A Theory of Digital Economy Development: An Examination of the Practice of Chinese Platforms

Grasping the development trends and patterns of the digital economy and promoting the integrated development of the digital and the real economy is a strategic choice for China's construction of new competitive advantages. Based on case studies of the growth of e-commerce, this paper develops five microeconomic propositions about the following issues: the microeconomic features of data factor that differ from traditional production factors; optimal decision-making for digital enterprises; "data + platform" architecture, data transaction governance, and digital infrastructure supply. We apply these theoretical propositions to enterprise innovative practices in different application scenarios such as driverless vehicles and manufacturing digitalization. This paper provides a systematic and consistent theoretical framework for analyzing platform business model innovation and accurately identifying issues of institutional construction that promote the integrated development of the digital and the real economy.