Abstract：In the context of intensified global competition in industrial chains, the integration of digital and physical industries has become a key to enhancing the competitiveness and self-reliance and controllability of industrial chains. Based on the data of Chinese A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2010 to 2024, this study empirically analyzes the impact effects and mechanisms of the industrial chain Chain Chief System on enterprises' digital-physical integration. The results show that the Chain Chief System significantly enhances the level of digital-physical integration in enterprises. Mechanism tests indicate that at the industrial chain level, the Chain Chief System promotes digital-physical integration by strengthening supply chain resilience, mitigating the bullwhip effect, and improving supply chain stability; at the enterprise level, it further enhances such integration by easing financing constraints, increasing innovation investment, and optimizing the human capital structure for R&D. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive impact of the Chain Chief System on digital-physical integration is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises with higher business complexity and stronger market competitiveness. Additionally, in regions with more advanced digital infrastructure, its facilitating effect on digital-physical integration is more significant. The extended analysis shows that the Chain Chief System can significantly drive breakthroughs in enterprises' key core technologies, help alleviate the predicament of being constrained by bottleneck technologies, and improve the self-reliance and controllability of industrial chains.
