Technology-intensive Enterprises Research Articles

Does the application of industrial robots promote export green transformation? Evidence from Chinese manufacturing enterprises

Green exports are key in propelling China's foreign trade toward high-quality development. Based on rigorous theoretical analysis, this article employs comprehensive data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) from 2006 to 2014, along with data from the China Customs and industrial enterprise databases, to evaluate the impact of industrial robot utilization on fostering the green transformation of exports. The results reveal that the application of industrial robots unequivocally contributes to advancing the eco-friendly transformation of exports. This conclusion withstands endogeneity and robustness tests. In particular, industrial robots directly promote the green transformation of exports and exert an indirect influence through technological and scale effects. Technological effects can be divided into technological progress and green production, while scale effects relate to enterprise size and industry competitiveness. In terms of heterogeneity, the promoting effect of industrial robot utilization on the green transformation of exports is more pronounced in foreign-funded enterprises, technology-intensive enterprises, and enterprises in the eastern region. To efficiently leverage policy effects and facilitate the green transformation of exports, this article suggests strengthening policy guidance, providing special funds, tax incentives, and rewards, enhancing enterprise research and development capabilities, and encouraging domestic and non-technology-intensive enterprises, and enterprises in the eastern region to utilize industrial robots.

Digital transformation of enterprises under the pressure of air pollution

ABSTRACT Although the effects of air pollution on economics have been reflected in recent research, very little literature has explored whether enterprises are actively adopting digital transformation under the pressure of air pollution. Considering the serious air pollution in China and the importance of digital transformation, this study uses the panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies and air quality data, from 2014 to 2020, to investigate the impact of air pollution pressure on digital transformation. The results show that air pollution pressure forces enterprises to engage in digital transformation. The conclusion still holds after endogeneity and robustness tests. Further, a mechanism analysis indicates that air pollution pressure affects digital transformation through green cognition, green innovation, and government subsidies. Meanwhile, regional informatization positively moderates the relationship between air pollution pressure and three mechanisms. Finally, a heterogeneity analysis shows that air pollution significantly affects digital transformation in eastern regions, state-owned, capital-intensive, and technology-intensive enterprises.

Digital transformation empowers corporate environmental performance

Good ecological environment is both natural and economic wealth, and is related to economic and social development potential and strength of economic and social development. In the era of digital transformation, clarifying the role mechanism of digital empowerment of ecological construction can provide an important theoretical basis for building a beautiful China. This paper adopts the panel data of A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2022, and explores the influence mechanism of digital transformation on corporate environmental performance based on the mediating effect of financing constraints and the moderating effect of green technology innovation. The study finds that: digital transformation can significantly improve corporate environmental performance; financing constraints have a mediating effect in the impact of digital transformation on corporate environmental performance; green technology innovation positively moderates the impact of digital transformation on corporate environmental performance; and the heterogeneity analysis shows that digital transformation has a more significant effect on environmental performance for state-owned enterprises, non-heavily polluted enterprises, non-high-tech enterprises, and labor-intensive and technology-intensive enterprises. The promotion effect of digital transformation on environmental performance is more significant. The study focuses on the mechanism of digital transformation in the environmental performance of enterprises, which is of great significance for enterprises to utilize digital transformation to empower green development.

The impact of climate policy uncertainty on corporate pollution Emissions——Evidence from China

Climate change is considered one of the major systemic risks facing the world in the 21st century. To address climate change, China has adopted a series of climate policies, but the uncertainty brought about by frequent climate policy issuance has increased pressure on enterprises, which may not be conducive to enterprises reducing emissions. This paper uses data on 1211 listed companies on the A-share market in China from 2012 to 2022 to study the impact of climate policy uncertainty on enterprise pollutant emissions. The research findings show that climate policy uncertainty increases corporate pollution emissions; climate policy uncertainty mainly generates negative impacts on enterprise environmental regulation, social responsibility, and R&D investment, thereby negatively affecting enterprise emissions reduction. Further heterogeneity analysis shows that climate policy uncertainty in China has a more significant impact on non-state-owned enterprises, technology-intensive enterprises, lightly polluting enterprises, and enterprises in western regions. These findings emphasize the importance of enterprise social responsibility, environmental regulation, and R&D investment in enterprise emissions reduction and provide policy implications for Chinese enterprises to optimize their energy-saving and emission reduction strategies in the face of climate policy uncertainty.

