Government subsidies and industrial chain resilience: Evidence from Chinese resource-based enterprises

As a crucial means for government intervention in economic activities, whether government subsidies can enhance the industrial chain resilience of resource-based enterprises remains uncertain. This study initially defines the connotation of industrial chain resilience from three aspects: optimizing supply-demand matching, stabilizing supply-demand relationships, and improving supply quality. On this basis, the study matches the “supplier-customer” data of resource-based enterprises, and constructs an econometric framework to analyze how downstream subsidies influence upstream industrial resilience and their transmission process. Empirical test reveals a significant U-shaped relationship between government subsidies and the industrial chain resilience of resource-based enterprises. The sample mean is situated to the right of the inflection point of the U curve, showing that it is currently in a stage where government subsidies enhance the resilience of the industrial chain. The above results are still valid after considering endogeneity and conducting a series of robustness tests. Furthermore, mechanism test indicates that government subsidies enhance supply management efficiency by alleviating supplier financing constraints, increase customer dependence by raising customer income levels, and boost supplier product quality through R&D team expansion, thereby enhancing the industrial chain resilience of resource-based enterprises. Additionally, the spillover effects of subsidies are more pronounced in small and medium-sized suppliers, state-owned suppliers and customers with greater market influence. This research greatly enriches the industrial chain security theory and offers data support for raising subsidies to strengthen the industrial chain resilience.