In this paper, we provide empirical evidence for understanding the growth behavior of China’s new generation of information technology (IT) industrial firms and the impact of innovation and market power on them. Based on the data of China’s new generation IT industrial firms covering the period 2000–2007, we use ordinary least square (OLS) and two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) methods to study the effects of innovation and markup on the growth of China’s new generation IT industrial firms in the framework of Gibrat’s law. IV-2SLS estimations show that: (1) Innovation and markup have positive and significant effects on the firm’s total revenue growth rate, but have no significant or negative effects on the growth rate of the firm’s total assets and employment. (2) Innovation has a positive and significant effect on the firm’s mark-up. The results indicate that for China’s new generation IT industrial firms which are technology-intensive, improving the technological innovation and market power will reduce the firm’s input and increase the firm’s output. Innovation can significantly increase the firm’s mark-up. (3) From the perspective of the dynamic evolution of a firm’s growth, firm size has a negative and significant impact on the firm growth while firm age has a positive and significant impact on the firm’s growth. In addition, we also examine the different effects of capital intensity and export demand on the firm’s growth.

China is committed to building a new development paradigm to realize Chinese modernization. Therefore, it is of great significance to delve into, from the standpoint of new quality productive forces (NQPF), how digital finance affects foreign investment. This study utilizes data from 31 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2023 to ascertain the impact of digital finance on foreign investment. The findings indicate that digital finance exerts a significant and positive effect on foreign investment, with this effect being stronger in the central and western regions. With regard to transmission mechanism, digital finance can enhance foreign investment by improving regional NQPF, which has significant characteristics of regional heterogeneity. Further research makes a discovery that the outward foreign investment’s level in the central and western regions, is positively associated with the strength of digital finance’s effect on foreign investment, while the outward foreign investment’s level in the eastern regions, is negatively associated with the strength of digital finance’s effect on foreign investment. This research provides evidence for deepening digital finance’s development to promote foreign investment.