Abstract: Based on the merged data from Chinese customs and listed firms, this study employs text analysis to construct a comprehensive index for firm digital transformation, and examines its impact on export quality along with the underlying mechanisms. The results show that digital transformation can significantly enhance the quality of enterprises exports. This conclusion still holds after employing the “Next Generation Internet Demonstration City” policy as instrumental variables and conducting various robustness checks. The mechanism testing finds that digital transformation enables firms to import more varieties of higher-quality intermediate inputs, enhances their innovation capabilities, and optimizes their human capital structure, thereby promoting the upgrading of export quality. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that digital transformation exerts a more pronounced impact on export quality for products exhibiting greater quality differentials, state-owned enterprises, export destinations with farther distances, and locational regions with well-developed Internet infrastructures. These findings underscore the role of digital transformation in promoting high-quality exports, thereby offering pertinent policy insights to facilitate higher-level openness and advance the establishment of a trade powerhouse.

Key words: digital transformation, high-quality exports, innovation capability, human capital, intermediate inputs