How Does Digital Transformation Affect Substantial Innovation in Manufacturing? Based on the Perspectives of “Digital Empowerment” and “Digital Divide”
Abstract：Innovation is a vital driving force for China to advance from a major manufacturing country to a powerful manufacturing country. However, current research, which tends to focus on specific application scenarios in manufacturing, still needs to be further explored, such as the issues as to whether digital transformation will enable substantial innovation in manufacturing, whether the digital transformation will bring “digital dividends” or create a “digital divide”. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: (1) Digital transformation will empower substantial innovation in the manufactural field. This study, through text-mining methods, highlights the feature of “smart manufacturing” and constructs a digital transformation index. Invention patents better reflect the “qualitative change” feature of corporate innovation and are important indicators of substantial innovation. Based on the invention patents, this study also extends the measurement of substantial innovation through two dimensions of breakthrough innovation and generic innovation. Based on the construction of new indicators, empirical analyses such as fixed panels, Tobit models, Poisson models, and negative binomial models have found that the digital transformation has promoted substantial innovation in manufacturing, helping to break the current “quantity-over-quality” innovation trap in China; (2) Digital transformation empowers substantial innovation in manufacturing through channels such as increasing R & D investment, reducing corporate operating costs, enhancing supply chain discourse power, and promoting joint innovation. The inventory turnover rate in manufacturing is generally low, and the research has also found that inventory costs, an essential part of corporate operating costs, are an important channel through which the digital transformation influences corporate substantial innovation. This study further delves deeply into supply chain discourse power and finds that upstream supply chain discourse power is an important channel through which the digital transformation affects substantial innovation in manufacturing; (3)There is a “digital divide” in the contribution of digital transformation to the innovation in the manufactural field. Regionally, the impact of the digital transformation on the innovation in the manufacturing industry is more pronounced in the eastern regions and non-traditional industrial bases, exacerbating regional imbalances in the innovation to some extent. The new infrastructure and marketized regional differences are important reasons for the regional imbalance in innovation during digital transformation. The research has also found that digital transformation has a greater impact on innovation in technology-intensive industries, industries with high innovation levels, industries with high investment in industrial robots, larger-scale enterprises, and enterprises with strong risk tolerance.
Compared to existing literature, the main innovations of this paper include: (1) Enriching related research on the microeconomic performance of digital transformation. After extending the measurement of digital transformation indicators and substantial corporate innovation, it is found that digital transformation is more consistent with substantive innovation in manufacturing; (2) Based on the manufacturing scenario, this paper enriches current research on how digital transformation affects innovation mechanisms. This study focuses on a more in-depth investigation of the channels through which digital transformation affects innovation, such as inventory costs and supply chain discourse power, which are closely related to manufacturing; (3) Enriching the related research on the “digital divide”. This study systematically analyzes the regional imbalance in the innovation brought about by the digital transformation and its logical formation, and it also studies the impact of corporate digital transformation on different industries and different sizes of enterprises within manufacturing.
肖翔 王晋梅 董香书. 数字化转型如何影响制造业实质性创新？——基于“数字赋能”与“数字鸿沟”的视角[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 0, (): 1-.
Xiao Xiang Wang Jinmei Dong Xiangshu. How Does Digital Transformation Affect Substantial Innovation in Manufacturing? Based on the Perspectives of “Digital Empowerment” and “Digital Divide”. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 0, (): 1-.
