant implications for regional entrepreneurship and sustainable development. This study examines whether and how LAE infrastructure expands the structural openness conditions of regional innovation ecosystems, thereby stimulating entrepreneurial entry and survival. Using a balanced panel of 63 Vietnamese provinces over 2018-2023 (N = 378), we construct a novel Low-Altitude Economy Intensity Index (LAEI) from administrative drone registration records and employ a Spatial Durbin Model as the primary estimator, complemented by System GMM, staggered Difference-in-Differences, and 1,000-iteration placebo tests. Results show that a one-standard-deviation increase in LAEI raises new enterprise formation by 7.3% and three-year enterprise survival rates by 4.1 percentage points. Spatial spillovers account for 38% of total effects, substantially exceeding conventional infrastructure benchmarks and confirming cross-regional platform externalities. Effects are 2.3 times larger in geographically remote provinces, evidencing a leapfrog development mechanism. The study introduces airspace-mediated market access as a novel theoretical construct and derives six evidence-calibrated policy instruments for sustainable LAE ecosystem governance. These findings extend open innovation theory to physical-digital infrastructure and provide new evidence on how platform technologies reshape the spatial architecture of entrepreneurial ecosystems.