Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is profoundly transforming socioeconomic development patterns, driving intelligent transformation across supply chain networks and creating strategic opportunities for firms to reconfigure their positions within them. This study empirically examines the impact of AI investment on firms’ bargaining power in supply chains, along with the moderating role of public data openness.
Collecting a dataset comprising 23,680 sample observations from 3647 A-share listed companies across 31 provinces in China from 2010 to 2023, we use a two-way fixed effects model to test the research hypotheses.
AI investment significantly enhances the focal firm's bargaining power in the supply chain. At the same time, public data openness positively moderates the beneficial effect of AI investment on supply chain bargaining power. Additional analysis shows differences in the impact of the focal firm's AI investment on bargaining power in upstream versus downstream markets. The results demonstrate that, compared to upstream supplier markets, AI investment exert a more substantial positive effect on bargaining power in downstream buyer markets. Moreover, the moderating role of public data openness in the external environment is more pronounced in shaping this relationship.
This study integrates resource dependence theory with a power-dynamics perspective to demonstrate that firms’ investments in AI assets alleviate internal resource constraints, strengthen power use tactics through algorithmic pricing and reinforce power change tactics through cost shifting, thereby enhancing firms’ bargaining power. In addition, public data openness, as an external institutional factor, further amplifies the value of AI assets. Our findings extend the literature on AI-enabled power dynamics within supply chain contexts.
