Assessing the impact of digitization and servitization of manufacturing firms in the context of carbon emission reduction: Evidence from a microsurvey in China

In the context of carbon emission reduction, both servitization and digitalization of manufacturing enterprises are important ways to promote the high-quality development of manufacturing enterprises. The coordinated development of digitalization and servitization may provide a feasible path for enterprises to realize energy conservation and emission reduction across the value chain. Based on the 393 valid questionnaires issued by the Association of Manufacturing Enterprises and government agencies, this paper uses the methods of Grey Relational Analysis and Topsis to construct three major indicator systems of manufacturing enterprise service, digitalization and high-quality economic development. Based on the Cobb–Douglas production function regression analysis, the relevant assumptions involved in the model of promoting the service of manufacturing enterprises and the model of promoting the digitalization of manufacturing enterprises are verified. The empirical results show that, firstly, the digitalization capability of manufacturing enterprises can positively affect the servitization performance of manufacturing enterprises. Secondly, the digital capability of manufacturing enterprises has a significant positive impact on both breakthrough service innovation and incremental innovation of manufacturing enterprises. Thirdly, breakthrough service innovation and incremental service innovation play a partial mediating role. Fourthly, the degree of servitization of manufacturing enterprises has a significant positive impact on the digital demand of supporting customer behavior service business and supporting customer product service. There are three possible contributions of this paper. Firstly, it has further enriched and deepened the research on the interactive mechanism of digitalization and service of manufacturing enterprises. The second is to design a scientific and systematic evaluation system for the digitalization and service level of Chinese manufacturing enterprises, and measure and evaluate the coupling and coordination level of digitalization and service level of Chinese manufacturing enterprises based on this. Thirdly, it reveals the promotion of the coordinated development of digitalization and service in manufacturing enterprises to the high-quality development of manufacturing enterprises in China and puts forward that the coordinated development of digitalization and service in manufacturing enterprises is a way to promote the high-quality development of manufacturing enterprises.