The Impact Of Smart Logistics On Logistics Industry Performance

As the link between production and consumption,logistics industry is a fundamental and strategic industry for national economic development.At present,the development of China’s logistics industry has problems including insufficient utilization of logistics resources,insufficient release of logistics scale benefits,and imbalance between the supply and demand of logistics services.These obstacles impede the industry’s ability to effectively support the unblocking of the national economic cycle and the expansion of domestic consumption,and the traditional logistics industry development is no longer unsustainable.The emergence of the new generation of information technology revolution and industrial changes offer unprecedented opportunities for the logistics industry.And the smart logistics is an effective means of overcoming the current dilemma and a crucial way to enhancing the industry’s quality,reduce costs,and increase efficiency.At present,China’s logistics industry is undergoing a crucial transition.In response,China’s government has developed a corresponding policy for the development of the smart logistics,aimed at promoting the digitalization,platformization,and intelligent transformation of the industry through the new generation of information technology,with the goal of improving its performance.However,the transformation of the smart logistics is not a quick fix.Can the smart logistics really enhance its performance,and does it face the problem of "productivity paradox" ? Additionally,the impact mechanism of smart logistics and how it can achieve that require further in-depth study.The "productivity paradox" has been a long-standing issue that has been continuously researched and debated without reaching a uniform conclusion.One group believes that the new generation of information technology can contribute to productivity improvement,while the opposing one argues that there exists a "productivity paradox".However,it is noteworthy that scholars mostly adopt the assumption of a linear relationship when discussing the "productivity paradox",which fails to capture the dynamic changes of the impact of nextgeneration information technology on productivity.In terms of the impact mechanism,scholars have provided explanations to the rationality of the "productivity paradox" phenomenon from several levels,primarily attributing to non-controllable factors such as time and technical errors.However,little attention has been paid to the impact of the external environment of industrial innovation development on the productivity effect of new-generation information technology.At the same time,the complementary conditions that lead to the emergence of the "productivity paradox" phenomenon have not been quantified,i.e.,at which threshold of the mutuality conditions,can the "productivity paradox" be solved? Regarding the action channel,the relevant research mainly takes a supply-side perspective of the industrial subject,while neglecting the demand-side and supply-demand synergy perspective of the industrial subject.This lack of attention fails to open the "black box" of the impact of the smart logistics on its performance,and has limitations in understanding its inner logic.Finally,with respect to research objects,most of studies focused on developed countries and manufacturing industries,with little attention to developing countries’ service industries,especially the lack of empirical evidence from developing countries’ logistics industries.In light of this,this research focuses on the influence mechanism and transmission channel of the smart logistics on its performance.The main research contents encompass the following aspects: Firstly,based on the theories of technical-economic paradigm and transaction cost,the evolutionary game model is introduced to explicate the U-shaped non-linear relationship between the smart logistics and its performance via mathematical deduction.This approach aims to address the important question of "whether the smart of logistics industry can really enhance its performance and whether it faces "productivity paradox".Secondly,external factors such as human capital,marketization level,and information infrastructure are incorporated into the study of complementarity conditions by combining with industrial innovation system theory.Under different complementary conditions,we analyze the impact of the smart logistics on its performance to determine whether there is a "productivity paradox",and at what level the complementary conditions can change the direction of the impact of the smart logistics on its performance,thus solving the problem of "how to crack the productivity paradox in the process of development of the smart logistics industry".Thirdly,based on the theory of supply and demand,this study tries to build a theoretical framework of "supply optimization,demand traction,and supply-demand synergy" for the logistics industry,taking the higher level of dynamic equilibrium of demand traction and supply creation as the starting point,and deconstructing its performance.This aims to open the "black box" of the impact of the smart logistics on its performance.Fourth,based on China’s regional panel data,the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics,distribution characteristics,correlation characteristics and level of the smart logistics and its performance are measured by means of descriptive statistical analysis and exploratory spatial analysis.Finally,the empirical test is carried out based on the theoretical analysis.On the one hand,the degree and direction of the impact of the smart logistics on its performance are tested empirically,and the specific changes in that under the influence of different complementary conditions are examined.On the other hand,the transmission mechanism of the smart of logistics industry on its performance is empirically to determine its role in the process of the smart of logistics industry affecting its performance.This study also analyzes in depth whether there is heterogeneity in the transmission mechanism under the influence of different external factors,and further analyzes whether there are certain limitations of the transmission mechanism.The main conclusions from the theoretical analysis and empirical tests are as follows:(1)The smart logistics exhibits a trend of slow rise culminating in rapid growth.And the difference between the pattern of strong east and weak west keeps widening,resulting in the manifestation of spatial agglomeration in neighboring regions at the provincial level.However,the potency of this agglomeration effect is mitigated by the synergistic development between regions.The logistics industry is subject to the influence of external shocks and policies,and its performance is characterized by conspicuous stage-specific,spatially heterogeneous and agglomerative features.The eastern region suffers from a paucity of scale efficiency,while the central and western regions have boundless potential,and the northeast region is comparatively frail.In an environment characterized by a high level of human capital,marketization,and information infrastructure,the smart and performance of the logistics industry are both notably enhanced.(2)There is a "productivity paradox" in the process of the smart logistics.Namely,when the smart level of logistics industry is low,the marginal benefit derived from it is insufficient to offset the cost input,resulting in a continuous loss of its performance.However,as the smart level of the logistics industry increases,the marginal benefits will eventually exceed the cost inputs,thus achieving a stop loss and increase efficiency.After a series of robustness tests and endogeneity treatment,the above conclusion remains robust.The human capital,marketization level and information infrastructure can relieve the pressure on cost inputs and expand the scale of marginal benefits,thus strengthening the productivity effect of the smart logistics and breaking the "productivity paradox".(3)In terms of supply optimization,the smart logistics can improve its own performance by alleviating the mismatch of capital.However,this may come at the expense of the optimal allocation of labor factors,leading to an intensification of the "double division" of labor and capital factors allocation.In the cases where the smart level of logistics industry is low,it will inhibit high-end technological innovation and promote low-end technological innovation,presenting the situation where logistics technological innovation is "locked" at the low-end.It is only when the level of high-end technological innovation improves that it can play a sustainable role in promoting the performance of the logistics industry.(4)In terms of demand traction,the smart logistics can improve its performance by expanding the scale of logistics demand and optimizing the structure of logistics demand.However,solely expanding the scale of logistics demand to enhance the logistics industry’s performance is not a sustainable approach.Rather,the focus should shift from "scale expansion" to "structure optimization".The main channel of the relationship between the smart logistics and its performance is the integration transmission mechanism,which is led by the manufacturing industry.By stimulating the manufacturing industry to generate a greater demand for logistics services,the logistics industry is driven to improve its quality,reduce costs and increase efficiency.This,in turn,broadens the pathway to achieving the demand-induced effect.(5)In terms of supply and demand synergy,with the continuous enhancement of regional human capital,the hastened process of marketization,and the improvement of information infrastructure,the impact of industrial agglomeration transmission mechanism will become increasingly pronounced,culminating in the manifestation of a "virtual-real" agglomeration mode.The improvement of the smart logistics in the region and neighboring regions will serve to promote market integration,thereby improving its performance.