IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pacfin/v91y2025ics0927538x25000897.html

Intelligent manufacturing and post-pandemic growth: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Yuchen
  • Yin, Jianjun
  • Gao, Wenlian

Abstract

This study explores the influence of intelligent manufacturing on the growth potential of enterprises in the post-pandemic era, specifically within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Our analysis indicates that enterprises equipped with advanced intelligent manufacturing capabilities exhibit enhanced growth capacity once pandemic restrictions are lifted. This positive correlation is largely attributed to their capacity for innovation as well as effective utilization of government subsidies. Notably, the beneficial effects of intelligent manufacturing are most pronounced among smaller, non-state-owned enterprises, as well as those with substantial cash reserves. These findings offer a fresh perspective on enterprise resilience and growth in the aftermath of a public health crisis, highlighting the critical role of intelligent manufacturing in facilitating economic recovery and shaping the future trajectory of businesses.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Yuchen & Yin, Jianjun & Gao, Wenlian, 2025. "Intelligent manufacturing and post-pandemic growth: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:91:y:2025:i:c:s0927538x25000897
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102752
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X25000897
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.pacfin.2025.102752?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. Xia, Yanchun & Qiao, Zhilin & Xie, Guanghua, 2022. "Corporate resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of digital finance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. James G. March, 1991. "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 71-87, February.
    3. Chan, Hing Kai & Griffin, James & Lim, Jia Jia & Zeng, Fangli & Chiu, Anthony S.F., 2018. "The impact of 3D Printing Technology on the supply chain: Manufacturing and legal perspectives," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 156-162.
    4. Papadopoulos, Thanos & Baltas, Konstantinos N. & Balta, Maria Elisavet, 2020. "The use of digital technologies by small and medium enterprises during COVID-19: Implications for theory and practice," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    5. R Maria del Rio-Chanona & Penny Mealy & Anton Pichler & François Lafond & J Doyne Farmer, 2020. "Supply and demand shocks in the COVID-19 pandemic: an industry and occupation perspective," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 36(Supplemen), pages 94-137.
    6. Li, Ling, 2018. "China's manufacturing locus in 2025: With a comparison of “Made-in-China 2025” and “Industry 4.0”," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 66-74.
    7. Cao, Xiaping & Cumming, Douglas & Zhou, Sili, 2020. "State ownership and corporate innovative efficiency," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    8. Ozdemir, Dilek & Sharma, Mahak & Dhir, Amandeep & Daim, Tugrul, 2022. "Supply chain resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Clay Dibrell & Peter S. Davis & Justin Craig, 2008. "Fueling Innovation through Information Technology in SMEs," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 203-218, April.
    10. Toni M. Whited & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Financial Constraints Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 531-559.
    11. Landon Kleis & Paul Chwelos & Ronald V. Ramirez & Iain Cockburn, 2012. "Information Technology and Intangible Output: The Impact of IT Investment on Innovation Productivity," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 42-59, March.
    12. Teece, David J., 2018. "Profiting from innovation in the digital economy: Enabling technologies, standards, and licensing models in the wireless world," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8), pages 1367-1387.
    13. Rüdiger Fahlenbrach & Kevin Rageth & René M Stulz, 2021. "How Valuable Is Financial Flexibility when Revenue Stops? Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis [The risk of being a fallen angel and the corporate dash for cash in the midst of COVID]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(11), pages 5474-5521.
    14. Babina, Tania & Fedyk, Anastassia & He, Alex & Hodson, James, 2024. "Artificial intelligence, firm growth, and product innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    15. Natalia Ortiz-de-Mandojana & Pratima Bansal, 2016. "The long-term benefits of organizational resilience through sustainable business practices," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1615-1631, August.
    16. Alexander W. Bartik & Marianne Bertrand & Zoe Cullen & Edward L. Glaeser & Michael Luca & Christopher Stanton, 2020. "The impact of COVID-19 on small business outcomes and expectations," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(30), pages 17656-17666, July.
    17. Demir, Ender & Ersan, Oguz, 2017. "Economic policy uncertainty and cash holdings: Evidence from BRIC countries," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 189-200.
    18. Iftikhar, Anas & Purvis, Laura & Giannoccaro, Ilaria, 2021. "A meta-analytical review of antecedents and outcomes of firm resilience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 408-425.
    19. Xi, Mengjie & Liu, Yang & Fang, Wei & Feng, Taiwen, 2024. "Intelligent manufacturing for strengthening operational resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: A dynamic capability theory perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    20. Gennaro Bernile & Vineet Bhagwat & P. Raghavendra Rau, 2017. "What Doesn't Kill You Will Only Make You More Risk-Loving: Early-Life Disasters and CEO Behavior," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(1), pages 167-206, February.
