The Impact of Digital Government Development on the Rhetoric–Action Gap in Enterprise Digital Transformation

As the Digital China strategy accelerates, enterprise digital transformation has been recognized as a central pathway to high-quality growth. However, opportunistic behavior—characterized by rhetoric exceeding action—remains widespread, thereby undermining policy effectiveness. A Digital Government Development Index is constructed for China’s prefecture-level cities using machine-learning methods. A panel fixed-effects model is employed to examine how digital government development affects the rhetoric–action gap in enterprise digital transformation. The gap is significantly reduced by digital government development. Three mechanisms are identified: the easing of financing constraints, the reduction of institutional transaction costs, and the stimulation of substantive innovation. More substantial governance effects are observed in low-competition, low-tech, and highly labor-intensive industries. New evidence is provided on how digital governance shapes firm behavior in the digital era, and an actionable policy framework is proposed for building a dual-incentive constraint system under resource constraints in developing countries.