The Impact of Intelligent Manufacturing on Corporate Investment Efficiency: A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China's Intelligent Manufacturing Pilot Program

The Impact of Intelligent Manufacturing on Corporate Investment Efficiency: A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China's Intelligent Manufacturing Pilot Program | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The Impact of Intelligent Manufacturing on Corporate Investment Efficiency: A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China's Intelligent Manufacturing Pilot Program Hao Lu, Zhiliang Yang, Yazhi Zhao, Junhong Du This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7513171/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract In the context of current manufacturing transformation and upgrading, intelligent manufacturing, as a representative of emerging technologies, requires urgent development. This paper utilizes the implementation of China's intelligent manufacturing pilot program as a quasi-natural experiment. It employs the difference-in-differences method to investigate the impact of intelligent manufacturing on corporate investment efficiency and its underlying mechanisms. The research findings demonstrate that promoting intelligent manufacturing significantly enhances corporate investment efficiency. Mechanism analysis reveals that intelligent manufacturing primarily improves investment efficiency through two channels: reducing corporate costs and fostering corporate innovation. Further analysis indicates that intelligent manufacturing mainly enhances investment efficiency by curbing corporate over-investment, while simultaneously increasing innovation investment and restraining fixed asset investment. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the improvement in investment efficiency is particularly pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises, large-scale enterprises, and labor-intensive enterprises. The findings of this study provide guidance and insights for policy formulation in the next stage of intelligent manufacturing development and corporate investment strategies. JEL codes: O31 O32 Q55 J38 E22 D25 Business and commerce/Business and management Social science/Business and management Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing Intelligent manufacturing Investment efficiency Corporate costs Corporate innovation Over-investment Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7513171","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":539753116,"identity":"d3fbecfc-ace6-4c97-be3d-c57f74508991","order_by":0,"name":"Hao Lu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hao","middleName":"","lastName":"Lu","suffix":""},{"id":539753117,"identity":"1f62cb12-3f68-4604-a98c-f0b637721f2e","order_by":1,"name":"Zhiliang Yang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northwest Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhiliang","middleName":"","lastName":"Yang","suffix":""},{"id":539753118,"identity":"dd111a68-ee73-4fb7-9bff-a2a18fc74e33","order_by":2,"name":"Yazhi Zhao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yazhi","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhao","suffix":""},{"id":539753119,"identity":"ede6d230-bdb9-4130-bbf8-0fbd8d001e06","order_by":3,"name":"Junhong Du","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAsUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACxhkMBgwfGNhAbAPitQAxKVoYJBgMmHkgTCK1MM9u3iZt28aX2MDevE2CoeYOEQ6bc6xMOucMW2IDz7EyCYZjz4jQMiPHTDqnAqhFIsdMgrHhMJFaLAyAWuTfkKKFAWwLD9Fa0oote86wGbfxpBVbJBwjQovhjOSNN362HZPtZz+88caHGmK0NICpY5DITCCsgYFBHkLVEKN2FIyCUTAKRioAADTmM86uiI5EAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Xinjiang University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Junhong","middleName":"","lastName":"Du","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-09-02 04:23:24","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7513171/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7513171/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":95526906,"identity":"529a68d3-2341-4bcf-96b7-650087f436d2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-10 10:08:34","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":234340,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/489c1612ed796c8d90b8dd90.docx"},{"id":95526533,"identity":"04457263-bb35-488e-ab66-3faba74990e5","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-10 10:07:13","extension":"json","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":5531,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ecedeb3e1c4342ce9a44307c1b7e0099.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/b93c333a35e1efcdc36d7d78.json"},{"id":95410853,"identity":"32cdd62c-e952-4fb6-a4d6-16fdbe1bd086","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-07 18:55:51","extension":"xml","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":184665,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ecedeb3e1c4342ce9a44307c1b7e00991enriched.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/34863c47cafe7509346423bd.xml"},{"id":95410854,"identity":"83e1db2f-729d-4698-bac7-6c8d0e0338a0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-07 18:55:51","extension":"emf","order_by":3,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":43000,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.emf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/863a2e5e12432852e3c504cd.emf"},{"id":95410846,"identity":"55c1f517-8509-4a95-a234-d0089e762894","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-07 18:55:51","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":57500,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/50b1253d3b99c139f49740dd.png"},{"id":95527301,"identity":"a806da1b-389b-4be3-992c-299bbf4ba1cb","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-10 10:13:00","extension":"jpeg","order_by":5,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":65400,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"floatimage3.