Influence of Digital Investment on Enterprise Resilience: A Case Study of Heavily Polluting Industries in A-Shares

In the face of increasing economic uncertainty caused by public health emergencies, geopolitical conflicts and supply chain disruptions, building enterprise resilience has become a key issue for enterprises around the world. Previous studies have mainly focused on the direct impact of digital investment on enterprise resilience. Still, the conclusions are inconsistent, and the characteristics of green development are not fully considered when exploring the relationship between the two. To address this research gap, this study explores how digital investment affects enterprise resilience via green technology innovation. Based on the natural resource-based view and knowledge-based view, we proposed four hypotheses. To test these research hypotheses, we developed four regression models and empirically tested them using a sample of 624 heavily polluting industries in China from 2016 to 2020. Our findings indicate that digital investment positively affects enterprise resilience, with green technology innovation as a partial mediator in this relationship. This study not only confirms the beneficial impact of digital investment on resilience but also contributes to the literature by demonstrating how enterprises can effectively utilize their digital assets for greater resilience. The findings provide two key recommendations for managers: first, companies should continuously adopt and implement digital technologies, as well as increase their digital investment, to better cope with economic downturns and other unexpected events, especially in the context of Industry 4.0 and with a long-term mission of green development; second, attention should be given to the channels through which digital investments influence enterprise resilience, particularly through green technology innovation.