Artificial intelligence and green product innovation: Moderating effect of organizational capital

Abstract

Green product innovation (GPDI) is crucial for addressing ecological issues and essential for enterprises' green operations and long-term growth. Digitization offers new possibilities for enhancing corporate green practices. Nevertheless, previous studies have predominantly addressed the association between overall digitalization and corporate green innovation, and research on the outcome of specific digital technology categories on green innovation is lacking. Within this framework, this study broadens the investigation into the connection between distinct categories of digital technologies and corporate green innovation. The period 2013–2022 was selected as the sample observation period, with companies listed on China's A-share market as the study objects. The fixed-effects model was applied to investigate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on firms' GPDI while exploring the interaction effect of firms' organizational capital. The findings indicate that AI is beneficial to GPDI in businesses. This effect is enhanced by employee and board human capital but diminished by board social capital. These results remained valid after two-stage least squares regression. This study broadens the utilization of the resource-based view and dynamic capacity theory in business implementation. Furthermore, it extends the resulting study of AI and provides a digital enhancement pathway for corporate GPDI. This study has significant theoretical and practical implications.