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PurposeDigital transformation is a confidence booster in intrapreneurship, but few have examined its impact on intrapreneurship. Further, quantitative analyses exploring the impact of Chinese enterprises' digital transformation on intrapreneurship at the micro-level are rare. Most enterprises do not have the dividend for digital transformation, and few enterprises have successfully achieved digital transformation through intrapreneurship, internal management re-engineering and technological innovation. This study investigates the effect of digital transformation on intrapreneurship in Chinese real economy enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe study develops and tests a theoretical model that digital transformation impacts intrapreneurship by promoting working capital turnover and furtherly influencing labor input. Panel data of 1,638 Chinese-listed companies between 2007 and 2020 were used to complete the empirical test.FindingsDigital transformation impacted labor input, with an inverted-U shaped relationship between the two, and labor input significantly stimulated intrapreneurship. This effect promoted labor input's impact on working capital. Chinese real economy enterprises generally increase labor investment to promote intrapreneurship. Heterogeneity analysis revealed that enterprises' asset scale and ownership attributes uniformly affected labor input.Originality/valueThis study provided empirical evidence of the promotional effect of real economy enterprises' digital transformation on intrapreneurship. Further, it advanced the literature by examining this relationship at the micro-level. Moreover, the data sample was long-term and included most industries, thus providing representative results with practical implications.

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