Intelligent Manufacturing, Industrial Structure, and Competitive Advantage: An Analysis Based on the Resource-Based View

Abstract

Smart manufacturing combines the technologies of artificial intelligence and the manufacturing industry, which stimulates the modernization and synchronization of both internal and external resources and, therefore, transforms the competitive advantages of the firms. Nevertheless, the existing literature in this area has not been able to clarify the interactions between the current resource endowment of firms and intelligent manufacturing innovations in the creation of competitive advantage, as well as it has not been able to determine the conditions of the boundaries of effects. Basing on the resource-based view (RBV) theory, the given study centers on the issue of the improvement of the competitive advantage of the firms through intelligent manufacturing in terms of substitutability and complementarity of the resources and the role of the industrial structure as the mediator. Based on empirical evidence of the A-share listed manufacturing firms in China (2011 2022), the present study shows that intelligent manufacturing contributes remarkably to the competitive advantage of the enterprises, which is increased by the greater extent of industrial structure supererogation and rationalisation. According to mechanism tests, intelligent manufacturing increases competitive advantages primarily through the source of enterprise production efficiency and information efficiency. Tests of heterogeneity indicate that the role of intelligent manufacturing on competitive advantage is heterogeneous to varying degrees of regional digitalisation and enterprise cost pressure. The main value of this research would be that it extended the theoretical view of related studies to understand the inherent transmission process of the concept of intelligent manufacturing-resource substitution and complementarity-competitive advantage. Moreover, this study, through the introduction of various contextual variables, i.e., industrial structure, regional digitalisation rates, and the cost pressure faced by firms, systematically considers the boundary conditions under which intelligent manufacturing influences firm competitive advantage. The work expands the application of the RBV theory in the area of intelligent manufacturing and offers information to companies that pursue the strategy of intelligent manufacturing and local government that optimises industrial conditions.