Bridging the Regional Innovation Gap: The Driving Role of Digital Governance in China

ABSTRACT Digital governance (DG), functioning as a critical driver in regional innovation ecosystems, effectively promotes spatial equity and innovation equilibrium. Based on a panel of Chinese cities from 2010 to 2023, we treat the Internet + Government Services policy as a quasi‐natural experiment of DG and apply a difference‐in‐differences model to analyze the impact of the DG on the regional innovation gaps (RIG). Results indicate that DG significantly narrows RIG, particularly in cities with advanced digital infrastructure, non‐shrinking population, large‐scale cities and abundant human capital. The mechanism analysis demonstrates that DG narrows RIG by eliminating disparities in the innovation environment and facilitating the cross‐regional flow of innovation factors. This convergence effect predominantly originates from reducing RIG between developed and less‐developed regions. Additionally, DG exerts a more pronounced promotional effect on innovation development in central municipal districts, while its effect on county‐level areas remains relatively limited, thereby exacerbating the RIG within cities. These findings offer substantial implications for formulating targeted DG strategies to foster spatially balanced regional innovation development.