Moderating mechanism of digital finance.

This study investigates the impact of data assets on enterprise persistent innovation using panel data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2011 to 2022. The results indicate that data assets significantly enhance both the inputs and outputs of enterprise persistent innovation, with the findings remaining robust under endogeneity tests. Mediation analysis reveals that data assets influence enterprise persistent innovation through three key channels: process innovation, business innovation, and technological innovation. The development of digital finance positively moderates this relationship across three dimensions of coverage, depth, and digitalization, indicating that digital finance amplifies the persistent innovation value of data assets. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that the persistent innovation input improves more in non-state-owned enterprises, digitally advanced firms, and non-manufacturing sectors, whereas output enhancement is most evident in large enterprises, highly digitalized firms, and organizations with strong absorptive capacity. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of data-driven persistent innovation and provide valuable insights for policymakers developing data markets, and for firms formulating data strategies aligned with their capabilities.