School of Business Administration, South China University of Technology, 381, Wushan Street, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510641, Guangdong, China.
Center of High-Quality Development Research, Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, 16 Xizhimen South Street Xicheng, Beijing, 100009, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 Aug;31(37):49855-49873. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-34476-3. Epub 2024 Jul 31.
The proposal of the "dual carbon" targets has provided direction for promoting China's economic green transformation and green innovation. As enterprises are important entities driving technological innovation in China, enhancing their green innovation capabilities holds significant practical significance for reducing carbon emissions. While the flourishing development of the digital economy currently provides new avenues and impetus for enterprise green innovation, research on the micro-level effects of green innovation driven by digital economy is still lacking. Therefore, based on data from Chinese cities spanning 2010 to 2021 and micro-level data of listed enterprises, this paper employs fixed effect model and intermediary effect model to empirically test the effect and mechanism of urban digital economy development on the quality and quantity of enterprise green innovation. Additionally, it investigates the carbon emission reduction effect resulting from digital economy development. The findings are as follows: (1) The development of digital economy exhibits a significant green innovation effect, effectively enhancing both the "quality and quantity" of enterprise green innovation. Particularly noteworthy is its impact on the quality of green innovation in enterprises, a result corroborated by several robustness tests. (2) Promoting regional knowledge spillover and alleviating enterprise financing constraints emerge as mechanisms through which the digital economy enhances the "quality and quantity" of enterprise green innovation. (3) Heterogeneity testing reveals that the digital economy exerts a greater green innovation effect on enterprises located in regions characterized by higher environmental regulations, high-tech industries, and state-owned enterprises. (4) Further analysis demonstrates that the digital economy effectively reduces enterprises carbon emissions and enhances their carbon performance by driving green innovation, thus providing endogenous impetus for achieving the "dual carbon" goals. By examining the effects and mechanisms of green innovation driven by digital economy from the perspectives of promoting knowledge spillover and alleviating financing constraints, this study enriches theoretical research on the relationship between the digital economy and green innovation at the enterprise micro-level. It offers new insights for governments in formulating green innovation policies and serves as a reference for green innovation decision-making in other developing countries.
“双碳”目标的提出为推动中国经济绿色转型和绿色创新提供了方向。企业作为中国技术创新的重要主体，增强其绿色创新能力对于减少碳排放具有重要的现实意义。而数字经济的蓬勃发展为企业绿色创新提供了新的途径和动力，但是关于数字经济驱动绿色创新的微观效应研究还比较缺乏。因此，本文基于 2010—2021 年中国城市层面和上市企业微观层面数据，运用固定效应模型和中介效应模型实证检验了城市数字经济发展对企业绿色创新数量和质量的作用及作用机制，同时也考察了数字经济发展带来的碳减排效应。研究结果表明：（1）数字经济发展具有显著的绿色创新效应，有效提升了企业绿色创新的“质”和“量”，尤其是对企业绿色创新质量的提升作用在稳健性检验中得到了验证。（2）促进区域知识溢出和缓解企业融资约束是数字经济提升企业绿色创新“质”和“量”的作用机制。（3）异质性检验发现，数字经济对处于环境规制水平较高、高新技术产业和国有企业的企业绿色创新的绿色创新效应更大。（4）进一步分析表明，数字经济通过驱动绿色创新有效降低了企业碳排放，提升了企业碳绩效，为实现“双碳”目标提供了内生动力。本文从促进知识溢出和缓解融资约束的视角检验了数字经济驱动绿色创新的作用及作用机制，丰富了企业微观层面数字经济与绿色创新关系的理论研究，为政府制定绿色创新政策提供了新的思路，也为其他发展中国家的绿色创新决策提供了参考。
