企业数字化转型中的“生产率悖论”——来自制造业上市公司的经验证据

The"Productivity Paradox"in Digital Transformation of Enterprises——Empirical Evidence from Listed Companies in the Manufacturing Industry

数字经济时代如何克服“生产率悖论”,促进制造业高质量发展是当前亟待解决的重大理论与现实问题。本文基于2010—2021年间中国制造业上市公司的研究表明:数字化转型水平与制造业企业全要素生产率存在U型关系,数字化转型初期存在“生产率悖论”。机制检验表明,创新策略选择和要素配置效率是导致数字化转型与全要素生产率U型关系的内生性根源,转型初期,数字化会降低企业的实质性创新水平和要素配置效率进而导致“生产率悖论”。拓展分析表明,较高的专业化和内部控制质量可以帮助企业及早摆脱“生产率悖论”区间,而当资本密集度过高或过低时,数字化转型与企业全要素生产率之间的递减性更加显著。因此如何合理地选择创新策略、提高要素配置效率、优化要素配置结构、强化专业化分工、构建完善的内部控制体系对于企业克服数字化转型中的“生产率悖论”至关重要。

How to overcome the"productivity paradox"and promote the high-quality development of manufacturing industry in the era of digital economy is a major theoretical and practical problem that needs to be solved.This paper shows that there is a U-shaped relationship between the level of digital transformation and the total factor productivity of manufacturing enterprises,and that there is a"productivity paradox"at the early stage of digital transformation,based on a study of listed companies in China's manufacturing industry during the period of 2010-2021.Mechanism tests show that innovation strategy choice and factor allocation efficiency are the endogenous causes of the U-shaped relationship between digital transformation and total factor productivity,and at the early stage of transformation,digitization reduces the level of substantive innovation and factor allocation efficiency of enterprises,leading to the"productivity paradox".Extended analysis shows that higher specialization and internal control quality can help firms get out of the"productivity paradox"zone early,and when capital intensity is too high or too low,the diminishing relationship between digital transformation and total factor productivity is more significant.Therefore,how to reasonably choose innovation strategy,improve the efficiency of factor allocation,optimize the structure of factor allocation,strengthen the specialization of division of labor,and build a perfect internal control system are crucial for enterprises to overcome the"productivity paradox"in digital transformation.