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As major producers in the national economy, industrial enterprises bear great responsibility for carbon emissions. A smart city pilot policy (SCPP) with innovative advantages and environmentally friendly features provides a feasible way to scientifically achieve carbon emission reduction targets while maintaining industrial growth. However, there is a lack of specific understanding of the microscopic carbon reduction mechanisms of the policy. Thus, based on the data of A-share listed industrial firms from 2009 to 2018 in China, this study explores the impact mechanism of the SCPP on the CO2 emissions from industrial firms with the time-varying DID methodology and the mediating effect model. The results demonstrate that the SCPP can curb CO2 emissions from industrial firms in China by 23% by strengthening the intensity of environmental regulation and promoting green technological innovation. Further analysis indicates that the mediating effect of resource allocation efficiency only works in industrial firms in low-carbon industries, not high-carbon industries. In addition, the heterogeneity test suggests a pronounced reduction effect of the SCPP on non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs), and industrial enterprises in low-carbon industries, resource-based cities and eastern China. This paper is of great significance for providing theoretical and practical implications for making rational use of smart city policies to improve the carbon reduction performance of enterprises.

Based on the existing research on environmental regulation (ER) and enterprise innovation, this paper separates green innovation ability from general technological innovation and divides it, from the perspective of motivation, into substantive green innovation (SUBGI) and symbolic green innovation (SYMGI). This paper employs panel data of China's A-share listed enterprise from 2008 to 2018 in a difference-in-difference-in-difference model to construct a quasinatural experiment on the impacts of ER and the green innovation strategy of enterprises. Government subsidies and regulatory capture are used to explore the mechanism between ER and innovation behavior. The results show that ER has a significantly positive effect on green innovation, but its impact on SYMGI and SUBGI decreases. Under the constraints of the ER policy, government subsidies incentivize the green innovation of enterprises, but they are not the main reason for the difference between the two innovation behaviors. Regulatory capture plays a negative moderating role in ER promoting enterprises’ SUBGI and has no significant impact on SYMGI, which is the key factor leading to the difference between the two innovation behaviors. The heterogeneity test suggests a pronounced promotion effect of ER on state-owned enterprises, large enterprises, and growing enterprises. This study provides momentous policy implications for making rational use of environmental policies in promoting enterprises’ green innovation capability, especially high-quality green innovation behavior aimed at promoting enterprises’ green technology progress and gaining competitive advantages.