    21. Tian, Jiamian & Coreynen, Wim & Matthyssens, Paul & Shen, Lei, 2022. "Platform-based servitization and business model adaptation by established manufacturers," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    22. Eggers, Fabian, 2020. "Masters of disasters? Challenges and opportunities for SMEs in times of crisis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 199-208.
    23. Goel, Tirupam & Telegdy, Álmos & Banai, Ádám & Takáts, Előd, 2024. "Subsidy-driven firm growth: Does loan history matter? Evidence from a European Union subsidy program," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    24. Ding, Wenzhi & Levine, Ross & Lin, Chen & Xie, Wensi, 2021. "Corporate immunity to the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 802-830.
    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. Xu, Chongchong & Du, Anna Min & Lin, Boqiang, 2025. "Robot adoption and corporate supply chain efficiency: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 94(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. Efstathios Magerakis, 2025. "Industry differences and their influence on why companies retain cash: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 205-267, June.
    2. Omrane Guedhami & April Knill & William L. Megginson & Lemma W. Senbet, 2022. "The dark side of globalization: Evidence from the impact of COVID-19 on multinational companies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(8), pages 1603-1640, October.
    3. Gu, Leilei & Li, Jianjun & Ni, Xiaoran & Peng, Yuchao, 2023. "The long shadow beyond lockdown: Board chairs’ professional pandemic experiences and corporate investments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 522-541.
    4. Niu, Ruiyang & Chen, Lin & Jin, Liang & Xie, Guanghua & Zhao, Longfeng, 2024. "Does managerial bank relationship network matter corporate resilience? Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 855-877.
    5. Rehman, Obaid Ur & Wu, Kai & Liu, Jia, 2024. "COVID-19 exposure, financial flexibility, and corporate leverage adjustment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    6. Ting Feng & Zhongyi Xue, 2023. "The impact of government subsidies on corporate resilience: evidence from the COVID-19 shock," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4199-4221, December.
    7. Sumin Hu & Qi Zhu & Xia Zhao & Ziyue Xu, 2023. "Digital Finance and Corporate Sustainability Performance: Promoting or Restricting? Evidence from China’s Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-16, June.
    8. Hasan, Iftekhar & Politsidis, Panagiotis N. & Sharma, Zenu, 2021. "Global syndicated lending during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    9. Jin, Shaorong & Xiong, Ruoyu & Peng, Huan & Tang, Shiyu, 2025. "ESG performance and private enterprise resilience: Evidence from Chinese financial markets," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    10. Barry, John W. & Campello, Murillo & Graham, John R. & Ma, Yueran, 2022. "Corporate flexibility in a time of crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 780-806.
    11. Liang, Shangkun & Niu, Yuhao & Yang, Dan & Liu, Xuejuan, 2023. "Dividend payouts under a societal crisis: Financial constraints or signaling?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Bianco, Débora & Bueno, Adauto & Godinho Filho, Moacir & Latan, Hengky & Miller Devós Ganga, Gilberto & Frank, Alejandro G. & Chiappetta Jabbour, Charbel Jose, 2023. "The role of Industry 4.0 in developing resilience for manufacturing companies during COVID-19," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    13. Peng, Qing & Chen, Zhenhao & Li, Jie, 2025. "Financing constraints and the export partnerships with RCEP: Evidence from manufacturing firms in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    14. Chen, Joy & Cheng, Zijun & Gong, Robin Kaiji & Li, Jinlin, 2022. "Riding out the COVID-19 storm: How government policies affect SMEs in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    15. Sun, Yao & Xiong, Ding, 2025. "Supply chain finance and enterprise resilience: From the perspectives of resource integration and organizational governance," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    16. Wang, Dingqing & Liao, Hongwei & Wang, Xinyue, 2024. "The enabling effects of digital technology on the quality of firm development: Insights and implications," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    17. Gaspar, José-Miguel & Wang, Sumingyue & Xu, Liang, 2024. "Digitalization and the performance of non-technological firms: Evidence from the COVID-19 and natural disaster shocks," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Tugce Nuray Saka & Esther Hormiga & Jaume Valls-Pasola, 2025. "Crisis response strategies: a digital reluctance perspective," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 19(8), pages 2569-2607, August.
    19. Stornelli, Aldo & Ozcan, Sercan & Simms, Christopher, 2021. "Advanced manufacturing technology adoption and innovation: A systematic literature review on barriers, enablers, and innovation types," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(6).
    20. Li Long & Hanhan Wang, 2025. "Evaluating the Impact of Green Manufacturing on Corporate Resilience: A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on Chinese Green Factories," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-30, July.

    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:pacfin:v:91:y:2025:i:c:s0927538x25000897. 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/pacfin .

    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.