How digital transformation drives corporate environmental performance in China

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the global low-carbon transition and the rapid development of the digital economy, digital transformation has become an important driver of corporate environmental performance. Drawing on the resource-based view and the exploration–exploitation distinction in ambidexterity theory, this study examines how digital transformation affects corporate environmental performance through two parallel green capability channels and how digital technology innovation conditions this relationship. Using panel data for Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2009 to 2023, the results show that digital transformation significantly improves corporate environmental performance. This conclusion remains robust after using a lagged explanatory variable, restricting the sample to an alternative recent-period window, controlling for province fixed effects, and applying an instrumental-variable approach. Heterogeneity analyses show that the effect is stronger in non-heavy-polluting enterprises, enterprises without prior-year losses, enterprises without financial-institution shareholdings, and enterprises receiving standard audit opinions. Green technological innovation and green debt financing each partially mediate the relationship between digital transformation and corporate environmental performance. Digital technology innovation strengthens the positive relationship between digital transformation and corporate environmental performance.