Intelligent Manufacturing, Digital Technology Innovation, and New Quality Productive Forces in the Manufacturing Industry: An Empirical Study Based on Multi-period DID

Ai Li; Junming Pan

doi:10.63313/EBM.9088

Authors

Ai Li Southwest Petroleum University of Economics and Management, Chengdu 610500, China Author
Junming Pan Southwest Petroleum University of Economics and Management, Chengdu 610500, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63313/EBM.9088

Keywords:

Intelligent manufacturing, New quality productive forces in the manufacturing industry, Digital technology innovation, Difference-in-differences

Abstract

Intelligent manufacturing has become an important indicator for measuring the core competitiveness of a country’s manufacturing industry. Using panel data from A-share listed manufacturing enterprises in China from 2012 to 2023, this paper views the implementation of intelligent manufacturing pilot policies as a quasi-natural experiment, and conducts an empirical analysis employing a mul-ti-period difference-in-differences model to systematically examine the impact of intelligent manufacturing pilot policies on the new quality productive forces of the manufacturing industry and its underlying mechanisms. The empirical results show that intelligent manufacturing pilot policies have a positive effect on promoting new quality productive forces in the manufacturing industry, and this conclusion remains robust after various tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that intelligent manufacturing pilot policies effectively enhance the level of dig-ital technological innovation in manufacturing, thereby assisting in improving new quality productive forces. Group analysis based on enterprise size, owner-ship nature, and geographical location shows that the impact of intelligent man-ufacturing pilot policies on new quality productive forces in manufacturing is heterogeneous, with a greater promoting effect on new quality productive forces in large-scale manufacturing enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises, and northern regions. Therefore, government departments should continue to opti-mize relevant policies and enhance enterprises’ digital technological innovation capabilities, ultimately achieving high-quality development of the manufactur-ing industry.

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