Does Digital Finance Induce Improved Financing for Green Technological Innovation in China?

Abstract

Sustained and stable external financing, affected by the financial environment, is a necessary condition to support the green technological innovation of enterprises. This paper focuses on the impact of bettering the financial environment of digital finance on enterprise green technological innovation, as well as the mediating role of financing costs and financial flexibility in this process. Using China’s data on manufacturing enterprises listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2011 to 2018, the hypotheses are tested. The result suggests the following: (a) digital finance effectively promotes enterprises to carry out green technological innovation, specifically, the coverage and depth of digital finance can promote enterprises’ green technological innovation, but the degree of digitization has no significant impact; (b) digital finance improves the financial environment by making up the shortage of traditional financial system through reducing financing problems such as “financing difficulty,” “matching difficulty,” and “supervision difficulty,” which make effective contributions to enterprise green technological innovation; (c) financing costs negatively mediate the relationship between digital finance and enterprise green technological innovation, while financial flexibility positively mediates the relationship. Overall, our findings shed light on the role digital finance plays in shaping corporate environmental behavior—and ultimately innovation in sustainability—in financing constraint setting.