Can digital finance promote green innovation collaboration in enterprises?

Abstract

Due to limited green innovation capabilities and motivation, enterprises opt for collaborative green innovation. However, the green innovation collaboration output across countries remains insufficient, and global climate risks continue to be severe. Previous research has largely focused on the relationship between digital technologies and green innovation, but there is a lack of exploration on the connection between digital finance and corporate green innovation collaboration. This paper utilizes panel data from 23,865 observations of Chinese enterprises from 2011 to 2022, using Python text analysis to construct an enterprise-level digital finance application index. The empirical results show that digital finance significantly promotes the level of green innovation collaboration, and the findings remain valid after a series of robustness tests. Furthermore, this study finds that digital finance enhances green innovation collaboration through three channels: promoting green investment, improving green total factor productivity, and reducing greenwashing behaviors. Further analysis of the internal and external synergies of digital finance reveals that enterprises applying digital finance models promote green innovation collaboration outputs between the enterprise and its subsidiaries. However, the positive impact on green innovation collaboration with supply chains is only observed in high-end green innovation collaborations. The aim of this study is to provide theoretical support for enhancing the level of green innovation collaboration in enterprises under the development of digital finance, offering reasonable suggestions for governments in formulating financial development strategies and green sustainable development policies.