Digital transformation, board characteristics, and environmental performance are increasingly important in the field of corporate sustainability. However, despite the growing literature on digital transformation, there is a paucity of literature that considers board characteristics. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between digital transformation and environmental performance from the perspective of board characteristics. Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2019 were taken as the original data, the moderating effect of the board characteristics was tested by using the moderating effect model. We find that digital transformation can significantly improve corporate environmental performance. A low willingness to digital transformation was showed in the board of directors with age diversity, nationality diversity, shareholding concentration, and political connections. In contrast, digital transformation strategies were preferred in the boards with more female directors and higher educational backgrounds. Our study is of significant value for companies undergoing digital transformation.

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.

As Industry 4.0 is seen as the core industrial stage for achieving sustainable development, more and more scholars are exploring the practical effects of Industry 4.0. This paper evaluates the impact of digital transformation on business sustainability, explores whether digital transformation breaks down perceptions, and examines the mechanisms by which it works. First, we measured the digital transformation of each firm using textual analysis. and found that the coefficient of digital transformation is 0.006 on corporate sustainability at the 1% significant level. Secondly, we found that digital transformation eases knowledge flow barriers and makes knowledge more accessible to firms. Firms with higher digital transformation attract more skilled people, which can create talent barriers. Digital transformation can exacerbate firms’ industry monopolies, while increasing the proportion of boardroom women and the inclusion of older members sends positive signals to outsiders. Finally, we find that low costs, high labor productivity, high innovation and low cost of sales are important channels for digital transformation. In addition, digital transformation increases the management costs of firms.

Global climate change is profoundly affecting human survival and development and is a major challenge facing the international community today. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of renewable energy consumption and green innovation on CO 2 emission reduction in E7 countries within the framework of macroeconomic indicators, and whether they can contribute to achieving carbon neutrality targets. To achieve the purpose of the study, firstly, the fully modified OLS, dynamic OLS, classical cointegration regression, Bayer–Hanck cointegration, and ARDL bounds test are employed in this study. The existence of a long-term cointegration or long-term linkage is confirmed by empirical evidence. Secondly, the empirical outcomes of FMOLS, DOLS, and CCR reveal that a 1% increase in renewable energy consumption and financial innovation reduces the CO 2 emissions by 0.357% (0.301%), 0.428% (0.336%), and 0.348% (0.306%), while a 1% rise in economic growth and inflation raises the CO 2 emissions by 0.881% (0.015%), 0.946% (0.043%), and 0.875 (0.022%), respectively. Similarly, the results of ARDL demonstrate that renewable energy consumption and financial innovation contribute to the improvement of environmental quality, while economic growth and inflation exacerbate the deterioration of environmental quality. However, green innovation has no apparent impact on environmental sustainability. Finally, in the short term, the paths of renewable energy consumption and economic growth on environmental sustainability under macroeconomic conditions are almost identical to those in the long term, while green innovation significantly improves the environmental quality of economic development in E7 countries. To sum up, to achieve sustainable economic and environmental development in the context of carbon neutrality, policy makers in developing countries should fully consider the role of renewable energy and green innovation, and actively strive to promote green and low-carbon energy development, to make new contributions to global environmental governance.

The existing literature on smart city pilots mainly focuses on the city level and rarely addresses the firm level. This paper assesses the impact of smart city pilot policy (SCP) on firms’ total factor productivity (TFP) and explores the impact of SCP under different heterogeneities as well as the mechanisms of action of the SCP. The LP approach is used in this paper to measure firms’ TFP, and the impact of SCP is analyzed by the DID model with firms’ panel data from 2009 to 2019 as research objects. First, it was found that the SCP can significantly increase the TFP of firms (0.041). Second, through heterogeneity analysis, we found that SCP can strengthen the monopoly position of monopolistic firms and state-owned enterprises. Moreover, the SCP can also alleviate the development imbalance of TFP between firms in coastal and non-coastal areas. In addition, SCP can significantly improve TFP of heavy polluting enterprises. Finally, we find that the important ways for SCP to improve firms’ TFP is increasing investment in technological innovation, talent agglomeration, attracting financing, improving resource allocation efficiency, and digital transformation. The study provides unique insights for policy makers and business managers in China and other emerging countries to enhance TFP and achieve corporate sustainable development.