价值链数字化能产生创新赋能效应吗?——来自中国制造企业的微观证据

Can Digitize Value Chain Enable Innovation?:Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises

价值链数字化赋予企业形成以数字为关键要素的新的价值创造函数,以数字化、智能化改变价值创新方式,使能创新主体的交互链接结构网络化,降低创新风险,从而赋能创新绩效。既有研究缺乏对企业价值链数字化和价值链数字化广度与企业创新绩效因果关系的微观证据。研究基于世界银行中国制造企业微观调查数据,考察企业价值链数字化和价值链数字化广度延展产生的创新赋能效应,明晰其赋能机制。研究发现:(1)企业价值链数字化和价值链数字化广度延展能显著提升企业创新绩效,在考虑内生性问题后,该结论依然成立;(2)企业价值链数字化和价值链数字化广度均可通过三类中介机制作用于其创新绩效:一是信息共享效应,具体为信息交互与信息交互广度延展;二是知识溢出效应,具体为开放式创新和开放式创新广度延展;三是资源效应,具体为融资约束缓解。(3)异质性分析结果表明,价值链数字化和价值链数字化广度增加对小企业的创新赋能边际影响更大,而对企业开展各类创新活动产生赋能效应无显著差异。

The digital China strategy has also been endowed with the role of a new driving force for innovation in the historical period when China has embarked on a new journey to comprehensively build a modern socialist country.All parts of the country are drawing blueprints for the digital economy,vigorously promoting the digitalization of industries,and helping traditional enterprises to upgrade and rebuild.In fact,the value creation of any enterprise is embedded in one or more value chains,and the digital transformation of enterprises inevitably involves the application of digital technology in the value chain.The application of digital technology in the value chain creates the possibility for enterprises to improve innovation performance.The digitization of the value chain makes the enterprises to form a new value creation function with digital as the key element,change the way of value innovation by digitization and intelligence,enable the interactive link structure of the innovation subjects to be networked and reduce innovation risks,which empower innovation.However,there is no literature on digital empowerment effect and its mechanism from the perspective of enterprise value chain,and it is urgent to integrate digital technology characteristics into theoretical mechanism construction;And lack micro evidence on the causal relationship between the digitalization of the value chain and the breadth of the digitalization of the value chain and firm innovation performance.In the context of industrial digitalization,based on the inherent characteristics of digital technology,the research constructs a theoretical analysis framework of value chain digitalization,value chain digitalization breadth and enterprise innovation performance from four dimensions of value creation function,innovation mode,innovation subject structure and innovation incentive.Using the World Bank's micro-survey data of Chinese manufacturing companies,the research constructs the measurement indicators of the digital value chain and value chain width,examines the innovation enabling effects of the digitalization of the value chain and the increase of the digitalization breadth of the value chain,clarifies its enabling mechanism,and explores the heterogeneity of enabling effects in different scales and different innovative activity scenarios.The results show that:(1)The digitization of the enterprises value chain and the extension of the digitization of the value chain can significantly improve the enterprise innovation performance.After considering the endogenous problems,this conclusion is still valid;(2)The digitalization of the value chain and the digitalization breadth of the value chain affect the innovation performance of enterprises through three mediating mechanisms:The first is the effect of information sharing,specifically information interaction and information interaction breadth increase;The second is the effect of knowledge spillover,namely open innovation and the breadth extension of open innovation;The third is the resource effect,which is the financing constraints mitigation.(3)The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the digitalization of value chain and the increase of digitalization breadth of value chain have a greater marginal impact on the innovation empowerment of small firms,while there is no significant difference in the enabling effects of various innovation activities carried out by enterprises.The policy and management implications of this research mainly focus on two levels.First,for the government,it is necessary to innovate the policy supply system related to promoting the digitalization of industries and the digitalization transformation of micro enterprises,so as to provide stable policy expectation and business environment for enterprises to accelerate the digitalization transformation of value chain.Specifically,at the level of industrial policy,an industrial policy system combining selectivity and functionality should be constructed.Secondly,accelerate the construction of digital standard and digital regulation policy system.Finally,crack the key core problem in the process of digital technology innovation.Second,for the enterprise,they need to rethink the enabling effect of digital technology in the process of value chain digitalization,clarify how the digital technology is embedded and its depth and level of empowerment under the embedding of digital strategy,and capture the true enabling effect of digital technology.Hereby,they can avoid the problems such as proliferation of digital strategies and insignificant value creation effects.