Artificial intelligence, knowledge coupling, and dynamic capabilities in China’s GEM listed enterprises: the role of human–AI collaboration

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how artificial intelligence (AI) affects enterprise dynamic capabilities from the perspective of knowledge and human–AI collaboration. It also reveals the mediating effects of knowledge coupling on this relationship, and the moderating effect of chief executive officer (CEO) overconfidence and the CEO’s information technology (IT) experience on the relationship between AI and dynamic capabilities. Design/methodology/approach This study selected 112 manufacturing enterprises listed on the Chinese growth enterprise market from 2015 to 2022 as the sample, using a two-way fixed effects model for empirical testing. Findings The findings reveal that AI plays a crucial role in significantly enhancing the dynamic capabilities in enterprises, with knowledge coupling acting as a mediator in this process. Further analysis from the perspective of human–AI collaboration reveals that the CEO’s IT experience significantly and positively moderates the relationship between AI and dynamic capabilities, while CEO overconfidence does not show a significant moderating effect. The study also found that AI has a more substantial promotion effect on the dynamic capabilities of state-owned and large-scale enterprises. Originality/value This study not only enriches the influencing factors of the dynamic capabilities of entrepreneurial enterprises in the digital context, but also provides important theoretical support for enterprises to use AI to optimize the knowledge management structure, promote the linkage, penetration and reorganization of different knowledge fields and shape the digital capabilities of management teams.