**7. Limitations and Future Research Lines**

This article has some contributions in theory and practice, but still has some limitations. First of all, the research object of this paper was domestic manufacturing firms, and there was no further subdivision of enterprise type. Different types of manufacturing firms may face different situations. Second, this paper only considered the co-creation behavior of two subjects in the supply chain, while in actual operation, there may be more possibilities for the value co-creation behavior of firms. In addition, from the perspective of organizational behavior and psychology, there is a certain gap between the subjective perception of managers and the actual situation of the company during the investigation process, which may lead to the conclusion of this article not being objective and unscientific [93].

Based on the main findings and limitations, we propose several questions that can be explored in depth in future studies. First, the research object can be determined in more segmented manufacturing enterprises such as automobiles, electronic parts, electrical appliances, etc. to make the empirical results more accurate. Second, we can consider the impact of value co-creation between multiple entities in the supply chain or between enterprises and the government on enterprise performance. Third, the model can be considered to add coordination variables and control variables such as product diversity and corporate reputation to make the model more fully studied. Fourth, we can consider expanding the sample size and can choose enterprises from different countries or regions for comparison such as comparing the implementation effect of value co-creation between Chinese enterprises and enterprises from developed countries. Perhaps due to the differences in national policies and development environment, we will obtain unexpected research conclusions.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, G.L. and X.S.; Methodology, X.S.; Formal Analysis, Y.Y. and C.D.; Resources, C.D.; Data Curation, G.L.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, Y.Y.; Writing—Review & Editing, C.D. and X.S.; Project Administration, X.S.; Funding Acquisition, G.L. and Y.Y. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was partially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant number: 2020JBW002), Beijing Social Science Foundation of China (grant number: 18GLC081) and the National Science Foundation of China (grant number: 71971215, 71601187).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
