This paper evaluates the sustainable development of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones and their impact on regional economic growth. A comprehensive performance evaluation system is constructed to assess the degree of sustainable development in the first five batches of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in China between 2011 and 2020, which reveals significant regional differences and a clear “Matthew effect”. We also quantify the specific role of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in promoting regional economic growth; specifically, we demonstrate that the level of sustainable development of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones has a significant positive impact on regional economic growth and show that these effects vary according to regional distribution, city level, and the degree of sustainable development of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones. On this basis, we explore the mechanism through which these factors influence one another and identify three main channels on which to focus for further development: industrial structure upgrades, institutional innovation, and consumption upgrades. Finally, based on empirical results, we propose differentiated policy suggestions for various regions and city levels through the provision of theoretical and practical support for promoting the healthy and sustainable development of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones and the stable growth of regional economies.

Cross-border e-commerce is a pivotal component of the digital economy, serving as a crucial gauge for regional competitiveness in digital transformation and international trade. This study employs the Groundings-Enterprises-Markets (GEM) model, factor analysis, and the entropy weight method to evaluate the regional competitiveness of cross-border e-commerce in China. Analyzing data from 2018 to 2021 across 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, the research assesses competitiveness through basic, enterprise, and market factors. Findings reveal annual improvement in China’s overall cross-border e-commerce competitiveness, yet notable regional disparities persist, with the east outpacing the west. Guangdong Province emerges as a key player and leader when the regions are classified into three tiers. Key factors influencing competitiveness include the digital economy development index, the number of cross-border e-commerce pilot zones, R&D expenditures, cross-border enterprise competitiveness, and core enterprise scale. The study concludes with policy recommendations, emphasizing digital reform, logistics efficiency enhancement, and the promotion of digital technologies.

With the in-depth development of globalization and informatization, digital trade, as an emerging form of trade, is gradually reshaping the global economic landscape and becoming a new engine for driving economic growth. Among them, the impact of digital trade on the export competitiveness of enterprises in developing countries has become a common concern in academia. To reveal the causal relationship between the development of digital trade and the enhancement of export competitiveness in developing countries, this paper first constructs a theoretical model based on product quality heterogeneity and analyzes the impact of digital trade on the export competitiveness of enterprises on the basis of achieving supply and demand equilibrium; then, this paper constructs a comprehensive index system for measuring digital trade and enterprise export competitiveness, and establishes an empirical analysis model; on this basis, this paper uses the data of listed companies in the A-share market in the Yangtze River Economic Belt area from 2011 to 2021 for empirical analysis. The results of the empirical analysis show that for every one-unit increase in the level of digital trade development in the region, there will be a positive impact of 0.9041 units on the export competitiveness of enterprises. After a series of robustness tests and endogeneity analyses, the above empirical results are confirmed to be robust and reliable. Furthermore, this paper conducts a heterogeneity analysis and finally puts forward corresponding policy recommendations based on the above theoretical and empirical research results.