Servitization, Digitalization or Hand in Hand: A Study on the Sustainable Development Path of Manufacturing Enterprises

Using a new systematic method based on text mining and econometric analysis, this paper performs an empirical analysis on the text data and panel data of 195 enterprises in China's 23 manufacturing sub-sectors from 2011 to 2020, constructs the evaluation index system of sustainable development ability (SDA) of manufacturing enterprises and then uses the non-parametric Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon tests of inter-group means and the polynomial Logit regression clustering to comparatively analyze the impacts of pure manufacturing (P-), servitization (S-), digitalization (D-) and digital servitization (DS-) paths on the SDA of manufacturing enterprises. The results show that, in terms of profitability as well as each social and environmental dimension, the S-, D- and DS-paths are better choices than the P-path, while, in terms of production ability, debt-paying ability and development ability, there may be "digitalization paradox" or "digital servitization paradox", but no evidence of "servitization paradox" is found. According to the research results, enterprises should comprehensively evaluate their internal and external conditions, deeply understand the prerequisites and requirements of each development path, actively predict and respond to the risks and challenges they face, be fully prepared and maintain a cautious attitude.