How Industrial Robots Affect Export Competition:"Price Competition"or"Quality Competition"
In the post-pandemic era,China's economic growth faces dual pressures from both foreign and domestic sources,and cultivating the core competitiveness of enterprises has become an important aspect of the current stage.In this context,new quality productive forces have been proposed for the first time,with industrial robots and intelligent manufacturing becoming core elements.An increasing number of studies indicate that industrial robots have a positive impact on export trade.However,there is relatively little literature on how industrial robots affect the export competition mechanism of enterprises.Unlike previous literature mainly focusing on the impact of robots on the supply side,this theoretical model relaxes the assumptions of homogeneous product quality and unchanged demand curve.Productivity is no longer the only factor determining a company's exports.The use of industrial robots affects not only the marginal cost of production but also the markup rate of the company's optimal pricing through the impact on product quality.Both forces jointly cause changes in the price of a company's exported products.This article carries out empirical tests by using the product-year data of HS-6 products from exporting countries to importing countries from 1995 to 2017.The article finds that industrial robots jointly promote enterprise exports through"price competition"and"quality competition",but"price competition"dominates.Industrial robots have shortened the"price ladder"and"quality ladder"of exported products.The increase in product substitution elasticity and trade costs significantly strengthens the"price competition"mechanism of industrial robots affecting exports,while the intensification of competition in the export destination market strengthens the"quality competition"mechanism.This article focuses for the first time on the impact of industrial robots on export competition mechanisms,enriching research related to industrial robots and export competition mechanisms.This article integrates the demand and supply shocks brought about by the application of industrial robots into a unified analytical framework,filling gaps in existing research.This article verifies the impact of industrial robots on the"price ladder"and"quality ladder",analyzes the moderating effects of product substitution elasticity,trade costs,and market competition on the export competition mechanism of industrial robots,and expands research conclusions of existing literature.First,this article emphasizes the importance of industrial robots in cultivating the core competitiveness of enterprises and promoting high-quality development of China's foreign trade,promoting the popularization of automated production in enterprises.Second,we should guide enterprises to"transform and upgrade"and actively cultivate their"quality competition"advantages.Third,we should fully understand that industrial robots will intensify external competition and challenges by reducing the price and quality differences of exported products.Fourth,enterprises should adopt differentiated strategies based on different trade costs,degree of competition in export destination markets,and different alternative elastic products.
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