Impact of Digital Transformation on Enterprise Carbon Intensity: The Moderating Role of Digital Information Resources

In the context of China’s “digital power” strategy, the realization of a green and low-carbon shift in manufacturing has become a necessary condition to promote the economy, and the digital factor has increasingly become a new driving force. The text mining and IPCC methods were used to measure manufacturing enterprise digitalization and the level of enterprise carbon emission intensity from 2011 to 2021, respectively. This study then explored the impact of digitalization on manufacturing enterprise carbon emission intensity based on the least squares method model and instrumental variable method model. This research comes to three conclusions. (1) Digitalization can significantly reduce the enterprise carbon emission intensity of China’s manufacturing industry, and the influence shows a “marginal increase.” (2) Notably, a mechanism analysis indicates the intermediary effect sizes of four crucial intermediaries: green technology innovation > financing constraint > information asymmetry > energy use efficiency. Interestingly, digital information resources positively moderate the positive effect of digitalization on carbon emission intensity through three paths: financing constraints, green technology innovation, and information asymmetry. (3) The influence shows evident signs of heterogeneity—as environmental regulation, financial development, executive education, and R&D quality advance, the inhibiting effect of digitalization on enterprise carbon emission intensity becomes more pronounced. Finally, corresponding policy suggestions are proposed.