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Catalyst or stumbling block: do green finance policies affect digital transformation of heavily polluting enterprises?

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Abstract

In recent years, China’s green finance policies (GFP) have been successively introduced and continuously strengthened, and the effects have been widely observed. Using data from 2007 to 2021, this study employed a continuous double difference model to examine the impact of GFP on the digital transformation (DT) of heavily polluting enterprises (HPEs), as well as its underlying mechanisms. Our results show that GFP is a stumbling block rather than a catalyst that hinders the DT’s enthusiasm of HPEs, and it plays an inhibitory role by increasing financing costs and financing constraints. Further analysis suggests that the GFP effect on HPEs exhibits asymmetry across regions and executive characteristics. HPEs in reform and innovation regions and with highly educated executive teams can mitigate the stumbling block effect. Our research offers fresh perspectives for enterprises to handle policy shocks, devise future development strategies, and establish a policy foundation for the advancement of green finance.

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Data will be made available on request.

Notes

  1. SA = (−0.737 ∗ Size) + (0.043 ∗ Size2) − (0.04 ∗ Age))

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Funding

We acknowledge the support and funding from the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 20BGL087).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 255000, China

    Yujie Huang, Fuping Bai, Mengting Shang & Bohan Liang

Authors
  1. Yujie Huang
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  2. Fuping Bai
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  3. Mengting Shang
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  4. Bohan Liang
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Contributions

Yujie Huang: conceptualization; investigation; resources; visualization; roles/writing — original draft; writing — review and editing. Fuping Bai: conceptualization; supervision; funding acquisition; project administration; roles/writing — original draft; writing — review and editing. Mengting Shang: formal analysis; data curation; methodology; resources; software; validation; writing — review and editing. Bohan Liang: resources; supervision; writing — review and editing.

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Correspondence to Fuping Bai.

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Huang, Y., Bai, F., Shang, M. et al. Catalyst or stumbling block: do green finance policies affect digital transformation of heavily polluting enterprises?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 89036–89048 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28650-2

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