Technical standard regulations and firm markups: evidence from China

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to empirically evaluate the effect and mechanism of technical standard regulations on firm markups based on the micro data of Chinese manufacturing export enterprises. The results indicate that such regulations have a significant negative effect on firm markups and that this negative effect is greater for large enterprises, enterprises with high financing constraints and capital- and technology-intensive enterprises. Mechanism tests also reveal that under static conditions, technical standard regulations reduce firm markups through the ‘cost increase effect’ but that the ‘quality upgrade effect’ and ‘technological innovation effect’ produced by dynamic adjustment somewhat offset the negative effect of cost increases on firm markups. Further analysis shows that the implementation of these regulations significantly reduces the dispersion of firm markups in an industry, reduces resource mismatch, and enhances the industry’s development capability. This study provides a useful reference for enterprises to cope with technical standard regulations, reduce costs, improve quality and efficiency, and enhance standardization and market competitiveness.

The impact of enterprise digital transformation on financial mismatch: Empirical evidence from listed companies in China

Efficient management of financial resources plays a crucial role in the healthy and sustainable growth of enterprises. In this study, Chinese A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2022 are selected as samples. Using text analysis technology, indicators of 'digital transformation' from corporate annual reports are identified and extracted to assess the extent of enterprise digital transformation. Then the impact of corporate digital transformation on corporate financial mismatch and its underlying mechanisms are systematically investigated. The study shows that enterprise digital transformation significantly alleviates the degree of corporate financial mismatch. This influence is achieved by easing enterprises' financing constraints, promoting technological innovation, and enhancing their level of social responsibility. The heterogeneity test shows that digital transformation has a greater mitigation effect on non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises with high degrees of industrial competition, enterprises with high degrees of regional marketization, and technology-intensive enterprises. The research conclusions provide micro-evidence for a deeper understanding of how digital transformation influences the misallocation of corporate financial resources. They also provide important insights for shaping digital economy policies and promoting high-quality development in the financial industry.

How Does the Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy Affect Enterprises’ Green Innovation? Empirical Evidence from the Context of China’s Digital Economy Development

The integrated development of green innovation and digital economy is crucial for addressing global climate change, promoting the application and popularization of digital technologies in the green sector, and achieving efficient, intelligent, and sustainable economic development and lifestyles. Using panel data from China’s listed enterprises from 2003 to 2021, this study examines the impacts of environmental regulations on green innovation in the low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCPP) context, which serves as a quasi-natural experiment in the digital economy. The results show that LCCPP effectively enhances enterprises’ green innovation by increasing enterprises’ environmental and research and development investments, and boosting digital transformation. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promotion effect of LCCPP on green innovation is highly pronounced for enterprises in the eastern region, for those with low financial constraints, and for technology-intensive enterprises. This effect is closely and positively correlated with the digital economy level in the regions where the enterprises are located. This study provides new empirical evidence for the relationship between environmental regulations and enterprises’ green innovation and discusses policy support for addressing global climate change challenges through environmental regulations in the digital economy context, thereby promoting global sustainable development.

How does the opening of high-speed rail drive energy restructuring? New micro evidence from China

Against the dual backdrop of China vigorously promoting high-speed railways (HSR) construction and establishing an ecological civilization system, HSR as urban transportation infrastructure, is currently gaining growing attention from the academic community due to its environmental benefits as well as its effects in energy conservation and emission reduction. In this context, this research treats the initiation of HSR as a quasi-natural experiment, meanwhile empirically examining the effect of HSR on energy structure restructuring and exploring the micro-level channels through which it operates. The empirical results validate the reduction effect of HSR opening on fuel energy consumption of industrial enterprises, especially the usage of fuel coal. This highlight remains valid across a series of robustness tests. Moreover, it is evident that the “driving effect” of enterprise technological innovation capability and the “industrial upgrading effect” of enterprise relocation are effective transmission pathways in the process of HSR opening influencing the adjustment of energy consumption structure. Moreover, the unique characteristics of enterprise, industry, and region introduce a certain degree of heterogeneity. The low-energy-consumption effect of HSR is more pronounced in high-carbon industry enterprises, technology-intensive enterprises, firms engaged in innovation pilot cities, small to the medium-sized city and resource-based city. This paper provides a new perspective on energy structure adjustment, contributing to offering solid experiences and references for environmental governance in China and other emerging economies.

