Research on the impact of the integration of digital economy and real economy on enterprise green innovation

Enhancing the green innovation capability of enterprises holds pivotal significance in achieving the “dual carbon” target. The integration of digital economy and real economy provides new ideas for promoting green innovation in enterprises. Based on the Chinese A-share listed companies panel data from 2011 to 2022, this paper empirically tests the impact of the integration of the digital economy and real economy on enterprise green innovation. The results show that integrating the digital economy and the real economy significantly positively affects green innovation. Improving the integration level of the digital and real economies is conducive to promoting green innovation. Intrinsic mechanisms show significant mediating effects on financing constraints, enterprise digital transformation, and corporate social responsibility. The integration of the digital and real economies can promote enterprise green innovation by alleviating enterprise financing constraints, driving enterprise digital transformation, and promoting corporate social responsibility. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of integrating the digital and real economies on enterprise green innovation affects state-owned enterprises more than private enterprises. The effect on small enterprises is significantly positive at the 1 % confidence level; however, the impact on the green innovation of large enterprises is not significant.