Two-way empowerment or one-way game? The impact of data factor endowment matching on enterprises’ green efficiency

Abstract

Data factors are widely used in global production and governance, but the periodic friction they cause is still one of the main problems restricting high-quality economic and ecological development. However, studies have focused only on unilateral governance. Given the inherent limitations and research gaps, how to empower firms’ green total factor productivity through multi-factors resonance has become an urgent issue. For this purpose, using the micro-data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2009 to 2018, a framework from digital and institutional governance for analyzing synergies was defined through the SBM, entropy weight TOPSIS, and system coupling models that measured green total factor productivity and co-evolution of data and environmental governance factors. Their causal linkages were further explored through the fixed-effects model, which not only applies “digital governance inclusion” as an emerging research touchpoint to theoretical research on green development, but also provides China’s micro-empirical references for global digitally-empowered environmental governance. The study found that: (1) The synergy between multi-factors stimulated green total factor productivity, but did not significantly drive a dramatic increase in its rise. (2) Influence mechanisms confirmed that endowments matching unlock human and innovation dividends, optimizing skill structure and expanding innovation boundary, thus promoting green efficiency. (3) The spillover paths indicated that the multi-endowments effect creates secondary diffusion upstream and downstream along the supply chain, which is not only constrained by a significant single threshold, but also exhibits industry heterogeneity. This study provides coping strategies for global policymakers to build a digital green development engine in all fields and multiple dimensions.