Novel enterprises digital transformation influence empirical study.

With the rapid development of technologies such as cloud computing and big data, various levels of government departments in the country have successively introduced digital subsidy policies to promote enterprises' digital transformation. However, the effectiveness of these policies and their ability to truly achieve policy objectives have become pressing concerns across society. Against this backdrop, this paper employs a moderated mediation effects model to empirically analyze the incentive effects of financial subsidies on the digital transformation of A-share listed manufacturing companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2013 to 2022. The research findings indicate a significant promotion effect of financial subsidies on the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises, especially demonstrating a notable incentive impact on the digital transformation of large enterprises, non-asset-intensive enterprises, technology-intensive enterprises, and non-labor-intensive enterprises. However, the incentive effect on the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), asset-intensive enterprises, non-technology-intensive enterprises, and labor-intensive enterprises is not significant. Notably, the expansion of financial subsidies positively influences the augmentation of R&D investment within manufacturing enterprises, subsequently providing indirect encouragement for their digital transformation. Additionally, the incorporation of the degree of marketization implies its potential to moderate both the direct and indirect impacts of financial subsidies on enterprise digital transformation. This study enriches the research on the mechanism of the role of financial subsidies in digital transformation and provides empirical evidence on how market participation influences the effects of financial subsidies, thereby assisting policymakers in comprehensively understanding the impact of financial subsidy policies on different types of enterprises.

COVID-19, Financing Constraints and Total Factor Productivity of Enerprises

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">As the COVID-19 epidemic swept the world in early 2020, it is worth watching how it affects the total factor productivity of enterprises. Based on the theory of information asymmetry and the data of A-share listed companies from 2014 to 2021, this paper conducts an empirical study on the relationship between COVID-19 and the total factor productivity of enterprises. The results show that the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic can significantly reduce the total factor productivity of enterprises, and the conclusion is still true after a series of robustness tests. Taking the financing constraint as an intervening variable, it clearly reveals a transmission mechanism, that is to say, the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic exacerbates the financing constraint of the enterprise, thus it makes the total factor productivity of the enterprise reduce. It is further found that the above effects are more obvious for small and medium-sized enterprises and non-intelligent enterprises. Based on this, the government should implement some active economic development policies to create a free, relaxed and orderly market environment for enterprise financing. At the same time, enterprises should not only pay attention to digital and intelligent development, and transform into technology-intensive enterprises, but also strengthen the awareness of worry. Enterprises should store "more grain" for preparing for the cold winter.</p>

Impact of Digital Finance on Manufacturing Technology Innovation: Fixed-Effects and Panel-Threshold Approaches

Digital finance (DF) has provided important financial support for the transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry. Innovation is the engine of industrial upgrading. To solve the dilemma of developing the manufacturing industry, it is necessary to enhance independent innovation capabilities. On this basis, this article studies the impact of DF on manufacturing technology innovation (MTI). It uses the data of listed manufacturing firms in the Shenzhen and Shanghai A-share markets from 2011 to 2020 to establish a fixed-effects model and a panel-threshold model for empirical analysis. The results revealed that, first, DF significantly accelerates technological innovation in manufacturing enterprises and has a significant positive impact on technological innovation. Secondly, DF drives manufacturing enterprises’ technological innovation by alleviating financial constraints (FCs). Thirdly, there is a dual-threshold effect based on market competition between DF and MTI based on market competition, and the promotion effect of DF on technology innovation decreases with the increasing degree of market competition. Finally, DF better enhances the technological innovation of non-state-owned manufacturing firms in the respective regions compared to state-owned firms. In terms of factor-intensive types, DF is more able to advance the innovative technologies of labor-intensive and capital-intensive enterprises, while it has no significant positive effect on technology-intensive enterprises. Policy implications are suggested to boost manufacturing technology innovation and aid future studies.

Does the OFDI promotion effect of the Belt and Road “crowd in” or “crowd out” domestic investment?

