Digital Transformation and Corporate Environmental Green Innovation Nexus: An Approach towards Green Innovation Improvement

The impact of digital transformation on green innovation is widely discussed. However, existing studies mainly focus on the impact of the digital transformation of enterprises and fintech company development on environmental green innovation, while ignoring the effect of the digital transformation of commercial banks (DTCB) on corporate green innovation. Therefore, to fill the research gap, this paper explores the impact of DTCB on environmental green innovation in companies based on the data of listed companies from 2010 to 2019. This study finds that DTCB has significantly promoted enterprises’ environmental green innovation. Mechanism analysis shows that DTCB can promote green environmental innovation by increasing R&D expenditures and reducing agency costs. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that DTCB can only promote the green environmental innovation of private enterprises and enterprises with a high degree of digital transformation, but it cannot promote the green environmental innovation of state-owned enterprises and enterprises with a low degree of digital transformation. From the perspective of DTCB, this paper enriches the research on the relationship between digital finance and enterprise environmental green innovation. The government should promote the digital transformation of enterprises to utilize the green innovation effect of DTCB.