Does Industrial Robot Application Promote the Integrated Development of Manufacturing and Services？ Evidence from Input Servitization of China's Manufacturing Firms
GAO Xiang, ZHANG Min, LIU Qiren
School of International Business and Economics, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics; School of Economics and Trade, Hunan University; School of Economics and Statistics, Guangzhou University, School of Business, Nanjing University
Summary:
With a new round of technological revolution and industrial reform, the global manufacturing industry is changing from a “single production” mode to a “production+service” mode. Modern industrial development focuses on integrating the manufacturing and service industries. Therefore, it is important to understand how to accelerate the process of integrating the two industries to enhance the core competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry, build a modern industrial system and achieve high-quality economic development. Industrial robots are being increasingly used in production. Undoubtedly, the introduction of industrial robots will have a profound impact on the process of integrating the two industries in China. However, not many studies have examined the impact of industrial robots on integrating the two industries in China; this study seeks to fill this gap. First, this study uses data from the China Industrial Enterprise and China Customs Trade databases and the Inter-country Input-Output Tables published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to measure the service value added of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. The rate of service value added at the enterprise level is divided into the domestic service value added rate and foreign service value added rate, according to the enterprise using the service elements in the source country, to measure the input level of service or manufacturing enterprises and further international federation of robot docking nation-year-industry aspects of statistical data of industrial robots. On this basis, this study investigates the effect of industrial robots on integration of the two industries. The results show that industrial robots significantly increase the service value added rate of Chinese manufacturing enterprises, but this increase is mainly achieved by promoting the use of foreign services and inhibiting the use of domestic services. The results of the heterogeneity test show that the effect of industrial robots on integration of the two industries is mainly concentrated in processing trade enterprises; enterprises in the Eastern region; foreign investments; enterprises in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan; and labor-intensive and technology-intensive enterprises. The effect of industrial robots on integration of the two industries is mainly achieved by increasing technological innovation and production efficiency and extending the production chain, while human capital investment has a negative substitution effect. Finally, this study also discusses the influence of industrial robots on the factor substitution and industry diffusion effects in the integration of the two industries. This study makes the following contributions. First, it uses enterprise data in China and systematically tests the influence of industrial robots on integration of the two industries by constructing Batik instrumental variables and adopting the propensity score matching method after overcoming potential endogeneity. Second, it explores trade added value accounting and the double advantage of micro measurement based on the combination of macro to micro measurement. Effective utilization of large amounts of information on industry departments and industrial enterprises can be used to build a measure for companies on the basis of the characteristics and source of a service, dual trade structure and other factors. This overcomes the deficiency of neglecting the individual characteristics of enterprises that manufacture inputs. Third, the internal mechanism and the differentiation effect of robots on integrating the two industries are analyzed deeply, and the characteristics of the effects of industrial robots on the service-oriented transformation of manufacturing enterprises are discussed. Fourth, based on the conditions in China, this study finds that industrial robots in processing trade enterprises have significant elements of domestic service rather than foreign service, and the application of industrial robots significantly promotes the integration and development of two-industry manufacturing processes through industry spread and diffusion effects between industries.
高翔, 张敏, 刘啟仁. 工业机器人应用促进了“两业融合”发展吗?——来自中国制造企业投入服务化的证据[J]. 金融研究, 2022, 509(11): 58-76.
GAO Xiang, ZHANG Min, LIU Qiren. Does Industrial Robot Application Promote the Integrated Development of Manufacturing and Services？ Evidence from Input Servitization of China's Manufacturing Firms. Journal of Financial Research, 2022, 509(11): 58-76.
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