The impact of digital transformation on enterprise green innovation

China's economic development is faced with serious resource limits, environmental constraints, and massive energy consumption. Changing the development mode towards green and lowcarbon development is urgent. Green innovation is an important path for the sustainable development of China's economy. We use panel data of China's A-share listed corporations from 2010 to 2020 to empirically test the impact and mechanism of digital transformation on corporate green innovation. We find that digital transformation has a statistically significant, positive impact on corporate green innovation. Further, digital transformation is conducive to promoting corporate green innovation. The intrinsic mechanism shows that the mediation mechanism between corporate research and development (R&D) investment and government green subsidies is significant, and digital transformation can promote corporate green innovation by increasing corporate R&D investment and government green subsidies. The heterogeneous effect suggests that the impact of digital transformation on green innovation of state-owned corporations is greater than that of non-state-owned corporations. Additionally, the impact on large-scale corporations is greater than that of small-scale corporations, and that of corporations in areas with a higher degree of marketization is greater than that of corporations in areas with a lower degree of marketization.

Automated summary

This study empirically examines the impact and mechanism of digital transformation on corporate green innovation in China. The results show that digital transformation has a significant and positive impact on corporate green innovation. The research also highlights that the mediation mechanism between corporate R&D investment and government green subsidies is significant, and digital transformation promotes green innovation by increasing these investments. Moreover, the impact of digital transformation on state-owned and large-scale corporations is greater. The findings indicate the importance of digital transformation for promoting sustainable development in China's economy.