How does Fintech affect green innovation of Chinese heavily polluting enterprises? The mediating role of energy poverty.

Abstract

Corporate green innovation is the crucial driving force to promote green development and realize the construction goal of "Beautiful China." Meanwhile, the development of Fintech creates a more favorable external environment for corporate green innovation. Using the panel data of China's Digital Financial Inclusion Index and Energy Poverty Index at provincial level from 2011 to 2020, this paper studies the influence of Fintech on corporate green innovation by the evidence from Chinese heavily polluting enterprises. Based on stepwise regression, this paper further examines the mediating role of energy poverty, including energy consumption level, energy consumption capacity, and energy consumption structure, in the relationship between Fintech and corporate green innovation. The results show that (1) Fintech contributes to improving the level of green innovation of heavily polluting enterprises; (2) energy poverty acts as a mediator in the process of Fintech's influence on corporate green innovation; (3) Fintech can promote green innovation of heavily polluting enterprises by improving the level of regional energy consumption level, but it fails to influence corporate green innovation through energy consumption capacity and energy consumption structure. These results provide governments and companies with implications on facilitating corporate green innovation so as to further promote green development.