Digital Transformation,Production Factor Allocation And Enterprise Innovation Performance

The output value of China’s manufacturing industry has been ranked the first in the world for 12 consecutive years.However,in sharp contrast to the status of "manufacturing power" and the high importance of the government,manufacturing power is "big but not strong".A large number of Chinese manufacturing enterprises are trapped in the low-end lock of the value chain and the lack of core technology.In the face of such difficulties,the Chinese government has clearly proposed to vigorously promote the digital transformation of manufacturing industry and improve innovation capacity from the strategic level.Governments and businesses have made significant digital investments to this end.However,due to the lack of connection between digital transformation and enterprise innovation in practice,the innovation effect of digital transformation faces great challenges.Although digitalization has become the mainstream of the development of manufacturing enterprises,the growth curve of their performance is flattening.As the cumulative investment in digitalization increases,manufacturing enterprises are increasingly trapped in the"digitalization paradox".Some scholars even believe that digital input is a myth,and we urgently need to show effectiveness through improved innovation performance.Secondly,in the new context of digitalization,the market liquidity of traditional factors of production has been greatly improved.Digitalization challenges the pre-existing assumptions of the Resource-Based View.Resource attributes are changing,and resources previously thought to create competitive advantages may depreciate rapidly in the digital age.At the same time,new data elements have become key resources.Therefore,in the digital context,whether factor resources can form an enterprise’s competitive advantage in innovation and how to allocate factor resources to obtain the competitive advantage of the best innovation performance have become the key issues.In addition,based on the important consideration of practical application,how to take measures according to local conditions and improve the innovation effect for the digital transformation of different regions,industries and enterprise characteristics.The answers to these questions are of importance and urgency in the context of China’s aggressive shift to digitalization of manufacturing.In order to answer the above questions,this paper takes the strategic organization and management of enterprise resources as the breakthrough point,defines the multi-dimensional strategic connotation of digital technology,intelligent manufacturing production mode,Internet business model and information system support,and aims to explore the impact of digital transformation on enterprise innovation performance.Based on the perspective of dynamic interaction of production factors,this paper focuses on the substitution,optimization and synergy relationship among production factors.This paper considers enterprise innovation from the perspective of rational and optimal resource allocation,constructs the theory,path and logic of the impact of digital transformation,production factor allocation and enterprise innovation performance.And on this basis we construct a complete research framework including cross-region,industry and enterprise level.Based on the VRIO framework of ResourceBased View,Production Factor Theory and Innovation Theory,this paper carries out five systematic sub-studies:1.The paper analyzes and tests the impact of digital transformation on enterprise innovation performance,focusing on solving two problems:one is whether manufacturing enterprises can make the leap from big to strong with the help of digital transformation;the other is whether digital transformation promotes the substantive and high-quality development of enterprise innovation.The study finds that as an enterprise strategy,digital transformation covering the four dimensions of digital technology,intelligent manufacturing production mode,Internet business model and information system can effectively organize and deploy enterprise resources and improve the level of enterprise innovation performance.Further analysis of patent heterogeneity shows that digital transformation significantly increases the application of breakthrough and creative invention patents,while it has no effect on the output of non-invention patents.Digitalization promotes solid and high-quality "hard" innovation of enterprises.It solves the problem of high external dependence of basic products and technologies,realizes the independent control of key core technologies in the manufacturing industry,and provide core support and driving force for high-quality development of manufacturing industry.2.We examines the mediating effect of different production factor configurations on manufacturing enterprises,focusing on how different production factors interact with each other and how this relationship affects the innovation performance of digital transformation enterprises.This paper finds that digital transformation has a positive impact on enterprise innovation performance by replacing capital with technology,optimizing labor structure with data,and forming a new production factor allocation combination through the coordination of data and traditional factors.Among the three transmission mechanisms,the mediating effect of the coordination of production factors is the largest.New data factors enhance the connectivity and complementarity of traditional production factors.Combined with the network effect and multiplication effect of the factor combination structure formed after its integration with traditional factors,it can comprehensively improve the output efficiency of production factors