Digitalization And Total Factor Productivity Improvement Of Manufacturing Enterprises: Micro Evidence From Chinese A-share Listed Companies

With the continuous expansion of the scale of the digital economy,the digital transformation of enterprises has become an inevitable trend.In the digital age,manufacturing enterprises should change the development model and activate the potential of digital elements.In reality,the manufacturing industry as a whole is facing the situation of " internal and external troubles ",the advantage of domestic demographic dividend has dropped sharply,the international trade environment is severe,and the new coronavirus epidemic and other multiple shocks,the traditional manufacturing model needs to be transformed and upgraded.This paper analyzes the impact of enterprise digitization on its total factor productivity and its transmission mechanism,in order to provide theoretical reference and empirical evidence for the realization of enterprise digital transformation and highquality economic development.By combing the literature on digitization and total factor productivity,this paper summarizes and deduces the influence direction and transmission mechanism of digitization on the total factor productivity of enterprises.The " digitization " keywords are captured by Python crawler technology to scale the digitization level,and the total factor productivity of enterprises is calculated by LP method.This paper empirically tests the impact of digitization on total factor productivity and its transmission mechanism,and examines the heterogeneous effects of different enterprise characteristics,factor-intensive and regional distribution enterprises.The specific conclusions are as follows:(1)Digitalization is conducive to improving the total factor productivity of enterprises.Using the unbalanced panel data of manufacturing A-share listed companies from 2000 to 2019,the empirical test results support this conclusion.(2)There are differences in the impact of digitization on total factor productivity at the enterprise,industry and regional levels.Based on different ownership and different scale enterprises,the promotion effect of digitization on the total factor productivity of enterprises is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises.From the perspective of different factor-intensive industries,whether it is labor-intensive enterprises or technologyintensive enterprises,digital transformation can significantly promote the growth of total factor productivity of enterprises,and has a better effect on labor-intensive enterprises.At the regional level,the promotion effect of digitization on the total factor productivity of enterprises is more significant in the eastern region;for the eastern coastal cities,the digitization of southern enterprises is more obvious in promoting the total factor productivity of enterprises.(3)Digitization affects the total factor productivity of enterprises by optimizing the internal mechanism of human capital structure,improving innovation output capacity and reducing transaction costs.That is:(a)Digitization can promote the growth of total factor productivity by adjusting the labor structure of enterprises.(b)Digitization can promote the improvement of total factor productivity by improving the innovation ability of enterprises and optimizing the production mode.(c)Digitization can positively affect the total factor productivity of enterprises by alleviating information asymmetry and saving transaction costs.Based on the research conclusions,this paper puts forward the following policy recommendations:(1)Continue to increase investment in digital infrastructure to help enterprises transform and upgrade digitally.Digital technology has obvious spillover effects.It is necessary to increase investment and construction of digital infrastructure and release digital dividends.(2)Implement differentiated transformation support policies to promote balanced and coordinated development of digitization.According to the transformation basis of different enterprises,the technical characteristics of the industry and the regional resource endowment,the differentiated and targeted transformation support policies are implemented to narrow the differences in economic development.(3)Promote the deep integration of industry-university-research and cultivate digital technology talents.In the process of digital transformation,it is necessary to ensure the continuous supply of digital talents,improve the level of human capital of labor force,and master cutting-edge technology and rich empirical knowledge.