Identifying the coupling coordination relationship between cold chain logistics and green finance and its driving factors: evidence from China

Achieving the coordination and symbiosis of cold chain logistics and green finance is notably critical for promoting regional green and sustainable development. However, The existing research on the coupling coordination relationship between cold chain logistics and green finance, as well as its driving factors, remains limited and lacks in-depth analysis. This study portrays the coupling coordination degree (CCD) from the perspectives of measurement, spatial patterns, and driving factors in China with multi-source data and the optimal parameters-based geographical detector. Results show that the CCD in China demonstrates an overall increasing trend of fluctuations, along with obvious regional differences. The spatial distribution of the CCD demonstrates a positive correlation, characterized by H-H and L-L clustering. The spatial pattern of the CCD is high in the eastern, southern regions and low in the western, northern regions, this gap is gradually narrowing between the east and west, south and north gap is widening. This spatial pattern is marked by infrastructure, economic factors, human capital, energy intensity, technological factors, and natural factors. Notably, the interactive impact among human capital, financial markets, and digital intelligence technology contributes to further integration, with the impact of individual factors ranging from 7.11 to 632.79%. It offers valuable implications for policymakers and logistics companies for sustainable development, and contributes empirical insights to emerging countries.