The green innovation effect of intelligent manufacturing: substantive innovation or strategic innovation?

Intelligent manufacturing (IM) is driving a profound change in production methods, and its significance in fostering sustainable development continues to escalate in prominence. Taking IM pilot demonstration projects as natural experiments and Chinese A-share manufacturing companies (2011–2021) as samples, this paper uses a multi-period difference-in-differences model to explore the green innovation (GI) effect of IM. The study found that IM promotes substantive green innovation rather than strategic green innovation for enterprises, indicating that the impact of IM on GI is a qualitative improvement rather than a simple accumulation of quantity. Mechanism analysis shows that IM promotes GI by alleviating financing constraints and optimising human capital structure, and opportunity identification ability strengthens the promotion of IM on GI. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the GI effect of IM is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, and that this effect is primarily observed in non-heavily polluting industries and the eastern region of China. This study helps to understand the microeconomic effects of IM, enriches the research on influencing factors of GI, and provides managerial implications for enterprises to promote GI in the wave of intelligence.