Abstract By expanding the MO theoretical framework to build an enterprise production decision-making model that includes digital service elements, the paper theoretically analyzes and empirically tests the impact of opening up digital service trade on enterprise price markups and the intrinsic mechanism. The results show that the opening up of digital service trade contributes to the increase in firms’ price markups. This positive effect remains significant even after a series of robustness tests, including addressing endogeneity, changing variables and eliminating confounding factors. Mechanism testing indicates that the opening up of digital service trade increases corporate price bonuses through two paths: innovation incentives and information governance. In addition, the promotion effect of opening up digital services trade on corporate price markups is more prominent among sample companies with a high degree of digital transformation, high agency costs, non-high-tech industries and highly competitive industries. The conclusions provide important policy reference for promoting high-quality development of the real economy and drawing a beautiful blueprint for “improving quality and efficiency” of enterprises in the current process of accelerating high-level opening up in China.
2025, Vol. 42 
