Cross-border E-commerce, platform economy, and export product quality

Abstract

This study examines how manufacturing enterprises leverage the network effects of cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) platforms to engage in real-time interactions with customers to obtain in-depth demand information and transform customers into active participants in product value cocreation. We explore the establishment of enterprise–customer value cocreation systems that subsequently enhance export product quality. Collecting registration data from 160,000 enterprises across China’s three major business-to-business CBEC platforms and matching them with microlevel enterprise data from Chinese Customs and the China Industrial Enterprise Database spanning 2000–2015, we empirically examine the impact of participation in CBEC platforms on Chinese manufacturing firms’ export product quality and the underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal that CBEC platform engagement significantly improves Chinese manufacturing enterprises’ export product quality. Mechanism analysis indicates that the network effects of these platforms enhance firms’ innovation capabilities, facilitate export product transformation, and improve transaction matching efficiency, elevating product quality. These positive effects vary depending on trade type, firm size, regional digital infrastructure, and platform characteristics. Specifically, enterprises with lower export technology complexity, multiproduct portfolios, those engaged in general trade, and those located in regions with advanced digital infrastructure or participating in medium-to-large platforms exhibit more pronounced export quality improvement through CBEC. Furthermore, export product quality is more significantly enhanced as firms strengthen capabilities by using these platforms. These findings have substantial theoretical implications for research on cross-border digital platforms and manufacturing enterprises’ internationalization. They also provide robust empirical support for firms implementing digital export strategies to achieve “brand globalization.”