Abstract: The collaborative innovation in manufacturing enterprises is an important approach for Chinese economy to upgrade and transform from traditional low-end manufacturing to high-end manufacturing at the high-quality development phase. In the context of the big data era with increasingly uncertain factors, information sharing is particularly critical to the collaborative innovation of the manufacturing enterprises. By using the World Bank survey data of 2012, this paper discusses the impact of information sharing on the collaborative innovation of the manufacturing companies based on the vertical relationship between the enterprises and the suppliers and customers. The findings show that information sharing can not only increase the probability of collaborative innovation investment of the manufacturing enterprises, but also help to increase the collaborative innovation investment scale of the manufacturing enterprises, and this effect does not change with the changes of information sharing subjects, information sharing contents, and collaborative innovation types. This conclusion reveals and emphasizes the important role of information sharing in the promotion of collaborative innovation in manufacturing enterprises. It also provides reference and enlightenment for the state in formulating collaborative innovation policies, better advancing the“Made in China 2025”Plan and supply-side structural reforms.

Key words: information sharing; product collaborative innovation; process collaborative innovation; the manufacturing industry