Does Intelligent Manufacturing Improve Enterprise Innovation Efficiency? An Explanation Based on the Enterprise Life Cycle Theory

Abstract

Intelligent manufacturing inherently embodies the techno-economic characteristics commonly associated with general information technologies, such as permeability, substitutability, and synergy. Yet when deployed in manufacturing, its adoption typically entails prolonged experimentation and validation, giving rise to delays and heterogeneous outcomes in both implementation and performance. Much of the existing literature asks whether intelligent manufacturing enhances enterprises’ innovation efficiency, fueling broader debates over productivity. The more fundamental question, however, is when and for which types of enterprises intelligent manufacturing enhances innovation efficiency—that is, the question of its effectiveness. Based on data from A-share listed manufacturing companies over the period 2010–2023, this paper examines the impact of intelligent manufacturing on enterprises’ innovation efficiency from the perspective of the enterprise life cycle. The empirical results show that intelligent manufacturing, on the whole, improves enterprises’ innovation efficiency. From the life cycle perspective, intelligent manufacturing exerts a positive effect on enterprises in the mature stage, but has no significant impact on enterprises in the growth or decline stages. Differences in innovation incentives, R&D capabilities, and organizational characteristics across life cycle stages are the main reasons for this pattern. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that intelligent manufacturing improves innovation efficiency among mature-stage non-state owned enterprises, high-technology enterprises, and technology-intensive enterprises, while exerting no significant effect on other types or stages of enterprises. In terms of the underlying mechanism, intelligent manufacturing enhances enterprises’ innovation efficiency by strengthening their knowledge absorptive capacity. The findings of this paper offer policy implications for promoting intelligent manufacturing in support of boosting China’s strength in manufacturing.

Keywords

intelligent manufacturing / innovation efficiency / life cycle theory / manufacturing / knowledge absorptive capacity

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Higher Education Press