IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v78y2025ics1544612325004805.html

Development of corporate artificial intelligence and the quality of export products

Author

Listed:
  • Liu, Jiaqi
  • Qin, Chuan
  • Chu, Xiaojing

Abstract

This study examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the quality of export products. Using data from 5,274 Chinese firms from 2003 to 2015, we demonstrate that corporate AI development significantly enhances export product quality by facilitating quality certification, as confirmed by several robustness tests. Moreover, the impact of AI demonstrates significant heterogeneity across different firm types. State-owned enterprises, manufacturing firms, and exporters aiming for developed markets and high-tech industries benefit more from AI development in terms of product quality improvement. These findings provide strong empirical evidence that firms must develop AI-driven strategies. Furthermore, they offer valuable insights for policymakers seeking to boost China's export competitiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Jiaqi & Qin, Chuan & Chu, Xiaojing, 2025. "Development of corporate artificial intelligence and the quality of export products," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:78:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325004805
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.107217
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325004805
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.107217?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhou, Huiyang & Wang, Ruzhou & Zhang, Xiyu & Chang, Minyen, 2024. "The impact of digital technology adoption on corporate supply chain concentration: Evidence from patent analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Daron Acemoglu & Tarek A. Hassan & Ahmed Tahoun, 2018. "The Power of the Street: Evidence from Egypt’s Arab Spring," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(1), pages 1-42.
    3. Xiaohui Xu & Chenchen Tian, 2025. "Does artificial intelligence improve the quality of export products? Evidence from China," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 9-13, January.
    4. Zhang, Hongsheng & Liu, Qingqing & Wei, Yueling, 2023. "Digital product imports and export product quality: Firm-level evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Brandt, Loren & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Yifan, 2012. "Creative accounting or creative destruction? Firm-level productivity growth in Chinese manufacturing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 339-351.
    6. Christian Broda & David E. Weinstein, 2006. "Globalization and the Gains From Variety," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 541-585.
    7. Elhanan Helpman & Marc Melitz & Yona Rubinstein, 2008. "Estimating Trade Flows: Trading Partners and Trading Volumes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(2), pages 441-487.
    8. Richard Baldwin & James Harrigan, 2011. "Zeros, Quality, and Space: Trade Theory and Trade Evidence," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 60-88, May.
    9. Matthieu Crozet & Keith Head & Thierry Mayer, 2012. "Quality Sorting and Trade: Firm-level Evidence for French Wine," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(2), pages 609-644.
    10. Amit K. Khandelwal & Peter K. Schott & Shang-Jin Wei, 2013. "Trade Liberalization and Embedded Institutional Reform: Evidence from Chinese Exporters," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2169-2195, October.
    11. Yumei Lin & Shanlang Lin & Xiaowan Wang & Jian Wu, 2021. "Does institutional quality matter for export product quality? Evidence from China," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(7), pages 1077-1100, October.
    12. repec:hal:pseose:hal-00610947 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Zhe & Yang, Huiyu & Zhang, Tingting, 2025. "Impact of enterprise artificial intelligence development on human capital structure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    2. Fan, Haichao & Lai, Edwin L.-C. & Li, Yao Amber, 2015. "Credit constraints, quality, and export prices: Theory and evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 390-416.
    3. Ou, Xiaojing & Zhao, Weikang & Zheng, Zhiqiang & Mohiuddin, Muhammad, 2025. "Towards green trade: Digital economy and export quality of green products," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    4. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/dambferfb7dfprc9m01g1j1k2 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Ina C. Jäkel & Allan Sørensen, 2020. "Quality‐cum‐price sorting," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 1346-1370, May.
    6. Curzi, Daniele & Pacca, Lucia, 2015. "Price, quality and trade costs in the food sector," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 147-158.
    7. Daniele Curzi & Martijn Huysmans, 2022. "The Impact of Protecting EU Geographical Indications in Trade Agreements," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 364-384, January.
    8. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/dambferfb7dfprc9m01g1j1k2 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Alfonso Irarrazabal & Andreas Moxnes & Luca David Opromolla, 2015. "The Tip of the Iceberg: A Quantitative Framework for Estimating Trade Costs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(4), pages 777-792, October.
    10. Chen, Natalie & Juvenal, Luciana, 2016. "Quality, trade, and exchange rate pass-through," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 61-80.
    11. Chen, Natalie & Juvenal, Luciana, 2022. "Markups, quality, and trade costs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. Francesco Guerra, 2023. "How taste proximity affects consumer quality valuation of imported varieties: Evidence from the French food sector," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(9), pages 2857-2890, September.
    13. Liang Chen & Garrett Johnson & Yao Luo, 2015. "Great and Small Walls of China: Distance & Chinese E-Commerce," Working Papers 15-14, NET Institute.
    14. Agbekponou, Kossi-Messanh & Cheptea, Angela & Latouche, Karine, 2022. "Quality upgrading and position in global value chains," 2022: Transforming Global Value Chains, December 11-13, Clearwater Beach, FL 339411, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    15. Giordano, Claire & Lopez-Garcia, Paloma, 2019. "Firm heterogeneity and trade in EU countries: a cross-country analysis," Occasional Paper Series 225, European Central Bank.
    16. Esposito, Federico, 2022. "Demand risk and diversification through international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    17. Chen, Natalie & Novy, Dennis, 2008. "International Trade Integration: A Disaggregated Approach," CEPR Discussion Papers 7103, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Mario Larch & Pehr-Johan Norbäck & Steffen Sirries & Dieter M. Urban, 2016. "Heterogeneous Firms, Globalisation and the Distance Puzzle," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(9), pages 1307-1338, September.
    19. Holger Gorg & Laszlo Halpern & Balazs Murakozy, 2010. "Why Do Within Firm-Product Export Prices Differ across Markets?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1003, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    20. Bing Li & Linyue Li & Rou Li & Yunsong Yue, 2023. "Internet and firms’ exports and imports: Firm level evidence from China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 835-872, March.
    21. Brambilla, Irene & Porto, Guido G., 2016. "High-income export destinations, quality and wages," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 21-35.
    22. Yuping Deng & Yanrui Wu & Helian Xu, 2019. "Environmental Regulation and Export Product Quality: Evidence from Chinese Firms," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 19-14, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:78:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325004805. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.