Search

In the digital era, digitalization brings great opportunities and challenges for cities' environmental governance and economic growth. However, it is worth noting that the impact of digitalization on cities' green transition has not been studied from the perspective of Metcalfe's Law. This paper uses the principal component method and non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) to calculate the digital development level and the green economic performance of 269 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019. (1) The empirical findings demonstrate that digitalization has become a strong driver for cities' green economic transformation. (2) Digitalization indirectly promotes green transition through industrial structure optimization and green technological innovation. (3) The heterogeneity results show that the positive effect of digitalization on green development is more obvious in eastern and economically developed cities. (4) Using the partially linear functional-coefficient model (PLFC), this paper studies the non-linear nexus between digitalization and green economic transition from the perspective of Metcalfe's Law. Thus, Metcalfe's law is confirmed in the green transition of Chinese cities. Some policy recommendations are offered for realizing the coordinated development of digitalization and greening of the urban economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting industrial digitalization and deepening regional collaborative innovation is essential for achieving urban green and sustainable development. This paper constructs a differential game model based on theoretical analysis and reveals the influence mechanism of industrial digitalization and regional collaborative innovation on urban green development efficiency (GDE). After that, this paper uses the entropy method, Super-SBM model, and improved gravity model to measure the level of industrial digitalization, urban GDE, and regional collaborative innovation, respectively. Then, this paper constructs the fixed-effects model, SDM model, moderating-effects model, and threshold model, then uses the panel data of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration during 2011–2020 for empirical testing. The results show that: (1) industrial digitalization significantly improves urban GDE. (2) Overall, 2011–2015 is the rapid development period of BTH industry digitalization, and 2015–2020 is its stable development period. However, there are apparent spatial differences and imbalances. (3) Industrial digitalization has a significant spatial spillover effect that can enhance local and surrounding cities' GDE. (4) Regional collaborative innovation can directly enhance urban GDE, and has a positive moderating effect on industrial digitalization to enhance urban GDE. (5) The regional collaborative innovation has two thresholds of 3.9851 and 6.6184. With the collaborative innovation level improving, the main effect intensity steadily increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous advancement of the digital economy and green development strategies, exploring the impact of digital transformation on corporate green technology innovation becomes an importantly urgent issue. Based on the perspectives of asymmetric effects and structural breakpoints, this paper empirically analyses the effect of digital transformation on green technology innovation, as well as its heterogeneity and non-linear characteristics, using fixed effect models and panel threshold model with a sample of Chinese A-share-listed corporates from 2011 to 2021. The findings suggest that digital transformation of corporates can significantly promotes green technology innovation, which remains valid after a series of endogenous and robustness tests. Heterogeneous regression results shows that digital transformation exhibits an asymmetric impact on green technology innovation, with greater incentive effect for state-owned corporates, manufacturing corporates, and corporates located in areas with stricter environmental regulations. Additionally, threshold effect analyses prove that a positive non-linear relationship between digital transformation and green technology innovation, when corporate human capital, industry competition and regional institutional quality exceeded their respective structural breakpoints, the marginal contribution of digital transformation is further strengthened. This research provides clearer policy insights for corporates to promote cleaner production and low carbon development through digitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deconstructs industrial green transformation into two aspects, industrial efficiency green transformation and industrial structure green transformation. We examine the impact of digital finance development on industrial green transformation using data from Chinese cities and listed companies. The results showed that: (1) digital finance can contribute to the green transformation of industrial structure distinctly but has an inhibiting effect on the green transformation of industrial efficiency. (2) Digital finance can promote capital-using technological progress and support industrial green transformation with its price effect and scale effect. (3) Higher government environmental preferences and governance capacity can strengthen the green transformation effect of digital finance. Strengthening financial supervision and narrowing the digital divide will help digital finance better support industrial green transformation. Digital finance development can more effectively promote the industrial green transformation of non-SOEs and enterprises with high financing constraints and high financial dependence. (4) Considering the financial attributes and highly polluting characteristics of real estate, digital finance exacerbates the pollution of the real estate industry. This study helps clarify the mechanism of digital finance supporting green development and provides some ideas for China's digital finance development and green economy transformation. • Deconstructing the industry green transformation (IGT) into EFFI and STRU. • Analyzing the synergistic effects of digital finance on the EFFI and STRU of the industry green transformation. • The positive impact of digital finance on the industry green transformation is statistically significant and robust. • The green transformation incentive effect of digital finance has significant heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]