Research on the Peer Effect of Digital Innovation in Manufacturing Enterprises

Based on the peer effect perspective, we establish a digital innovation linkage between the same group enterprises and the focal enterprise, and explore the existence of the peer effect of digital innovation, as well as the cross-layer boundary conditions of executives’ digital background (micro), status (meso), and intellectual property protection (macro), and their substitution relationships among the three. Using the data of Chinese listed companies from 2012 to 2022, we find that: (1) Digital innovation has the peer effect, that is, The level of digital innovation in focal enterprise can be influenced by the average level of digital innovation among firms in the same industry; (2) Executives’ digital background positively influences the peer effect of digital innovation. With the improvement of the status, the peer effect of digital innovation shows a trend of strengthening first and then weakening. The intensity of intellectual property protection positively affects the peer effect of digital innovation; (3) The moderating effect of status takes precedence over intellectual property protection, and the moderating effect of intellectual property protection is prioritized over executives’ digital background.