As a key driver of China’s modernization and the establishment of a new development paradigm, the development of new quality productive forces is crucial for achieving high-quality economic development. Manufacturing, as an economic pillar, has become the primary battlefield for China to develop new quality productive forces. Meanwhile, supply chains, as the core linkage in manufacturing, are exhibiting a trend of digital and intelligent transformation, which may have a profound impact on new quality productive forces. However, the digital and intelligent enabling of supply chains relies on extensive collaboration within the supply-chain organization network, and the requirements for construction are challenging. Therefore, studying the impact and mechanism of the digital and intelligent construction of supply chains on the new quality productive forces of manufacturing enterprises is of great significance.

Based on the enabling theory and using data from Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed manufacturing companies from 2014 to 2022, this paper employs a DID model to explore the impact of city-level digital and intelligent construction of supply chains on the new quality productive forces of manufacturing enterprises. The results indicate that the digital and intelligent construction of supply chains primarily enhances new quality productive forces by exerting resource enabling and structure enabling effects. The former effect helps alleviate constraints on manufacturing enterprises in terms of production factors; the latter effect is achieved by enhancing enterprises’ collaborative capabilities. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that for relatively lagging enterprises, upstream supply-chain enterprises, high-tech industries, heavily-polluting industries, and regions with digital infrastructure and talents, the enabling effect is more pronounced.

The main contributions of this paper are as follows: First, it innovatively constructs an index system for the new quality productive forces of manufacturing enterprises, enriching the quantitative research on new quality productive forces at the enterprise level. Second, it extends the related research on evaluating the effectiveness of digital supply chain construction. Third, it reveals the mechanism through which the digital and intelligent construction of supply chains enabling the new quality productive forces of manufacturing enterprises, providing empirical references for the government to formulate targeted policies and advance the digital and intelligent construction of supply chains in an orderly manner.