Impacts of Digital Economy on Urban Entrepreneurial Competencies: A Spatial and Nonlinear Perspective

The vigorous rise of the digital economy not only affects the dynamic system and development path of entrepreneurial activities, but also brings new opportunities to enhance urban entrepreneurial competencies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the digital economy supported by digital technologies can become a new kinetic energy that can enhance urban entrepreneurial competencies in the context of the "New Normal". Based on the sample of 286 cities in China, this paper investigates the temporal and spatial characteristics of urban entrepreneurial competencies and analyzes the spatial effect of the digital economy on urban entrepreneurial competencies using the spatial dynamic panel Durbin model. Furthermore, this paper examines whether the impact of the digital economy on urban entrepreneurial competencies has a "threshold effect" in different business environments by using threshold spatial dynamic panel model. It is found that: (1) Urban entrepreneurial competencies have obvious spatial dependence; (2) The digital economy harms the entrepreneurial competencies of neighboring cities; (3) In different business environments, the impact of the digital economy on urban entrepreneurial competencies shows obvious non-linear characteristics.