Exploring Dynamic Capability Drivers of Green Innovation at Different Digital Transformation Stages: Evidence from Listed Companies in China

Abstract

Digital transformation has emerged as a pivotal catalyst for corporate green innovation, specifically in the context of the green development of the manufacturing industry. Nevertheless, it is evident that there are significant disparities in the various stages of corporate digital transformation. Furthermore, the precise dynamic capabilities required to propel corporate green innovation at distinct stages of this transformation, along with their underlying influencing mechanisms, remain ambiguous. Drawing on dynamic capabilities, this paper delves into the inherent mechanism of corporate green innovation based on the data of listed companies in the Chinese manufacturing industry. The study reaches the following conclusions: (1) The driving process of digital transformation in green innovation exhibits distinct stage characteristics. Digital transformation significantly enhances the quantity of green innovation in the steering period and has a significant impact on both the quantity and quality of green innovation in the shaping and upgrading periods. Moreover, the shaping period has a stronger impact on quantity, while the upgrading period has a stronger impact on quality. (2) There is an evident evolution and upgrading of dynamic capabilities as digital transformation progresses. Among these capabilities, adaptive capability plays a mediating role in the steering period, and innovative capability plays a mediating role in the upgrading period. (3) Top management teams’ environmental attention plays a positive moderating role in digital-transformation-driven green innovation by strengthening absorptive and innovative capabilities. This study reveals the cascading evolution of dynamic capabilities in the digital transformation stage, explores the synergistic effect of top management teams’ environmental attention and specific dynamic capabilities, and provides management strategies for the “quantitative growth and qualitative enhancement” of corporate green innovation.