Exploring the Mechanism of How the Market-Based Allocation of Data Elements Affects the Supply Chain Resilience of Manufacturing Enterprises: A Perspective on Data as a Production Factor

The escalating frequency of natural disasters and political conflicts has heightened focus on industrial supply chain resilience and security, making corporate supply chain resilience enhancement a critical global concern. Data, as a novel production factor, presents an effective pathway to fortify supply chain resilience. This paper investigates data factor marketisation by constructing a theoretical framework linking it with manufacturing enterprise supply chain resilience. Using China’s Big Data Comprehensive Experimental Zone establishment as a quasi-natural experiment, we analyzed data from Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms spanning 2003–2023 to empirically validate our theoretical analysis. Our findings reveal that data factor marketisation significantly enhances manufacturing enterprise supply chain resilience, as confirmed using rigorous robustness checks. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that data factor marketisation improves resilience by reducing information asymmetries, boosting management efficiency, mitigating supply chain reliance, and enhancing supply chain financing. Heterogeneity analysis indicates stronger positive impacts in non-state-owned enterprises, smaller firms, companies with advanced data capabilities, non-digital-intensive businesses, enterprises with substantial supply chain funding needs, and those in regions with strong rule of law. Further analysis shows that improved employment, financing, innovation, and communication environments amplify the positive relationship between data factor marketisation and supply chain resilience. This study provides crucial insights for policy makers seeking to leverage data marketisation for industrial resilience enhancement and offers strategic guidance for enterprises navigating an increasingly uncertain global supply chain environment.