Artificial Intelligence Adoption and Corporate Data Assetization: A Systems Perspective on Data-Driven Value Creation—Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms

Abstract

Based on data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2018 to 2024, this study examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption on corporate data assetization and underlying mechanisms from a systems perspective. The findings reveal that AI adoption is significantly and positively associated with corporate data assetization, robust to firm fixed effects, propensity score matching, instrumental variable estimation, and COVID-19 exclusion. Mediation analysis indicates that digital human capital is a mediating channel, while the market-based allocation of data factors exhibits a directionally positive but statistically weak moderating effect. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that the AI–data assetization effect is largely universal across ownership, technology intensity, competition, and region, with the sole statistically significant boundary being a stronger effect in non-manufacturing than manufacturing. This study reveals how technological application, organizational capabilities, and the institutional environment form an interconnected system that jointly shapes data assetization. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) reveals that the conjunction of high AI adoption, strong digital human capital, and advanced data marketization is sufficient for high data assetization, corroborating the configurational systems perspective. It provides micro-level evidence on how AI empowers corporate value creation in the digital economy.