The Impact of Digital Transformation on Manufacturing-Enterprise Innovation: Empirical Evidence from China

Xingguang Guo () and Xi Chen ()
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Xingguang Guo: School of Business, Nanjing University, Gulou District, Nanjing 210093, China
Xi Chen: School of Business, Nanjing University, Gulou District, Nanjing 210093, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: The industrial sector is now undergoing digital revolution and upgrade, and it is of strategic significance to study how enterprise digitalization affects enterprise innovation. This paper develops a theoretical model of how digital transformation affects innovation in manufacturing enterprises, based on the resource-based view, network-embeddedness theory, and resource-complementarity theory. It then tests the mechanism and boundary conditions of the model, using data from a World Bank survey of Chinese enterprises. The study reveals how the degree of e-commerce embeddedness might partially mediate the effect of digital transformation on the innovation of manufacturing companies. Managerial human capital positively moderates the effect of digital transformation on manufacturing enterprises’ independent-R&D investment and product-innovation output. Employee human capital significantly and positively moderates the effect of digital transformation on manufacturing enterprises’ product-innovation output, while negatively moderating the effect of digital transformation on manufacturing enterprises’ cooperative-R&D investment. The conclusions can expand the relevant theoretical research on digital transformation and enterprise innovation, and also provide practical enlightenment for the digital transformation and upgrading of manufacturing enterprises.

Keywords: digital transformation; manufacturing-enterprise innovation; degree of e-commerce embeddedness; human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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