Abstract: Manufacturing is the mainstay of China's national economy. In recent years, China's manufacturing industry has developed rapidly, but it still faces various problems. From the perspective of global value chain (GVC) participation, which is the most effective indicator measuring a country’s manufacturing development and capability, most of China's manufacturing industry is still struggling at the low end of the GVC. Meanwhile, the fourth industrial revolution has also made China’s manufacturing industry face the urgent need to upgrade to the higher-end of GVC. However, previous literature lacks theoretical discussion on how to achieve upgrading in GVC, and to some extent neglects practical discussion on upgrading strategy for firms. Whereas with the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and related information technology in recent years, intelligent manufacturing with digital, network and intelligence as the key features has become the main direction of the future development of the manufacturing industry, and has the potential to enhance China's position in the global manufacturing competition and realizing the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. This paper is among the first to discuss China’s intelligent manufacturing practice, and explore Chinese manufacturing enterprises’ upgrading path in GVCs through intelligent manufacturing. China’s home appliance industry is one of the earliest industries in China to participate in the global division of labor, and is one of the most competitive industries in China's manufacturing industry. Haier Group is one of the leading companies in China's home appliance industry. At the beginning of 2016, Haier officially launched the Cloud of Smart Manufacturing Operation Plat (COSMOPlat), the first industrial Internet platform with independent intellectual property rights in China, aiming to provide mass customization services for domestic manufacturers, and drive related manufacturing companies with different capabilities to transform into intelligent manufacturing. Thus, based on an explorative single case study of Haier COSMOPlat, this paper analyzes the intelligent manufacturing mode, dynamic process and upgrading path of Haier COSMOPlat in GVCs, and proposes an integrative framework of economic upgrading in GVCs of Chinese manufacturing enterprises through intelligent manufacturing. Data are collected both from first hand materials through semi-structured in-depth face-to-face interviews and internal document materials from Haier, and second hand materials through websites, news reports, academic articles and other literature, to guarantee the reliability and validity of the case study through “triangular verification”.The results show as below: in aspects of GVC governance mode, Haier COSMOPlatadopts a strategy of starting from both the production and procurement side, through modular production and modular supply mode, due to the hybrid model of China’s home appliance industry, which is both producer-driven and buyer-driven.In aspects of GVC upgrading path, Haier COSMOPlat realizes function upgrading and process upgrading through intelligent production, realizes product upgrading and inter-chain upgrading through producing intelligent products based on big data and cloud computing. Meanwhile, Haier COSMOPlat realizes market upgrading through providing intelligent services, and upgrades into a new GVC through intelligent manufacturing. Based on above analysis, this paper further proposes a framework for Chinese manufacturing enterprises, in aspects of upgrading path selection, intelligent manufacturing mode selection, and strategic choice of leading enterprises. The results also show that theupgrading strategy making of Chinese manufacturing needs to consider the GVC governance type of the industry, and chooses the suitable upgrading path with intelligent manufacturing, intelligent service and intelligent products. Meanwhile, the leading enterprise can transform into the industry manufacturing platform through intelligent manufacturing, thus leading related firms in the industry to realize overall upgrading in GVCs. These leading enterprises can play their roles to drive related companies to upgrade in GVC through intelligent manufacturing. For latecomers like China, leading enterprises are the main sources of power for industrial upgrading in the GVC. As a leading enterprise in China's home appliance industry, Haier COSMOPlat reform practice has effectively improved the technical standards of the home appliance industry, and has enabled relevant SMEs to replicate their best practices in intelligent manufacturing, helping corporate customers reduce trial and error costs and provide Chinese manufacturing companies with a reference experience with great value.In conclusion, this paper proposes that intelligent manufacturing is an effective way for Chinese manufacturing firms to achieve GVC upgrading. Specifically, the transformation of intelligent manufacturing in China's manufacturing industry needs to shift to intelligent production, improve the level of informationization and intelligence in the production process, digitally drive network collaborative manufacturing, and transform and upgrade to higher value-added production links. These conclusions will enrich the research of GVCs both from the theory and practice, and provide practical suggestions for the transformation and upgrading of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. In aspect of theoretical contribution, this paper is one of theoretical extensions of development of GVC research in the field of strategic management. Although GVC research originated from the value chain theory in the field of strategic management, in the subsequent development process, it rarely analyzes the upgrading process of specific enterprises from a dynamic perspective. This GVC upgrading path and mechanism of Haier COSMOPlat studies in this paper can provide useful reference for future research on the GVC strategy of leading companies. Meanwhile, this paper also provides a new research way for GVC upgrading research. Previous studies have mostly been a summary of the experience of existing country or industry upgrading processes. However, in the specific practice, few firms will follow a single upgrading path. At the same time, the specific upgrading path and upgrading mode of the enterprise are also affected by the characteristics of the industry. The results of this paper fills the theoretical gap between GVC governance model and firm upgrading paths. In addition, this paper also explores the possible integration of intelligent manufacturing as an industrial technology thought, and strategic management theory.

Key words: intelligent manufacturing, internet+, global value chain (GVCs), economic upgrading in GVCs