Smart Manufacturing Promotes High-Quality Development of Enterprises in China

Smart manufacturing is the core technology of the new industrial revolution and plays a crucial role in promoting high-quality development of enterprises. By using the panel dataset from 2015 to 2022 in China and applying text analysis methods to measure the level of smart manufacturing, we examine the impact of smart manufacturing on enterprises’ high-quality development. The empirical results find that smart manufacturing significantly promotes high-quality development of enterprises, and this finding remains robust after high-dimensional fixed effects, instrumental variable, PSM-DID, and other robustness tests. Mechanism analysis indicates that smart manufacturing promotes enterprises’ high-quality development by reducing operating costs, enhancing capacity utilization, and improving technological innovation. Cross-sectional analysis reveals that the promoting effect is more obvious in manufacturing, high-tech, and labor-intensive enterprises. Expanded analysis reveals that smart manufacturing also enhances ESG performance by promoting green technological innovation and productivity. This study enriches the research on the economic effects of smart manufacturing, offering substantial theoretical and practical implications for improving corporate efficiency and quality.