Customer Artificial Intelligence Application, Supplier Environmental Regulation, and Supply Chain Resilience

The improvement of supply chain resilience requires close attention to the application of artificial intelligence and the profound influence of external environmental uncertainty. It uses matched data between A-share listed firms and their upstream and downstream partners to examine the relationship and transmission mechanisms among customer artificial intelligence application, supplier environmental regulation, and supply chain resilience. A two-stage model is further employed to test the subsequent effects of customer artificial intelligence application on suppliers’ supply chain resilience. The results show that a higher level of artificial intelligence application by customer firms significantly increases suppliers’ supply chain resilience, indicating a backward spillover effect along the supply chain. Due to the command-and-control nature of environmental regulation, the synergistic effect of environmental regulation policies and intensity faced by suppliers mitigates the positive impact of customers’ artificial intelligence applications on supply chain resilience. The mechanism analysis suggests that customer artificial intelligence application enhances suppliers’ supply chain resilience through two main channels: the knowledge spillover from customers’ artificial intelligence capabilities and the improvement of suppliers’ digital technology levels. This positive relationship is more pronounced for suppliers located in western China and for state-owned enterprises. The subsequent effect analysis demonstrates that when suppliers exhibit higher information disclosure quality, customer artificial intelligence application further promotes their sustainable development through enhanced supply chain resilience.