随着数字经济的飞速发展，工业机器人作为数智技术与制造技术深度融合的产物，如何赋能企业数智化转型并促进企业创新成为重大命题。本文基于企业创新理论，以人力资本为视角，选取2011-2019年中国工业机器人数据与上市公司创新数据为研究样本，实证探究了工业机器人对企业创新的影响，分析了人力资本的中介作用。研究结果表明：工业机器人对企业创新具有提升效应，这种提升效应在进行多种检验后保持稳健。进一步研究发现人力资本对企业创新水平提升起部分中介作用。工业机器人从增加高质量劳动力和提升现有员工技能水平两个维度提升企业人力资本水平，从而提升企业的创新水平。本文丰富了工业机器人对企业创新的研究，对助力企业数智化转型升级和推动数智技术赋能产业创新发展具有重要启示。

The new generation of digital and intelligent technology is developing rapidly. As a product of the deep integration of digital and intelligent technology and manufacturing technology, the artificial intelligence technology represented by industrial robots has broad application prospects and is the key to promoting the fourth industrial revolution. According to data provided by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), China's industrial robot sales reached 168,400 units in 2020 with a growth rate of nearly 20%, exceeding the total number of robots installed in Europe and the Americas, and has become the backbone of the development of the robotics industry at the world level. Industrial robots can help companies reduce costs and improve efficiency, and their rapid development has greatly boosted the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. General Secretary Xi pointed out that "the integration of a new generation of information technology, robots, and intelligent manufacturing technology is accelerating." At the same time, China proposed to adhere to the core position of innovation in the overall modernization drive, enhance the technological innovation capabilities of enterprises, stimulate the innovation vitality of talents, and transform from the traditional "factor-driven" to "innovation-driven" development model. How to empower the digital and intelligent transformation of enterprises and promote enterprise innovation has become a major proposition. Specifically, industrial robots promote enterprise innovation through "learning by doing", knowledge spillovers, improving labor structure, and forming competitive advantages. What’s more, industrial robots can promote the innovation of manufacturing enterprises by increasing the number of high-quality labor and improving the skill level of the existing labor.This paper selects China's industrial robot data and listed company innovation data from 2011 to 2019 as research samples, empirically explores the impact of industrial robots on enterprise innovation, and analyzes the mediating role of human capital. The research results show that industrial robots have a promotion effect on enterprise innovation, and this promotion effect remains stable after multiple tests. Further research finds that human capital plays a partial intermediary role in the improvement of the innovation level of enterprises. Industrial robots improve the level of the human capital of enterprises from two dimensions of increasing high-quality labor and improving the skill level of existing employees, thereby improving the innovation level of enterprises. This paper further examines the changes in the effect of industrial robots on the improvement of the innovation level of enterprises when some properties of the enterprises themselves change. The group regression is carried out on the type of enterprise ownership and financing constraints, and it is found that in state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, and other enterprises, industrial robots have a significant positive impact on the innovation and invention patents and total patent output of enterprises. The industrial robot has no significant effect on the invention patent output of enterprises with large financing constraints, and the industrial robot has a significant improvement effect on the invention patent output and total patent output of enterprises with small and small financing constraints. This paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations based on theoretical analysis and empirical research results. This paper promotes the research of industrial robots on enterprise innovation, and has important implications for helping enterprises to transform and upgrade digitally and intelligently, and promote the competitiveness of industries empowered by digital and intelligent technology.

We investigate whether ineffective internal control over financial reporting has implications for firm operations by examining the association between inventory-related material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and firms' inventory management. We find that firms with inventory-related material weaknesses have systematically lower inventory turnover ratios and are more likely to report inventory impairments relative to firms with effective internal control over financial reporting. We also find that inventory turnover rates increase for firms that remediate material weaknesses related to inventory tracking. Remediating firms also experience increases in sales, gross profit, and operating cash flows. Finally, we assess the generalizability of our findings by examining all material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, regardless of type, and provide evidence that firms' returns on assets are associated with both their existence and remediation. Collectively, our findings support the general hypothesis that internal control over financial reporting has an economically significant effect on firm operations.