3.1. Definition of Digital Economy
The digital economy is a new economic form and has become a new engine for sustainable economic growth [
22], and the digital economy has always been the focus of scholars’ research. Don Tapscott officially proposed the concept of the digital economy in “The Digital Economy: Hope and Risks in the Era of Network Intelligence”, he proposed that the digital economy is a network system built by human beings through technology, which links knowledge, skills, and innovation to promote creative breakthroughs in wealth and social development [
23]. In recent years, the OECD, the US Census Bureau, the G20, the UK, and other countries and institutions have defined the digital economy to varying degrees [
8]. Although there is no consensus on the concept, the representative concept is the definition of the digital economy proposed by the G20, according to which the digital economy is a series of economic activities that use digital knowledge and information as key production factors, modern information networks as important carriers, and the effective use of information and communication technology as an important driving force for efficiency improvement and economic structure optimization [
8]. According to the G20’s definition of the digital economy, the important carrier of modern information networks can be regarded as digital infrastructure. Digital knowledge and information become key production factors, which means the industrialization of digital. The use of information and communication technology to promote the optimization of economic structure is the ultimate realization of industrial digital transformation, that is, industrial digitalization. Therefore, this paper defines the digital economy as using the development of new-generation digital technology, supported by the construction of digital infrastructure, to promote the realization of digital industrialization and industrial digitization, and to drive the improvement of production efficiency and optimization of economic structure. This article also constructs an evaluation index system for the development of the digital economy based on the connotation of the digital economy.
3.2. Industrial Organization Theory
Industrial organization theory was developed by Marshall in 1881 on the basis of Adam Smith’s theory of competition, followed by the first climax after World War II, typically represented by the “structure-behavior-performance” model of the Harvard School and the Chicago School. After the 1970s, with the development of information technology, the second climax of industrial organization theory emerged, mainly based on game theory and information economics, with the emergence of empirical industrial organization theory, new institutional economics theory, and product differentiation theory. Modern industrial organization theory includes three aspects: market structure, market behavior, and market consequences, and the core problem of the theory is how to find a balance between market economic dynamics and scale economies.
Traditional industrial organization theory mainly adopts static analysis and deductive reasoning to analyze the issues of vendor games and industrial aggregation from the perspective of structure-behavior performance. However, in the era of the digital economy, the new technological models and commercialization methods accompanying digital technology have prompted traditional industries to develop their own level continuously in the face of new technologies to adapt to the challenges of new technologies, which in turn will generate a series of new industrial modes and new organizational forms, thus providing new research gaps in the connotation and research methods of traditional industries.
The traditional industrial organization mainly realizes industrial upgrading and creates new values through reorganizing production factors and optimizing production links. The development of digital technology has expanded the spatial scope and broadened the boundaries of traditional industry [
24]. In the past, industries and enterprises within industries received the constraints of geographical proximity. The information exchange and resource exchange received certain restrictions. Digital technology has changed the constraint of geographical proximity so that industrial aggregation does not receive the constraints of geographical conditions and environment. Industrial synergy beyond the traditional spatial limits begins to emerge, which can better optimize traditional economic behavior and influence the change in industrial organization [
25]. Digital technology and data itself are also a resource and a factor, and the development of digital technology generates massive amounts of data, including data, images, and information that can become elements to guide the competitive strategies of enterprises. The diversity and complexity of these factors present challenges to traditional industrial organization theory. Then, from the theoretical point of view, how to divide digital technology and through what path digital technology changes and optimizes the traditional industrial structure are the issues that need to be studied.
3.3. Research Hypothesis
To make up for the currently incomplete understanding of industrial restructuring and to truly achieve the goal of industrial restructuring, the speed of industrial restructuring must be accelerated, the quality of industrial restructuring must be improved, and the benefits of industrial restructuring must be given focus. The new industry, models, and ideas bred by the digital economy, combined with the faster pace of technological updates and shorter technological innovation cycles, will lead to accelerated optimization and upgrading of industries to adapt to the speed of technological development, fundamentally driving the optimization and adjustment of the industrial system [
8]. Digital infrastructure, digital industrialization, and industrial digitalization are agreed upon by researchers as major indexes measuring the digital economy [
16]. The digital economy leads to faster infrastructure upgrading in traditional industries and several digital infrastructures, thus digitalizing these industries to make industry development more efficient [
15]. Digital infrastructure lifts the productivity of production factors, which improves industrial division and specialization to optimize industrial structure and causes a knowledge spillover effect [
26].
Digitalization accompanied by information technology is a booster of industrial structure upgrading and rationalization. Given the existence of the external effects of the Internet and digital technology, the Internet platform can bring together all kinds of information, and the frequency of information and resource exchange between innovation subjects inside and outside the industry increases, effectively solving the structural contradiction of information not piling up and reducing the transaction cost of the market and making it possible to discover the problems and possible improvements of the industrial structure faster and to promote a more rational industrial structure by fixing the problems.
