The Impact of Institutional Opening-up on the Development of New-Quality Productivity in Enterprises: A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on Cross-Border E-commerce Pilot Zones

Abstract

The symposium on promoting the comprehensive revitalization of Northeast China, held in September 2023, called for vigorously developing “new quality productive forces” and fostering new drivers of economic growth. The establishment of comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce represents a significant institutional innovation undertaken by China to navigate the new opportunities and challenges of a new era of economic development. As of April 2025, China had established 178 such zones across the country in seven batches. These zones aim to vigorously develop an export-oriented economy and resolve deep-seated institutional issues through institutional innovation; in doing so, they foster regional economic growth and drive the digital transformation and upgrading of enterprises, ultimately promoting the development of new quality productive forces within those enterprises. This paper takes listed companies from 2011 to 2022 as the research object and uses the multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model method to explore the impact mechanism of the comprehensive pilot zone policy on the new quality productivity of enterprises. At the same time, it further explores the mediating role of innovation incentives and digital empowerment between the two. Finally, it conducts heterogeneity analysis from the aspects of regional differences and differences in enterprise ownership, and explores the relationship between them in depth.