Understanding the distinction between new quality productive forces and traditional productive forces, and developing new quality productive forces at the micro level, constitutes an important task for achieving Chinese modernization. Currently, academic research on the intrinsic relationship between new quality productive forces and total factor productivity remains fragmented and lacks systematic theoretical demonstration. This not only limits our understanding of new quality productive forces but may also lead to unfounded research on new quality productive forces, potentially affecting their further development.
From the perspective of enterprise R&D information, this paper uses data from listed companies from 2012 to 2022 as research samples. Utilizing information from enterprise patent data, we construct an enterprise-level indicator of new quality productive forces and empirically test the impact of developing new quality productive forces on total factor productivity and its mechanisms. The study finds that the development of new quality productive forces by micro-level entities significantly enhances total factor productivity. Furthermore, from the two perspectives of enterprise innovation transformation and operational transformation, this paper explores the mechanisms through which developing new quality productive forces affects total factor productivity. It finds that developing new quality productive forces stimulates enterprise innovation transformation to enhance total factor productivity by affecting enterprises’ knowledge acquisition, knowledge transformation, and knowledge production. Meanwhile, developing new quality productive forces drives enterprise operational transformation to enhance total factor productivity by affecting enterprises’ procurement, manufacturing, and transaction processes. Additionally, regarding threshold characteristics of developing new quality productive forces, no ownership threshold exists for micro-level entities developing new quality productive forces, though a certain scale threshold does exist. Regarding external conditions for developing new quality productive forces, intellectual property protection and digital infrastructure construction play important roles in micro-level entities developing new quality productive forces.
Compared with existing research, this paper makes the following contributions: First, from the micro perspective of enterprise R&D information, it measures the development level of enterprise new quality productive forces using patent information data, expanding the micro-dimensional research on new quality productive forces and providing theoretical reference for subsequent research on new quality productive forces from a micro perspective. Second, based on clarifying the intrinsic relationship between new quality productive forces and total factor productivity, it empirically tests the effect of developing new quality productive forces on total factor productivity, thereby enriching the understanding of new quality productive forces. Third, from the two perspectives of innovation transformation and operational transformation, this paper explores the mechanisms through which developing new quality productive forces affects total factor productivity, providing a theoretical basis for developing new quality productive forces at the micro level.
This paper examines the impact mechanisms and heterogeneous effects of developing new quality productive forces on total factor productivity, providing not only important theoretical support and practical insights for micro-level entities to understand and develop new quality productive forces, but also policy support for policymakers to construct new production relations and modern industrial systems.
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