Can AI Capability Boost Firm Competitiveness? A Serial Mediation Analysis Based on Organizational Learning and Organizational Resilience

Against the backdrop of artificial intelligence technology deeply empowering the digital development of the manufacturing industry, enterprises can use AI capability as a crucial source to improve their competitiveness and play a key role in promoting high-quality corporate development. Although the existing literature has revealed the effect of AI capability on organizational performance or other factors, in-depth research remains insufficient regarding whether AI capability can effectively improve firm competitiveness through organizational learning and organizational resilience. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), this study constructs a relational model linking AI capability to firm competitiveness via organizational learning and organizational resilience, alongside an investigation into the moderating effect of digital innovation. Using questionnaire surveys of Chinese manufacturing firms, we obtained 304 valid samples. Regression analysis was used to analyze the effect of AI capability on firm competitiveness via organizational learning and organizational resilience. The process-bootstrap method was used to examine the sequential mediating effects of organizational learning and organizational resilience. The results show that AI capability has a direct effect on firm competitiveness, and can also influence firm competitiveness via organizational learning and organizational resilience. AI capability affects firm competitiveness sequentially through organizational learning and organizational resilience. The correlation between exploratory learning and organizational resilience gets moderated by digital innovation. Meanwhile, digital innovation presents a moderated mediating effect on the relations between AI capability and firm competitiveness through exploratory learning and organizational resilience. This paper empirically reveals the “capability-learning-resilience” mechanism through which AI capability affects firm competitiveness, thus further supplementing the study on the effect factors of firm competitiveness. The findings provide theoretical implications for manufacturing enterprises to strategically develop AI capability, implement organizational learning, actively cultivate organizational resilience, and integrate digital innovation to further enhance firm competitiveness.