PurposeThis study aims to determine how and through what mechanisms the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) promotion effect of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI-OFDI) affects domestic investment. It is motivated by the context that China is fostering a new development pattern, as well as by the impetus from the Belt and Road initiative for the new pattern.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on data of Chinese-listed companies, this study uses a difference-in-difference method to explore the effect of the BRI-OFDI on domestic investment and a mediation model to illustrate the mechanisms.FindingsThe BRI-OFDI has a significantly positive effect on domestic investment, meaning that the Belt and Road initiative's OFDI promotion effect crowds in domestic investment. The results are heterogeneous: the crowding-in effect mainly exists in non-state-owned and technology-intensive enterprises, while a crowding-out effect is seen in state-owned and labor-intensive enterprises. The easing of corporate financing constraints and the expansion of market demand are two important mechanisms.Originality/valueThis study uses the Belt and Road initiative as an exogenous shock to investigate the impact of the initiative-induced OFDI promotion effect on domestic investment. It addresses the potential endogeneity issue confronting the studies on the relationship between OFDI and domestic investment in the literature. The authors focus on the possible spillover effects of the Belt and Road initiative discussing the impact of the BRI-OFDI on domestic investment from the micro-firm perspective. It offers a new perspective to objectively assess the initiative's policy effect.

A Legal Mechanism to Alleviate the Dilemma of Financing Constraints Based on the Quasi-Natural Experiment of the Promulgation of the Real Right Law

This paper takes the promulgation of the Real Right Law as a quasi-natural experiment and uses the Differences-in-Differences (DID) Method to explore the influence of security interest reform on Financing Constraints. It is found that the promulgation of the Real Right Law has a significant alleviation effect on Financing Constraints, especially for those enterprises previously caught in financing constraints due to the lack of fixed asset for mortgage. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that the financing constraint of the Real Right Law is less significant on technology-intensive enterprises, and that SOEs benefit more from the promulgation of the Real Right Law than non-SOEs.

Study on the Impact and Mechanism of Industrial Internet Pilot on Digital Transformation of Manufacturing Enterprises

In the era of digital economy, Industrial Internet is promoting the deep integration of manufacturing industry and the Internet through the new generation of information technology, which has become a new driving force to encourage the development of digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises. In this paper, we use the China Industrial Internet Pilot Demonstration Project as a proposed natural experiment to assess the impact and mechanism of action of the Industrial Internet pilot on the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises using score propensity matching and double-difference methods based on panel data of annual reports of manufacturing listed companies from 2012 to 2020. The empirical results show that the Industrial Internet has a significant empowering effect on the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises and positively promotes the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises through the mechanism of digitalization, technology absorption, talent introduction, and innovation integration of industry cohort enterprises; the heterogeneity analysis shows that the empowering effect of the Industrial Internet is more substantial for technology-intensive enterprises, diversified business enterprises, and enterprises in the eastern region. This study provides empirical evidence for understanding the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises enabled by the Industrial Internet. It provides theoretical support for promoting the development of Industrial Internet projects and achieving sustainable development of the manufacturing industry.

How does corporate internationalization affect the link between social responsibility and financial performance? Evidence from China

Using evidence from 667 Chinese enterprises over the period 2013 to 2018, this study examines whether corporate internationalization improves the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate financial performance (CFP). Specifically, we define CSR along the dimensions of shareholder, employee, supply chain, environment and society. The change in the relationship between CSR and CFP in the context of internationalization was studied systematically using regression analysis. The study’s results indicate that corporate internationalization exercises a significant and negative moderating effect on the relationship between shareholder-oriented CSR and CFP across the whole sample. In addition, corporate internationalization significantly moderates the relationship between different dimensions of CSR and CFP when the sample is further divided into labor-intensive, capital-intensive and technology-intensive enterprises; and that such moderating impacts vary across the three subsets of enterprises. The findings can suggest to managers in different industries which dimensions of CSR activities are likely to improve CFP in the context of corporate internationalization.

Digital Government Development, Local Governments’ Attention Distribution and Enterprise Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from China

Building digital government is an important means for the government to improve the public service ability and optimize the business environment, which directly affects the production and operation activities of micro-enterprises. Based on the panel data of listed enterprises and municipal government portal website performance in China, this paper empirically investigates the impact of digital government development on enterprise total factor productivity (TFP) and the moderating effect of the local government’s attention distribution. The research results showed that digital government development significantly improved the enterprise TFP, and this conclusion remained unchanged after a series of robustness tests using instrumental variables, one-stage lag of explained variables, and debiased machine learning models. We also found that the greater the pressure faced by local governments and the longer the chief officials’ tenure, the more attention local governments paid to building digital government, and the more obvious the role of digital government development in promoting enterprise TFP. Heterogeneity test results showed that the information disclosure, online service, and public participation all had a positive effect on enterprise TFP, while the user experience had no effect on it. Digital government development had a more obvious role in promoting enterprise TFP of central and western regions, non-SOEs, and technology-intensive enterprises. Moreover, reducing enterprise rent-seeking, attracting new enterprise entry, and increasing enterprise R&D investment are important mechanisms for digital government development to improve enterprise TFP.

