How does digital-intelligent policy synergy foster ambidextrous innovation of manufacturing enterprises? The mediating role of resource endowments

Abstract

This study uses manufacturing enterprise data spanning 2011–2023 to explore whether and how the synergistic effects of digital and intelligent policies promote ambidextrous innovation in enterprises based on the resource-based view. This study builds a quasi-natural experiment using the Broadband China Policy (BCP) and the Intelligent Manufacturing Policy (IMP) and drawing on the theory of the resource-based view to discuss the impacts and influencing mechanisms of policy synergy on enterprises' ambidextrous innovation. A difference-in-difference with a double machine learning technique and a four-stage mediation effect model are applied to complete the empirical tests. (1) The synergy of digital and intelligent policies notably enhances corporate ambidextrous innovation; (2) resource accumulation, utilization and allocation act as mediating mechanisms; (3) this effect is more pronounced among state-owned enterprises, firms in the growth and maturity stages, large enterprises and non-high-tech enterprises and (4) policy synergy yields greater benefits than any single policy alone, with the sequence of BCP followed by IMP being more effective than the reverse order. This study theoretically explains how the synergy of digital-intelligent policies can promote manufacturing enterprises' ambidextrous innovation by revealing the mediating effects of resource accumulation, utilization and allocation and determines the conditions for amplifying these effects. This research enriches the relevant literature on enterprises' ambidextrous innovation, resource endowments and policy-driven innovation and provides implications for managers and policymakers who seek to use digital-intelligent policy synergy to promote ambidextrous innovation.