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/f7530a0379d405e02eeb57cc.jpeg"},{"id":95526894,"identity":"0544a724-464d-49a1-a3a6-1742c436a215","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-10 10:08:27","extension":"png","order_by":6,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":16108,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/53c083beea350f491adc1e27.png"},{"id":95526269,"identity":"28c7feaa-711b-41ae-a843-a5ec4559ada2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-10 10:06:40","extension":"png","order_by":7,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":17311,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/b402c7976e236404621c9f77.png"},{"id":95410847,"identity":"b40267f1-f837-42df-b4d5-c48735356d8b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-07 18:55:51","extension":"png","order_by":8,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":20130,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Onlinefloatimage3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/ae2d65c50037385fc652cec5.png"},{"id":95526840,"identity":"1ac2ab6e-5d46-445f-b229-0ba6a8d9d679","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-10 10:08:14","extension":"xml","order_by":9,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":177967,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ecedeb3e1c4342ce9a44307c1b7e00991structuring.xml","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/37ebca7b1d13e4afa533e7e3.xml"},{"id":95410855,"identity":"ebaeccc5-9156-4242-afd6-be3dc6307b7f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-07 18:55:51","extension":"html","order_by":10,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":198781,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"earlyproof.html","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1/0a27ed9de231d704649ebf59.html"},{"id":101943147,"identity":"32bb232c-de7a-4c15-be28-905712d95f08","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-05 09:40:46","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":586384,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7513171/v1_covered_0397ed9a-65f5-485d-9652-60fe6947668b.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The Impact of Intelligent Manufacturing on Corporate Investment Efficiency: A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China's Intelligent Manufacturing Pilot Program","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Intelligent manufacturing, Investment efficiency, Corporate costs, Corporate innovation, Over-investment","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7513171/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7513171/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eIn the context of current manufacturing transformation and upgrading, intelligent manufacturing, as a representative of emerging technologies, requires urgent development. This paper utilizes the implementation of China's intelligent manufacturing pilot program as a quasi-natural experiment. It employs the difference-in-differences method to investigate the impact of intelligent manufacturing on corporate investment efficiency and its underlying mechanisms. The research findings demonstrate that promoting intelligent manufacturing significantly enhances corporate investment efficiency. Mechanism analysis reveals that intelligent manufacturing primarily improves investment efficiency through two channels: reducing corporate costs and fostering corporate innovation. Further analysis indicates that intelligent manufacturing mainly enhances investment efficiency by curbing corporate over-investment, while simultaneously increasing innovation investment and restraining fixed asset investment. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the improvement in investment efficiency is particularly pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises, large-scale enterprises, and labor-intensive enterprises. The findings of this study provide guidance and insights for policy formulation in the next stage of intelligent manufacturing development and corporate investment strategies.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJEL codes: O31 O32 Q55 J38 E22 D25\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The Impact of Intelligent Manufacturing on Corporate Investment Efficiency: A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China's Intelligent Manufacturing Pilot Program","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-07 18:55:46","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7513171/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6188c6c4-dbc9-44aa-8d83-812b3d02c96e","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 7th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":57406884,"name":"Business and commerce/Business and management"},{"id":57406885,"name":"Social science/Business and management"},{"id":57406886,"name":"Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-04T17:55:23+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-07 18:55:46","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7513171","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7513171","identity":"rs-7513171","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}