Global Value Chains, Digital Economy, and Upgrading of China’s Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

This study utilized panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2006 to 2020 to investigate the impact of the digital economy on the upgrading of the manufacturing industry’s global value chain. Two types of spatial weighting matrices were used to construct SAR, SEM, SAC, and SDM models. The results revealed that technological innovation plays a direct mediating role in the upgrading of the manufacturing industry, and the global value chain has a positive regulatory effect on the relationship between the digital economy and the manufacturing industry’s upgrading. Under the economic distance spatial weighting matrix, the spatial spillover effect of the digital economy on the manufacturing industry’s global value chain is not significant, whereas, under the geographic distance spatial weighting matrix, the digital economy has a positive and significant spatial spillover effect. The SDM model showed the best explanatory effect. This implies that geographic spatial dependence has a significant impact on the upgrading of the manufacturing industry’s industrial structure, and it is positively influenced by nearby provinces. Understanding the impact mechanism and spatial spillover effects of the digital economy on the manufacturing industry’s upgrading can help promote efficient, fair, and balanced regional development. It can also aid in constructing a new domestic and international “dual circulation” development pattern that evolves with the global manufacturing value chain, sharing the dividends of the digital economy’s impact on the global value chain’s development.

Digital economy drives regional industrial structure upgrading: Empirical evidence from China’s comprehensive big data pilot zone policy

“…Second, mechanism analysis reveals that the digital economy promotes industrial structure upgrading through the technological innovation and financial deepening effects. Scholars generally focus on the intermediary role of technological innovation on industrial structure upgrading [15,16,22]. While we do find this, we also show that the financial deepening effect another mediator of the influence of the digital economy on industrial structure upgrading.…”

“…Some scholars analyze its impact on the green total factor productivity of the textile and garment industry, and the double mediating effect of the rationalization and advancement of industrial structure [21]. Others reveal that technological innovation has a direct mediating effect on manufacturing upgrading, and that global value chains have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the digital economy and manufacturing upgrading [22]. Kim and Park found the key role of the ICT industry in the global network as well as the ICT industry's facilitation of the information of other important non-ICT industries [23].…”

“…population of provincial capitals: cities with an urban resident population of 10 million or more are classified as megacities (including Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Tianjin), 5-10 million are classified as megalopolis (including Hubei, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shandong, Hunan, Heilongjiang, Henan, and Yunnan), and less than 5 million are classified as large cities (including Guangxi, Hebei, Shanxi, Guizhou, Anhui, Xinjiang, Fujian, Jilin, Jiangxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Hainan, Qinghai, and Ningxia). Models ( 20)- (22) in Table 6 report the results for megacities, megalopolis, and large cities, respectively. Overall, the policy significantly promotes industrial structure upgrading more in megacities than in megalopolis, while it is negative but insignificant for large cities.…”

Value Chain Digitalization, Global Value Chain Embeddedness, and Distributed Innovation in Value Chains

“…An alternative stream of literature focuses on developing new theoretical frameworks for digital innovation and entrepreneurial management in the digital age [33,54,55]. Another strand examines the role of digital technology in GVC embeddedness, positing that digital technology application can alter firm participation, labor division, and locations in GVCs [30,[56][57][58][59][60].…”

The Influencing Factors and Realization Path of Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading in Northeast China Driven by Digital Economy

“…The development of digital infrastructure has also prompted enterprises to reorganize the internal management structure, making the traditional manufacturing industry gradually intelligent. From the perspective of industry, digital infrastructure construction has helped the industry break the space constraints, and real-time information transmission has helped the manufacturing industry to form a cluster innovation advantage to a certain extent [2]. Therefore, the first hypothesis is proposed: the digital economy has a positive effect on the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry.…”