Thanks to digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, the digital economy empowers emerging industries, transforms traditional industries, and reshapes basic patterns of industrial structure to upgrade industrial structure [
27]. As the foundation and precondition of industrial restructuring, digital industrialization derives from digital technologies; it enables traditional manufacturers to move faster in transforming toward medium- and high-end manufacturing and integrates with the service industry to push forward industrial restructuring [
16]. As the focus of the digital economy, industrial digitalization underlines integration between traditional industries and digital technologies, digitally upgrading and transforming the industrial chain’s upstream and downstream total factors. Schumacher and Sihn (2020) noted industrial digitalization promotes industrial integration and encourages innovations, pushing forward industrial restructuring [
28]. Wen et al. (2021) observed that industrial digitalization enhances industrial productivity and uses the values of products, leading to industrial structure supererogation [
20]. Research hypotheses are presented:
Hypothesis 1a (H1a). Digital economic growth positively affects the speed of industrial restructuring.
Hypothesis 1b (H1b). Digital economic growth positively affects industrial structure supererogation.
Hypothesis 1c (H1c). Digital economic growth positively affects industrial structure rationalization.
Hypothesis 1d (H1d). Digital economic growth positively affects the efficiency of industrial restructuring.
Evolving digital technologies can result in a higher level of intelligence and automation. As jobs become more automated, demand for high-end workers or human capital is on the rise, causing higher production process efficiency [
29]. Characterized by high growth, the digital economy requires a substantial input of technology and human capital to sustain its development; in other words, digital economy growth increases the scale of high-end factors like emerging technologies and their corresponding human capital [
30]. An advanced new generation of information technologies lowers the cost of information access and provides various ways to improve human capital; meanwhile, it allows people to acquire knowledge regardless of time and space, in particular for students in remote areas, who are technologically accessible to tutoring from first-class teachers, to enhance the quality of human capital in different areas [
31]. This improvement gives rise to a new impact on industrial restructuring. Zhao et al. (2022) concluded that, in the digital economy, human capital dividend plays a notable positive role in industrial structure supererogation, and this impact is compounded by increasing the quantity of data [
32]. The following research hypothesis is then put forward:
Hypothesis 2 (H2). Digital economic growth positively affects human capital; human capital delivers a mediating effect in the effect of the digital economy on industrial restructuring.
Researchers have agreed that the digital economy remarkably enhances regional innovation capacity [
33,
34,
35]. The digital economy grows based on digital technological innovations and accelerates regional innovation [
36]. With technological advancement, digitalized technologies transform traditional production modes, organization forms, business models, and innovation theories and serve as the essential factor in maintaining sustainable competitiveness and improving core competitiveness [
35]. Digitalization, intelligence, and automation substantially enhance the overall effectiveness of the industrial chain [
37]. Digital economic growth plays a positive role in the R&D input and innovation process. Its high penetration rate and high substitution rate increase technology input in the production process; such an R&D input intensity contributes to industrial restructuring [
38]. Su et al. (2021) considered the digital economy as a new vehicle to boost industrial restructuring, in which a mediating effect is found in the heterogeneous technological innovation [
8]. Acemoglu et al. (2018) pointed out that green technological innovation is an important transmission mechanism when the digital economy releases the dividend of industrial restructuring [
39]. The following research hypothesis is then put forward:
Hypothesis 3 (H3). Digital economic growth positively affects technological innovation; technological innovation exerts a mediating effect on the impact of the digital economy on industrial restructuring.
Relying on innovative technologies such as big data and cloud computing, internet finance has developed rapidly, such as the use of online payments, which has significantly improved the availability and convenience of financial services, especially for all those who previously did not have access to the financial market, and therefore, rapid digital economic growth enhances the accessibility and convenience of finance, contributing to achieving inclusive finance [
40,
41]. Internet finance is known for its low cost and no space restrictions [
42]. It facilitates underdeveloped areas by providing accessible finance; meanwhile, digital currency expands finance coverage and reduces its cost [
43]. The evolving digital economy further optimizes financial asset allocation and makes the finance sector more profitable [
44]. Inclusive finance enables a faster flow of production factors and higher production effectiveness, particularly digital inclusive finance, which matches finance capital with real industry capital and thus enhances industrial restructuring [
45]. Gao et al. (2022) found that inclusive digital finance, as a hub of talents, technologies, and information, can drive industrial restructuring by improving capital allocation; meanwhile, finance digitalization leads to lower information costs and more efficiently allocated production factors, thus rationalizing industrial structure [
46]. In particular, it is noted that certain conditions are required to realize the digital economy to enhance access to finance and to facilitate the flow of funds to the relevant industries, especially in terms of the indirect role of financial development to promote the digital economy to enhance the industrial restructuring supererogation. The following research hypothesis is put forward:
Hypothesis 4 (H4). Digital economic growth positively affects financial development, and financial development has a mediating effect on the impact of the digital economy on industrial restructuring.
The research framework of this article is shown in
Figure 1.