Abstract:     The reflection of the manufacturing industry′s state of "large-scale yet lacking strength" at the enterprise level is evident in the low levels of product value-added and profit margins. Accelerating the cultivation of new quality productivity is an indispensable path for the highend and intelligent transformation of manufacturing enterprises. By combining the data on industrial robots from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) for the years 2011 to 2019 and the data from publicly listed manufacturing companies, the application of industrial robots, representing the new generation of artificial intelligence technology, was used to characterize the outcomes of cultivating new quality productivity. The research found that the boosting effect of robot applications on firm markup rates is more pronounced in coastal regions, and that capital-intensive and knowledge- and technology-intensive industries benefit more from the application of industrial robots. The mechanism testing revealed that the intermediate mechanisms through which industrial robot applications promote market forces for enterprises are the "technological progress effect" and "cost effect". The study also discovered different technological diffusion effects of robot applications within and between industries. At the micro-level of building enterprise market competitive advantages, this research unveiled the effectiveness of cultivating new quality productivity, thus providing an effective theoretical basis for constructing a modern industrial system.

Key words: new quality productivity, industrial robot, manufacturing industry, enterprise markup