How Does Digital Transformation Shape New Competitive Advantages for Enterprises in the Export Market?

Abstract

In this era of deep integration between globalisation and digitalisation, the digital wave is sweeping across the globe at an unprecedented pace. The synergistic deepening of digital industrialisation, industrial digitalisation, digital governance and data valorisation is profoundly reshaping the division of labour within global value chains. Against this backdrop, this study utilises observational data on Chinese listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2012 to 2023 to construct a three-dimensional mediating transmission pathway framework, systematically investigating the impact effects and transmission pathways of digital transformation on corporate export competitiveness. Empirical findings indicate that digital transformation can significantly enhance firms’ export competitiveness, and that it does so through the interplay of three dimensions: resource allocation, production operations and governance levels; simultaneously, this promotional effect exhibits marked heterogeneity in terms of property rights, production factors and geographical location.