Digital Transformation and Green Investment: The Mediating Role of Green Technological Innovation and Environmental Uncertainty

With the continuous advancement of digitization in traditional industries, digital transformation has become one of the key elements for enterprises to enhance their competitiveness and achieve sustainable development. This study aims to explore how digital transformation affects corporate green investment through green technological innovation and environmental uncertainty, and to validate whether corporate ESG performance and CSR can play a moderating role between digital transformation and green technological innovation. Based on the construction of the theoretical model, further empirical analysis is conducted using unbalanced panel data from 2010 to 2021. The results show that: (1) Digital transformation significantly increases the scale of green investment in enterprises. This conclusion remains valid after using multiple instrumental variables for causal identification. (2) Digital transformation can increase the scale of green investment in enterprises through two paths: improving the level of internal green technological innovation and reducing external micro-environmental uncertainty. (3) Good ESG performance and a high level of CSR in enterprises can positively moderate digital transformation, affecting green investment through technological innovation levels and environmental uncertainty. This study not only enriches the research on digital transformation but also provides policy recommendations for policymakers in promoting green investment and addressing environmental uncertainty.