Abstract: In recent years, the concept of asset light operation mode has been widely accepted. This paper takes China′s listed manufacturing companies from 2011 to 2018 as an example to empirically study the impact and mechanism of asset light operation on the capital efficiency of China′s manufacturing enterprises, and to explore the heterogeneity of the impact on different ownership nature and different types of enterprises.The results show that: there is a significant positive correlation between asset light operation level and capital efficiency of enterprises; compared with non-state-owned enterprises, asset light operation of state-owned enterprises has a stronger promoting effect on capital efficiency; after distinguishing different types of state-owned enterprises, it is found that asset light operation of state-owned enterprises with special functions in manufacturing industry has a more significant promoting effect on capital efficiency; asset light operation can promote capital efficiency by acting on supply chain management ability.

Key words: asset light operation, capital efficiency, state-owned enterprises, supply chain management