Research On The Influence Of Internet On The Total Factor Productivity Of Manufacturing Enterprises Of Different Scales And Its Mechanism

It has always been the most important issue in economics research to find out the drivers of long-term economic growth.Both Classical Growth Theory and Endogenous Growth Theory hold that technological progress is the key driver for the sustainable growth of human economy.The information revolution,marked by the rise and vigorous development of the Internet,is another major technological breakthrough in human history.It has brought a wealth of new products,new models and new business forms,providing valuable opportunities for understanding the role of technological progress in economic growth.In2015,China put forward the “Made in China 2025” for the first time,which explicitly pointed out the need to accelerate the integrated development of information technology and manufacturing technology.Based on the integration of Internet and manufacturing industry in China,this paper tries to analyze the opportunities brought by Internet to manufacturing industry from the perspective of total factor productivity of enterprises.In retrospect,since the introduction of the Internet into China,manufacturing enterprises have become more information-based,digitized and intelligent.However,it must be admitted that there is still a big gap between China’s manufacturing enterprises and world-class countries in such fields as technological innovation,R & D,intelligent manufacturing and green manufacturing.However,with the spread of the Internet,geographical distance has significantly less impact on information transmission,which enables knowledge to spread faster and makes it obvious that knowledge and technology are public goods.It has brought great opportunities for China’s manufacturing enterprises to achieve technological breakthroughs.It should be noted that the Internet has both direct and indirect impacts on manufacturing enterprises.New technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things directly improve production efficiency,while new business models such as e-commerce and sharing economy have an indirect impact on enterprises.As there are many factors affecting the total factor productivity of manufacturing enterprises,it is difficult to clarify the mechanism of different factors by direct comparison.Therefore,it is an effective starting point to measure how much enterprises of different sizes benefit from the technological upgrade brought by the Internet.This paper focuses on three important issues that manufacturing enterprises are concerned about: first,in the information age,what new factors affect the total factor productivity of manufacturing enterprises;second,for manufacturing enterprises of different sizes,how does the Internet affect their total factor productivity differently? third,what are the mechanisms of the Internet affecting the total factor productivity of enterprises? In view of the above,this paper used the data of manufacturing enterprises in the China Industry Business Performance Data from 2001 to 2007,the data of A-share manufacturing listed companies from 2010 to 2019,and the monthly dynamic survey of SMEs in Zhejiang Province from August 2015 to December 2017 to analyze the extent to which manufacturing companies of different sizes rely on the Internet.Based on the Innovation-driven Growth Theory,Signaingl Theory,Search Theory,Porter’s Theory of competitive advantage and Asset Allocation Theory,etc.,it selected three indicators: whether they have a website and E-mail,ICT investment amount and e-commerce transaction volume.This paper uses a variety of empirical methods,such as high-dimensional fixed effect model,the instrumental variable,mediating effect model and moderating effect model,to study the effect of internet on manufacturing enterprises and its mechanism from the perspective of total factor productivity.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:First,based on the research results of information economics,it teases out the characteristics and influence of the Internet.Economic analysis shows that the Internet is highly standardized and highly socialized.On the one hand,information,no matter how complex,is translated into binary code in the technical language of the Internet.It is not only conducive to the storage of information,but also facilitates the dissemination of information,greatly lowering the cost of access to information.On the other hand,the Internet brings new information carriers such as microblog,webpage and e-mail.However,information,generated by subjective consciousness of human beings in practice,is still transmitted from person to person,so the Internet is highly socialized.On this basis,this paper further discusses the economic impact of the Internet from the macro and enterprise levels.On one hand,this paper expounds the macroeconomic impact of the Internet from seven aspects:economic growth,R & D innovation,labor market,capital market,commodity market,regional development and international trade.On the other hand,this paper summarizes the impact of Internet on manufacturing enterprises from seven aspects: telecommunications infrastructure and education levels of employees,e-commerce,social media,international trade,financing constraints,organizational structure and R & D innovation.Second,the Internet has effectively improved the total factor productivity of manufacturing enterprises of different sizes,which has been proved by theoretical analysis and empirical tests.The above conclusion enriches the literature on the impact of the Internet on enterprises,and helps to respond to the doubts of some scholars about the positive role of the Internet in previous studies.This paper finds that the neglect of industry type and firm size is the key to inconsistent conclusions.Third,for manufacturing enterprises of different sizes,there are different mechanisms by which the Internet can improve the total factor productivity.Through theoretical analysis,it is found that the Internet affects enterprises mainly through knowledge diffusion,corporate governance,technology endowment of labor and transaction cost.In the empirical analysis,this paper verifies the following mechanisms according to different enterprise sizes.In the early days of the Internet,the Internet enhanced the productivity of large manufacturing enterprises mainly by helping enterprises achieve differentiation at the supply side and the demand side;later,the Internet mainly improved the productivity of large manufacturing enterprises by reducing information search cost,enhancing information processing capability,optimizing capital allocation and promoting technological innovation.For small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises,it does this mainly by encouraging innovation and reducing Financing Constraints.Fourth,the degree to which the Internet enhances the total factor productivity of manufacturing enterprises is also affected by the intensity of industrial factors and the market environment.In the industry analysis,this paper finds that the Internet plays a significant role in improving the total factor productivity of manufacturing enterprises in technology-intensive industries and labor-intensive industries.In technology-intensive industries,the Internet reduces the cost of information search and promotes the flow of knowledge and technology among enterprises.Low-tech firms tend to benefit more from such flow.In labor-intensive industries,the development of the Internet,especially e-commerce,reduces the cost for enterprises to expand the market,but it requires enterprises to invest a certain number of operators,customer service staff and managers.Therefore,manufacturing enterprises in labor-intensive industries are more likely to gain comparative advantages when carrying out online business.In the analysis of the market environment,this paper finds that when the external market environment becomes worse and offline orders decrease,the Internet plays a stronger role in improving the total factor productivity of manufacturing enterprises.This is because the Internet greatly reduces the impact of geographical distance on transactions,and fierce competition from online counterparts nationwide and globally will enable physical enterprises to constantly optimize products and refine management,which will ultimately improve total factor productivity.Based on the above conclusions,this paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations from the perspective of manufacturing enterprises and the government respectively.Enterprises:(1)Provide better IT hardware & facilities and introduce more professionals.(2)Make full use of the information and knowledge brought about by the Internet and give play to the role of information and knowledge elements in production.(3)Get rid of low-level price competition,and strive to develop unique advantages of products to improve the loyalty of product users.(4)Step up the integration of online and offline businesses,enhance their sensitivity to the market,steadily develop e-commerce,and broaden their sales channels to comprehensively promote their high-quality development.(5)make full use of digital payment to reduce Financing Constraints of enterprises.The government:(1)Advance the reform of research management system and improve the conversion rate of research achievements.(2)Step up efforts to crack down on IPR infringement and gradually improve the IPR protection system.(3)Establish the information security protection mechanism and improve the information supervision system.(4)Maintain communications infrastructure and promote the implementation of new infrastructure.The innovations of this paper are as follows:(1)It expands the theoretical research methods of the Internet and enterprise total factor productivity,and teases out the impact of the Internet on macro-economy and micro-enterprises;it constructs a theoretical model in line with China’s national conditions and enriches the theoretical system of technological progress and enterprise development.Through theoretical and model analysis,this paper finds that resource endowment of enterprises,environmental factors and competitive strategies all affect the degree to which the Internet improves total factor productivity.This is achieved mainly in the following ways: knowledge diffusion,corporate governance,technology endowment of labor and transaction cost.(2)Due to different enterprise sizes,this paper studies the influence of the Internet on manufacturing enterprises of different sizes.Based on verifying the improvement of the Internet to the total factor productivity,the paper quantitatively examines the impact of the Internet on the total factor productivity of manufacturing enterprises of different sizes through enterprise samples of different periods and different sizes.(3)This paper complements the mechanism by which the Internet increases the total factor productivity of manufacturing enterprises.Based on Porter’s Theory of competitive advantage,Schumpeter’s Theory and relevant information economics theories(such as Search theory,Information Asymmetry and Matching Theory),differentiation at the supply side and demand side and scientific asset allocation are put forward respectively.