Efficiency Before Profit? Software and Hardware AI Investment in Chinese Listed Firms

Suya Zhang

doi:10.47297/wspceWSP2516-251931.20261004

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Efficiency Before Profit? Software and Hardware AI Investment in Chinese Listed Firms

10卷第4期

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Efficiency Before Profit? Software and Hardware AI Investment in Chinese Listed Firms
Efficiency Before Profit? Software and Hardware AI Investment in Chinese Listed Firms
School of Business Administration, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, Shandong, 250000, China
2026年10卷第4期页码：160-164
纸质出版：2026-08-30
DOI：10.47297/wspceWSP2516-251931.20261004
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Suya Zhang. (2026). Efficiency Before Profit? Software and Hardware AI Investment in Chinese Listed Firms. 创意经济（英文版）, 10(4), 160-164.

Zhang Suya.Efficiency Before Profit? Software and Hardware AI Investment in Chinese Listed Firms[J].Creative Economy,2026,10(04):160-164.
Suya Zhang. (2026). Efficiency Before Profit? Software and Hardware AI Investment in Chinese Listed Firms. 创意经济（英文版）, 10(4), 160-164. DOI： 10.47297/wspceWSP2516-251931.20261004.

Zhang Suya.Efficiency Before Profit? Software and Hardware AI Investment in Chinese Listed Firms[J].Creative Economy,2026,10(04):160-164. DOI： 10.47297/wspceWSP2516-251931.20261004.

摘要

Abstract

This paper examines whether software- and hardware-based artificial intelligence (AI) investments have different short-run operating implications. It combines accounting-based AI investment data from financial statement notes with financial and governance data for Chinese non-financial listed firms. The fixed-effects analyses use more than 40

000 firm-year observations from 2007 to 2023. Total AI investment is positively associated with next-year asset turnover but negatively associated with next-year return on assets (ROA). Both software and hardware investment are positively associated with asset turnover. For ROA

the software coefficient is negative and significant

whereas the hardware coefficient is insignificant; this pattern does not establish a statistically significant difference between the component coefficients. Results are similar with original-cost measures and industry-by-year fixed effects. Two-year estimates are consistent with a persistent hardware-efficiency association and a continued negative software-profitability association

but they do not isolate initial investment from subsequent spending. The evidence suggests that operating utilization may improve before accounting profitability

especially when software deployment requires complementary organizational adjustment.

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references

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