Abstract: Regarding the governance pathways of involutionary competition in the manufacturing industry, the existing literature has predominantly approached from the dimensions of supply-demand structure, institutional environment, and digital platforms, while rarely focusing on the micro-level effects of patient capital with long-termism attributes on such competitive behaviors. Based on the data of A-share listed manufacturing firms in China from 2011 to 2023, this empirical research from the perspective of price markup demonstrates that patient capital can elevate the price markup ratio of manufacturing firms and alleviate the pressure of involutionary competition in the sector. From the theoretical mechanism perspective, optimizing internal governance, improving supply chain structure, and enhancing operational resilience constitute the critical pathways through which patient capital exerts its mitigating effects. The mitigating role of patient capital exhibits significant heterogeneity: it is more pronounced in firms facing high financing constraints, those adopting growth-oriented development strategies, as well as enterprises in high-tech industries and industries with high environmental uncertainty. These findings imply that efforts should be intensified to cultivate and expand patient capital, promote its in-depth integration with industrial development, and give full play to its governance function in alleviating involutionary competition in the manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, targeted guidance and governance policies for patient capital should be formulated in light of the objective differences in firms' financing environments, strategic orientations, and industry technological attributes, thereby facilitating China's manufacturing industry to achieve the leap from price-based competition to high-quality value-based competition.

Key words: patient capital, involutionary competition, price markup, high-quality development