Research on the Driving Effect of Corporate Digital Transformation on Green Technological Innovation

Jing Chang

doi:10.63313/EBM.9175

Authors

Jing Chang Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu 233030, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63313/EBM.9175

Keywords:

Digital transformation, Corporate green innovation, Financing constraints, Agency costs, Growth capacity

Abstract

Under the "dual carbon" goals and digital economy integration, green innovation drives manufacturing's high-quality development and environmental protection, while digital transformation helps firms break green innovation bottlenecks. Using text analysis to measure digital transformation, this paper takes A-share manufacturing listed companies (Shanghai & Shenzhen, 2019–2024) as samples. With a year fixed-effects model, it tests digital transformation's impact, mechanisms, and heterogeneity on green innovation.Results show digital transformation significantly raises corporate green innovation. This holds after robustness tests including PSM, instrumental variable method, core variable replacement, observation period extension, multi-fixed-effects control, and sample scope adjustment.Mechanism tests reveal three paths: resource effect (easing financing constraints), governance effect (weakening agency conflicts), and multiplier effect (enhancing growth capacity), providing financial guarantee, governance support, and endogenous motivation.Heterogeneity analysis shows the positive effect is stronger in non-high-tech enterprises and heavily polluting industries. Further, digital transformation significantly drives both green invention patents and green utility model patents.This study expands research on digital transformation's economic consequences and green innovation's drivers, offering empirical evidence and practical references for manufacturing's digital-green synergy and for differentiated industrial policies.

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