How does digital transformation drive green technology M&A under the carbon cap and trade policy?

Bo Wang and Siyu Gong

Technology in Society, 2025, vol. 81, issue C

Abstract: Green technology mergers and acquisitions (GTMA) is a key strategic choice for enterprises' green transformation. But due to difficulties in evaluation, complex post-merger integration, and challenging compliance and risk management, enterprises need two prerequisites before implementation: opportunities and solutions. Among these, the carbon cap and trade policy (CCTP) provides businesses with economic opportunities to explore added value from green technologies. Digital transformation (DT), on the other hand, offers solutions by integrating internal resource management and increasing information transparency. However, the existing literatures overlook the necessity of this complex perspective in the implementation of GTMA strategy. Thus, based on institutional theory and Resource Based View, this paper takes Chinese listed enterprises’ GTMA practices from 2009 to 2021, uses difference-in-differences and moderating variable methods to explore: whether CCTP offers opportunities for GTMA and if DT can solve GTMA problems and its mechanism. Findings show CCTP and DT are prerequisites driving GTMA, and their synergy is crucial. DT-empowered internal control and environmental information disclosure are vital to overcome GTMA challenges. Also, this prerequisite combination is affected by enterprise scale, state-owned, and R&D capabilities.

Keywords: The carbon cap and trade policy; Digital transformation; Green technology mergers and acquisitions; Environmental disclosure; Internal control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X25000582
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:teinso:v:81:y:2025:i:c:s0160791x25000582

DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2025.102868

Access Statistics for this article

Technology in Society is currently edited by Charla Griffy-Brown

More articles in Technology in Society from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().