Study of the Impact of Digital Transformation Policies on the Innovative Performance of Manufacturing Firms

Digital transformation is a new engine for manufacturing enterprises to break through innovation, and digital transformation policies can effectively stimulate the homogeneity, reshaping and available utilization of digital technologies, empowering the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing enterprises, thus playing a crucial role in the innovation performance of manufacturing enterprises. However, most of the studies still remain in the theoretical level of qualitative analysis, treating government policies and innovation performance as a “black box” of inputs and outputs, without revealing their key mechanisms. Therefore, analysing how government policy affects innovation performance is crucial for promoting the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. Based on this, Regarding the theories of technological innovation, government intervention, and dynamic capability, we construct a “digital transformation policy-digital transformation state-organizational resilience-exploratory innovation behaviour-innovation performance” model and apply PLS-SEM to analyse the influence of each factor on the innovation performance of manufacturing enterprises in an exploratory way. The results reveal the following. (a) Digital transformation policies significantly stimulate the innovation performance of manufacturing enterprises. (b) The digital transformation state is the most direct influencing factor on the innovation performance of manufacturing enterprises, with policy support playing an important supporting role. (c) Although organizational resilience cannot directly affect innovation performance, it plays an important role in the mechanism of innovation performance influence and is the precursor of exploratory innovation behaviour, which plays a key role in influencing innovation performance. (d) The digital transformation state, organizational resilience, and exploratory innovation behaviour play a chain mediating role in the relationship between digital transformation policies and manufacturing firms’ innovation performance. The findings of this study reveal the process of the influence process of digital transformation policies on the innovation performance of manufacturing enterprises and provide a reference basis for the government to formulate policies to promote the accelerated growth of innovation performance.