of enterprises,improve the quality and efficiency of innovation investment,and then vigorously improve innovation performance.3.The study examines the regional heterogeneity of digital transformation and enterprise innovation performance,focusing on the regional differences in resource endowment and factor allocation.The results show that digital transformation has a significantly positive impact on enterprise innovation performance in the eastern and central and western regions,and the promotion effect is greater in the less developed central and western regions,especially in the western region.The central and western regions are in short supply of capital.The cost of labor has a comparative advantage.And it is more effective for data elements to break through space constraints and play network effects there.Digital transformation breaks the Matthew Effect.It drives the less developed regions to catch up quickly,and narrows the innovation level gap between the developed regions in eastern China and the less developed regions in central and western China.4.This paper explores the dynamic moderating effect of industry heterogeneity on the relationship of digital transformation and enterprise innovation performance.The results show that,in general,high industry competition can promote digital transformation innovation performance more than low industry competition.Dynamically,as the degree of industry competition increases,the moderating effect of digital transformation on enterprise innovation performance shows a nonlinear feature of increasing first and then decreasing.Low industrial competition inhibits the flow of factor resources and allocation efficiency.Excessive industrial competition has a partial crowding-out effect on corporate innovation.The degree of competition in the industry needs to be maintained within a reasonable range.5.We explore the conditional effect of firm heterogeneity on the relationship between digital transformation and innovation performance.The study finds that the degree of government involvement of enterprises has a moderating effect on digital transformation and enterprise innovation performance.In general,high government participation can better promote the innovation performance of enterprises’ digital transformation.From a dynamic perspective,government participation effectively helps enterprises release the network effect of new data elements,thus promoting the leapfrog growth of enterprise innovation performance.The promoting effect of government participation on digital transformation and enterprise innovation performance shows dynamic nonlinear characteristics.Through the above research,the possible innovations of the paper are as follows:First,taking the strategic organization management of enterprise resources as the breakthrough point,the research perspective is expanded to the important dimensions of the connotation of digital transformation strategy,and the systematic and comprehensive impact of digital technology,intelligent manufacturing production mode,Internet business model and information system support on enterprise innovation performance is emphasized.From the perspective of digital transformation strategy,this paper constructs the evolution mechanism of enterprise innovation in digital context,breaks through the boundary of singledimension digital technology innovation theory,and forms the advantage theory of digital transformation strategy that affects the innovation of manufacturing enterprises.Second,this paper focuses on the important perspective of production factor allocation which explains the input-output black box problem of enterprises.By depicting the different interactions of production factors in the digital context,and further exploring the profound impact of digital enterprises on the relationship between digital transformation and enterprise innovation performance through the new combination of production factors and their heterogeneity,the study explores and tests the path mechanism of improving innovation performance of enterprises in digital transformation.It supplements and expands the theory of production factors on the innovation effect of enterprises in digital transformation,and provides theoretical support and empirical basis for enterprises in digital transformation to better enhance innovation competitiveness with the help of factor resource organization and management.Third,based on the multi-level research framework across regions,industries and enterprises,on the basis of constructing the theory,path and logic of the impact of digital transformation and production factor allocation on enterprise innovation performance,the research on the innovation effect of digital transformation is expanded and enriched from the new perspective of macro,meso,micro conditions,which is of great value to form the theoretical system of digital innovation effect.The conclusions of this paper are innovative in both theoretical promotion and practical application.The research shows that the strategic and systematic development of digital transformation helps to promote high-quality innovation,avoid enterprises to implement strategic innovation activities through policies,break through more unprecedented innovation achievements,and substantially improve the level of innovation.And the rational allocation of resources according to the path law of substitution,optimization,coupling and coordination among factors can give full play to the innovation effect of enterprises’ digital transformation.Finally,the moderating effect test based on the heterogeneity of regions,industries and enterprises provides valuable reference for promoting the digital strategic layout of China’s manufacturing industry with "regional coordination,market dominance and government guidance."...