摘要：加快建设“数字中国”、推动企业数字化转型是数字经济时代提出的发展要求。然而，当前我国制造企业面临经济体量大但发展不均衡的严峻挑战。本文以2010—2020年中国沪深A股上市制造企业为研究对象，探究知识产权保护对企业数字化转型的作用路径，并根据不同企业性质进行了一致性分析。结果表明，知识产权保护水平对数字化转型具有显著的促进作用，这种影响在激烈的市场竞争中将被放大；同时，知识产权保护还可以借助创新激励和信息优化两种渠道发挥作用；异质性分析的结果也表明知识产权保护的治理作用在非国有企业和成长型企业中更为显著。本文的研究结论可以为地方政府的政策制定以及企业的内部治理战略提供可行性的建议。

Abstract: Accelerating the construction of digital China and promoting the digital transformation of firms are the development requirements of the digital economy era.However,current manufacturing firms in China are facing severe challenges of large economic size but uneven development. This paper takes Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2020 as the research object, explores the role of intellectual property protection (formal regulation) on firms' digital transformation. The empirical results show that there is a positive relationship between intellectual property protection and digital transformation. Further, the above impact will be amplified in the fierce market competition (market means). At the same time, intellectual property protection can also play a role through two paths, namely, innovation impetus and information optimization. In addition, the results of heterogeneity analysis also indicate that the governance role of intellectual property protection is more significant in non-state-owned firms and growth oriented firms. The research conclusions of this paper can provide feasible suggestions for local government policy formulation and internal governance strategies of firms, in turn, facilitating digital transformation.