Green Development in the Age of Big Data: Comprehensive Big Data Pilot Zones and Green Transformation of Enterprises

Abstract

Abstract: Driving green development through digitalization is the only way to promote the construction of ecological civilization in China. Based on the data of Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2022, this paper uses the establishment of a comprehensive big data pilot zone as a quasi-natural experiment to empirically examine its impact on the green transformation of enterprises from the perspectives of environmental performance, economic performance, and green innovation. It is found that the comprehensive big data pilot zone has a positive impact on enterprises' environmental performance, economic performance and green innovation, thus leading to green transformation. Based on the external perspective, it can be seen that the comprehensive big data pilot zone promotes the green transformation of enterprises by enhancing external attention and promoting the agglomeration of regional information service industries; based on the internal perspective, it is found that the big data comprehensive pilot zone promotes the green transformation of enterprises by enhancing their management capabilities and optimizing their human capital structure. Heterogeneity analyses reveals that for enterprises with higher environmental investment and non-state-owned enterprises, the big data comprehensive pilot zone exhibits a stronger facilitating effect on enterprise green transformation. From an industry perspective, the promoting effect of environmental performance is mainly concentrated in heavily polluting industries and environmentally regulated industries, while the promoting effect for economic performance and green innovation is reflected in non-heavily polluting industries and non-environmentally regulated industries. This paper not only reveals the effect of digital economy policies in the green transformation of enterprises, but also provides policy insights for the government to grasp the opportunities of digital economy development and promote digitalization-driven green transformation.

Key words: digitalalization policy, enterprise, green transformation

Li Jia, Wu Jingyi. Green Development in the Age of Big Data: Comprehensive Big Data Pilot Zones and Green Transformation of Enterprises[J]. Management Review, 2026, 38(5): 42-55.

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