Does digital transformation promote corporate green innovation? Evidence from Integration of Informatization and Industrialization

Abstract

ABSTRACT Improving green innovation is indispensable for sustainable development. This study uses the gradual promotion of China’s Integration of Informatization and Industrialization (IoII) pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment and employs the difference-in-difference model (DID) to investigate how enterprise digital transformation affects corporate green innovation. We find that digital transformation significantly promotes corporate green innovation, and the results differed between enterprises with different levels of information disclosure quality and pollution. The mechanism is that digital transformation improves corporate internal governance, reduces agency costs, and attracts more external supervision, supervising management to achieve long-term development goals and stimulating their willingness for green innovation. This study provides new evidence for the implementation effects of the IoII pilot policy and expands research on the green innovation value of digital transformation from the perspective of internal governance and external supervision.