How does enterprise digital transformation promote green innovation? Evidence from listed companies in China

Zihao Wu, Meiyi Zhang, Ruibing Ji and Wei Dou

Applied Economics, 2025, vol. 57, issue 57, 9807-9822

Abstract: Green innovation is a critical measure for achieving sustainable development. As one of the major development strategies of the Chinese government, digital transformation is an essential choice for promoting green innovation within enterprises. This study analyzes the impact of digital transformation on green innovation, along with its moderating factors, using a sample of 1,108 Chinese publicly listed companies from 2008 to 2021, focusing on both the quantity and quality of innovation. The findings reveal that digital transformation exhibits a ‘fine-tuning without expanding’ effect on green innovation, significantly enhancing substantive green innovation while having a limited impact on strategic innovation. Additionally, both internal factors and external constraints of enterprises influence the innovation effects of digital transformation. Specifically, the nature of ownership, environmental information disclosure, and industry type exert a positive moderating effect, whereas agency costs have a negative moderating effect. Furthermore, digital transformation indirectly promotes green innovation by integrating resources to increase human capital and R&D capital. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the utility of digital transformation within enterprises. On a micro level, it offers guidance on how enterprises can further implement digital transformation. On a macro level, it provides theoretical support for the development of China’s digital economy.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2024.2423902 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:applec:v:57:y:2025:i:57:p:9807-9822

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RAEC20

DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2024.2423902

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Economics is currently edited by Anita Phillips

More articles in Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().