Social Mobility and Firms’ Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from China

The key to achieving sustainable growth is to increase total factor productivity. What role does the openness of social structure play in promoting total factor productivity? Based on data from the China Labor-force Dynamic Survey (CLDS), we used the methodology of intergenerational order correlation to measure city-level absolute mobility and to examine the impact of social mobility on the total factor productivity of Chinese manufacturing firms. The results show that the following: (1) Higher social mobility has a significant positive impact on firms’ TFP. Our results still hold after using the instrumental variables strategy to mitigate the endogeneity problem and performing a series of robustness tests. (2) Heterogeneity tests show that the positive effect on total factor productivity is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and technology-intensive enterprises. Meanwhile, a higher level of marketization reduces the sensitivity of enterprises’ TFP to social mobility. (3) Three identified channels are human capital allocation, fairness perception, and technological innovation. Our findings inspire the government to promote the system and mechanism reform of social flow and improve sustainable development ability.

Is there “productivity paradox” in Chinese producer-service enterprises' OFDI?

As an important decision of enterprise internationalization, is there a similar phenomenon of “productivity paradox” in Chinese enterprises' overseas investment? We study this issue by using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms in the producer-service industry from 2007 to 2019. According to our empirical results, there is no “productivity paradox” phenomenon in the OFDI of producer-service enterprises in China. In other words, the productivity of enterprises is positively correlated with OFDI. After using the different variable measures and adopting IV estimation, this conclusion is still robust. Our research also finds that cost reduction effect, R&D improvement effect and industrial linkage effect are the three main influencing mechanisms. By analyzing the heterogeneity of dimensions such as the nature of enterprise ownership, technology intensity, cultural distance of investment destinations, and whether they belong to the “OBOR” (One Belt, One Road), we find that productivity has a more significant effect on OFDI in SOEs, technology-intensive enterprises and enterprises whose investment destinations belong to non-OBOR, and with closer cultural proximity. This paper provides implications for Chinese enterprises on how to improve their international competitiveness through OFDI.

The impact of the opening of high-speed rail on corporate financing constraints.

In this paper, the data of A-share non-financial listed companies from 2008 to 2019 are used to study the impact of the opening of high-speed railway on corporate financing constraints with the difference-in-differences model. The research results show that the opening of high-speed rail can effectively alleviate the financing constraints faced by enterprises. Through the analysis of its influence mechanism, it is found that the opening of high-speed rail can reduce the degree of information asymmetry and agency conflicts between enterprises and their stakeholders, and thereby ease corporate financing constraints. At the same time, the opening of the high-speed rail has a more significant effect on alleviating the financing constraints of non-state-controlled enterprises, technology-intensive enterprises, and enterprises in inland areas. This research is not only a supplement to the economic consequences related to the opening of the high-speed rail, but also a further expansion of the research on the factors affecting corporate financing constraints.

Board Faultlines, Innovation Strategy Decisions, and Faultline Activation: Research on Technology-Intensive Enterprises in Chinese A-Share Companies.

In the context of social norms, based on faultline theory, using samples of Chinese A-share listed companies of technology-intensive industries from 2009 to 2015, this paper studies how board faultlines influence innovation strategy decisions and test the influences of a dual chairman/CEO and board ownership on that relationship. The results of the study are as follows. Social-related faultlines have a significant negative influence on innovation strategy decisions. Cognitive-related faultlines have a significant positive influence on innovation strategy decisions. A dual chairman/CEO has no moderating effect between social-related faultlines and innovation strategy decisions, but weakens the positive effect between cognitive-related faultlines and innovation strategy decisions. Board ownership weakens the negative effect between social-related faultlines and innovation strategy decisions but enhances the positive effect between cognitive-related faultlines and innovation strategy decisions.