Can Data Element Marketization Promote Enterprise Green Innovation? A Quasi-natural Experiment Based on the Establishment of Urban Data Trading Platforms

Zheng Guoqiang, Zhang Xinyuan, Zhao Xinyu

Journal of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Vol. 26, Issue 03, pp. 33 - 48 (2024)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.jsufe.2024.03.003

Summary

Data elements have become an important driving force for green innovation in enterprises, and promoting the market-oriented allocation of data elements is of great significance in releasing the dividend of data elements and strengthening the construction of green innovation systems. Taking the establishment of data trading platforms in various regions as the exogenous impact of data element marketization, this paper takes China’s A-share listed enterprises in 2011-2021 as the research object and empirically examines the impact of data element marketization on enterprise green innovation. The results show that: Data element marketization is conducive to the development of green innovation activities in enterprises, and its transmission mechanism is manifested in three aspects: improving risk-bearing capacity, alleviating financing constraints, and improving the quality of environmental information disclosure. Heterogeneity testing shows that the green innovation effect of data element marketization has heterogeneity characteristics at the enterprise level, industry level, and regional level. For enterprises with a higher level of digitization and ESG performance, high-tech and heavily polluting industries, and regions with a higher level of talent aggregation and financial technology development, the green innovation effect of data element marketization is more significant. The moderation effect test shows that government technology support, property rights protection, and regional marketization level have a moderating effect on the green innovation effect of data element marketization. Further analysis reveals that data element marketization promotes the development of strategic green innovation activities in enterprises, but does not enhance the level of substantive green innovation in enterprises; data element marketization increases the quantity of green innovation in enterprises, but does not achieve the improvement of quality and efficiency in green innovation. This paper provides a new perspective on how to effectively drive green innovation in enterprises in the digital economy era, and also provides empirical evidence for the government to better leverage the green innovation effect of data element marketization.

Keywords

data element marketization; green innovation; risk-bearing; financing constraints; information disclosure