Adversity stimulates transformation, deficiency cultivates diligence, and affluence requires strategic foresight. The combination of production and financing is not only a power source for enterprises to promote new quality productive forces, but also a strategic fulcrum for accelerating the construction of a modernized industrial system and realizing innovation-driven and high-quality development. Existing research focuses primarily on the impact of financial-industrial integration on corporate operating performance, investment efficiency, business risk, and credit availability. However, studies examining the relationship between financial-industrial integration and corporate innovation are relatively scarce. As a crucial mode of financial-industrial integration, enterprise investment in banks reshapes the bank-firm relationship through capital nexus, injecting new impetus into the development of new quality productive forces.

Based on the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2023, this paper examines the impact and mechanisms of industry-finance integration on new quality productive forces of enterprises. It finds that financial-industrial integration significantly improves the new quality productive forces of enterprises, especially improving labor resources and realizing the leap of optimal combination. Mechanism analysis reveals that the combination of industry and finance mainly enhances new quality productive forces by alleviating financing constraints, curbing over-indebtedness and reducing agency costs. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effect of financial-industrial integration on firms’ new quality productive forces is more pronounced among firms in the central and western regions, where credit resources are scarce, as well as firms that receive fewer government subsidies, manufacturing firms and small-scale firms.

The potential contributions of this paper include the following aspects. First, existing literature focuses on the impact of corporate transformation and development as well as the external market environment on new quality productive forces. However, few studies analyze how to enhance enterprises’ new quality productive forces from the perspective of financial-industrial integration. This paper examines the relationship between financial-industrial integration and new quality productive forces of enterprises, thereby enriching the field of new quality productive studies. Second, this paper investigates the mechanisms through which financial-industrial integration promotes the development of enterprises’ new quality productive forces from the perspectives of alleviating financing constraints, curbing over-indebtedness, and reducing agency costs. It provides a theoretical basis for accelerating the cultivation of enterprises’ new quality productive forces. Third, this paper analyzes the heterogeneous effects of financial-industrial integration on the development of enterprises’ new quality productive forces under varying regional and enterprise-specific characteristics. By considering these differences, it provides valuable insights for enterprise strategic decision-making and policy formulation.

Based on the above findings, this study provides a theoretical foundation and policy implications to support enterprises in holding shares in non-listed banks and accelerate the development of new quality productive forces. The following recommendations are proposed in this paper. First, policy mechanisms should be optimized to actively promote financial-industrial integration among enterprises. This can be achieved through two key measures: gradually relaxing equity holding limits and developing differentiated policy frameworks. Second, industry supervision should be strengthened to regulate enterprise shareholding behaviors. Third, enterprises should optimize their strategic layout for financial-industrial integration to accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces.