How Digital Transformation Impacts Corporate Green Innovation?

Abstract: Digitalization is a crucial characteristic of the current era, and green innovation has become one of the necessary pathways for enterprises to achieve sustainable development. Based on financial and annual report data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019, this paper constructs indicators of corporate digital transformation and examines the impact of corporate digital transformation on green innovation and its underlying mechanisms. The results show that corporate digital transformation can promote corporate green innovation output, with its sustained future impact exhibiting a marginally decreasing trend. In terms of the impact mechanism, digital transformation can enhance corporate green innovation output by increasing corporate R&D investment and strengthening environmental management. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that digital transformation has a more pronounced promoting effect on green innovation output for small and medium-sized enterprises and those in technology-intensive industries. To improve the green innovation incentive effect of digital transformation, enterprises should formulate long-term strategies and continuously strengthen policy regulation and incentives.