Intelligent manufacturing, persistent innovation, and spillover effects: evidence from China’s Industrial Internet Pilot Demonstration Program

In the digital economy, the Industrial Internet provides core infrastructure for intelligent manufacturing and corporate digital transformation. Using Chinese A-share listed firms from 2011 to 2023, this study treats the Industrial Internet Pilot Demonstration Program (IIPD Program) as a quasi-natural experiment to examine its effects on firms’ persistent innovation input and output. The results show that the program promotes both dimensions and generates spatial spillovers to nearby same-industry non-pilot firms, mainly on the input side and varying across distance bands. Effects are stronger for platform, carrier, and industrial-park projects. Additional evidence indicates that designation is associated with greater fiscal and tax support, improved operating performance, stronger supply chain collaboration, and enhanced knowledge absorption and conversion. Data-element marketization and technology transfer and commercialization mechanisms strengthen the effect on persistent innovation output. Persistent innovation is also associated with higher innovation quality and productivity, highlighting the broader innovation gains from intelligent manufacturing.