Relationship between the digital economy, resource allocation and corporate carbon emission intensity: new evidence from listed Chinese companies

Abstract

Many studies have focused on the relationship between the digital economy and carbon emissions at the macro level. However, there is a relative dearth of research on this relationship at the micro level. In this study, we determined the impact of the digital economy on the carbon emissions of individual companies and the mediating role of resource allocation in this relationship using data from listed Chinese manufacturing companies between 2011 and 2019. This analysis yielded three main findings. First, based on firm-level carbon emissions and the borderless organization theory, we found that the digital economy significantly reduced corporate carbon emission intensity. Second, the digital economy reduced resource misallocation and improved resource efficiency, which in turn reduced corporate carbon emission intensity. Third, market drivers and government regulations improved and hindered the ability of the digital economy to reduce corporate carbon emission intensity, respectively. These findings provide evidence for the need for government investment in the development of digital technologies and corporate digitization; the use of digital technologies by businesses to improve resource and energy efficiency; and minimal government regulation of the digital economy in favor of self-regulation through market forces. These measures are important for economic transformation and the achievement of carbon neutrality in emerging developing countries, including China.

Corporate social responsibility, financing constraints, and corporate carbon intensity: new evidence from listed Chinese companies

“…Considering that CSR reports in China do not disclose corporate carbon emissions and the availability of data, corporate carbon emission data are obtained from the sub-sector carbon emission data released by the China Carbon Accounting Database. The China Carbon Accounting Database is a carbon emission disclosure platform operated by Tsinghua University, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and others (Shan et al 2018 ), which measures province-level, city-level, and sub-sector carbon emissions using a multi-scale carbon emission accounting method (Chen, 2022 ). Our research selected sub-sector carbon emission data were calculated based on carbon emissions from direct fossil combustion and indirect production processes (Wei et al 2022 ; Guan et al 2021 ).…”

Does digital economy development reduce carbon emission intensity?

“…Intelligent production process reduces energy waste, and improves energy utilization. Digital economy improves resource allocation by improving resource search and resource utilization efficiency, which helps to reduce undesired output in the production process and reduce carbon emission intensity (Chen, 2022). Based on this, hypothesis 3 is proposed.…”

Exploring the Mechanism of the Impact of Green Finance and Digital Economy on China’s Green Total Factor Productivity

“…As an emerging economy, the digital economy has a significant impact on the new information industry revolution, so the development of the digital economy puts forward new requirements for the policy system in the industrial economy era. On the one hand, the digital economy improves the efficiency of resource allocation through digital technologies, and this more efficient way of production contributes to [ 39 , 40 ]. It has been shown in the literature that the digital economy contributes to mainly through green technological change [ 41 ].…”