Abstract:      The AI patent is an important means to promote manufacturing enterprises to transform traditional production methods and achieve intelligent development. Exploring the mechanism by which AI patent networks affect the intelligent development of enterprises can help reveal external effective paths to enhance intelligent development. By combining the open innovation theory and knowledge base theory, and based on the "structure-resources-capability" framework, this paper used a modified gravity model to construct innovation networks with 2010-2022 AI patents of manufacturing enterprises and used the bidirectional fixed effects model to explore the impact of the position of AI patent networks on the intelligent development of enterprises. The theoretical and empirical research results indicated that the position of AI patent networks has a significant promoting effect on the intelligent development of enterprises, that is, having high centrality and structural holes is conducive to the intelligent development of enterprises. AI patent network position is beneficial for improving knowledge breadth and depth of enterprises, but it mainly indirectly promotes the intelligent development of enterprises through knowledge depth. The intelligent development of enterprises has a network peer effect, and it positively moderates the positive relationship between the position of AI patent networks and the intelligent development of enterprises. In technology-intensive industries and developed cities, the position of AI patent networks has a more significant positive effect on promoting the intelligent development of enterprises. This paper took the AI patents as the foundation for constructing networks, studied the external factors of intelligent development from the perspective of network position, and clarified the important path for improving the development of enterprise intelligence through the position of AI patent networks, which has enriched the research on the antecedents of enterprise intelligence development; it also extended the peer effect to the activities of enterprise intelligent development to reveal the decision-making motives for enterprises to choose intelligent development, thereby further enriching the research framework on the impact of the position of AI patent networks on the intelligent development of enterprises. The study has expanded the research on the antecedents of intelligent development and provided some theoretical guidance for manufacturing enterprises to actively plan intelligent manufacturing strategies.

Key words: AI patent, network position, knowledge breadth, knowledge depth, intelligent development