Does digital transformation affect carbon performance through talent? The moderating role of employee structure

Industrial process consumes large amounts of energy and emits substantial carbon dioxide. The implementation of digital transformation is crucial for industrial enterprises to move towards low-carbon transformation. Existing studies on mediating effect between digitization and carbon emissions reduction have not adequately explored the role of talent. By selecting Chinese industrial listed enterprises during 2012–2021 as research samples, we apply the mediation model to investigate the influence of digital transformation on carbon performance and to explore the mediating effect of talent. Moreover, the moderated mediation model is used to detect the moderating effects of excess employee and employee density, named employee structure. We find that digital transformation has a positive impact on carbon performance. Talent performs as a mediating function in the link between digital transformation and carbon performance. The mediating effect of talent can be positively moderated by excess employee and employee density, respectively. This positive mediating effect increases with the decrease of excess employee or the increase of employee density. Our research findings suggest that government should encourage entire industrial sector to implement digital transformation, and enterprises should take full advantage of digital transformation for the low-carbon development.