The Impact of Digital Transformation on Corporate Green Technology Innovation

Green technology innovation is an important approach to addressing environmental pollution and achieving high-quality development. In the context of the booming digital economy, whether and how corporate digital transformation can promote green technology innovation is a significant theoretical issue that urgently needs to be addressed. We use data from China’s A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2020 to explore the impact of digital transformation on corporate green technology innovation, based on the construction of measurement indicators for digital transformation through textual analysis methods. It is found that digital transformation can significantly promote corporate green technology innovation, and this conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. Mechanism testing shows that reducing financing cost and enhancing collaborative research are the two effective pathways for digital transformation to promote green technology innovation. Further analysis also reveals that for state-owned enterprises, non-foreign-invested enterprises, high environmental responsibility enterprises, and non-heavy-polluting enterprises, digital transformation plays a more significant role in promoting green technology innovation. Our research findings are conducive to promoting the integrated development of digital transformation and green economy, and provide theoretical reference for the formulation and implementation of digital transformation policies.