PROMOTING GREEN TRANSFORMATION OF INTELLIGENT MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES: BASED ON ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS, DIGITAL ECONOMY AND CAPITAL ALLOCATION EFFICIENCY

With the development of the digital economy and the guidance of environmental regulation, more and more companies are embarking on a green transition. Capital allocation is an important guarantee for the long-term development of enterprises, and efficient capital allocation can better help enterprises carry out green transformation. Therefore, this paper makes recommendations for the green transformation of companies by examining the relationship between environmental regulations, digital economy and capital allocation efficiencies. The listed enterprises of intelligent manufacturing in China are selected from 2015 to 2021 as a sample. The results show that environmental regulations inhibit capital allocation efficiencies, and the digital economy promotes them. For high-tech-capital enterprises, capital allocation efficiencies are more subject to the synergistic effect of environmental regulations and the digital economy. In contrast, environmental regulations exert a more inhibitory effect on capital allocation efficiencies of high-knowledge-capital enterprises. The influence of environmental regulations on capital allocation efficiencies is affected by the dual-threshold effect of the digital economy. In contrast, the single-threshold effect of environmental regulations influences that of the digital economy on capital allocation efficiencies. With the digital economy’s development, environmental regulations’ influence on enterprises’ capital allocation efficiencies shifts from an inhibitory effect to a promoting effect. The digital economy plays a critical role in improving capital allocation efficiencies and the inhibitory effects of environmental regulations. The government should consider the threshold effects of the digital economy and environmental regulations when developing strategies for greening business transformation. Furthermore, specific policies made for intelligent manufacturing enterprises with high-tech-capital factors are necessary to effectively counteract the inhibitory effects of environmental regulations on their allocation efficiencies.