Intelligent manufacturing and corporate green transformation

Xiaotong Cai, Peiyang Lin and Rui Wang

International Review of Financial Analysis, 2025, vol. 97, issue C

Abstract: The rapid evolution of intelligent manufacturing technologies presents opportunities and challenges for corporate environmental sustainability. Although these advancements offer potentially improved efficiency and reduced environmental impact, their actual effect on firms' green transformation remains understudied, particularly in the Chinese market. Hence, this research fills this gap by focusing on the mediating roles of financing constraints and knowledge diversification. Utilizing a comprehensive dataset of 18,390 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed companies between 2007 and 2022, we employ fixed-effects regression models and mediation analyses to examine these relationships. Our findings reveal a notable positive impact of intelligent manufacturing on green transformation, partially mediated by reduced financing constraints and increased knowledge diversification. Furthermore, we uncover important heterogeneities across firm lifecycle stages and ownership structures, with mature firms and state-owned enterprises benefiting more from intelligent manufacturing in their green transformation efforts. These results contribute to the growing literature on sustainable Industry 4.0 and offer valuable insights for policymakers and corporate leaders seeking to leverage technological advancements for environmental sustainability.

Keywords: Intelligent manufacturing; Green transformation; Technological innovation; Financing constraint; Knowledge diversification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G32 L60 O33 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521924007282
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:finana:v:97:y:2025:i:c:s1057521924007282

DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103796

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Financial Analysis is currently edited by B.M. Lucey

More articles in International Review of Financial Analysis from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().