The impact of digital government on the green transformation of enterprises

As the central hub of social management, digital reform has become an imperative task for the government during the information age. With the vigorous digital government (DG) construction and penetration of digital technology, enterprises are also accelerating their green transformation (GT). This paper takes A-share listed enterprises as samples and uses the big data management institution reform policy as a quasi-natural experiment to examine the impact of DG construction on enterprise GT using the difference-in-difference method. The benchmark results show that DG construction can promote enterprise GT, while results of the mechanism verification reveal that DG construction promotes the GT of enterprises by alleviating their financing constraints and improving their digital transformation level. Media attention also exerts a positive moderating effect on the relationship between DG and enterprise GT. Meanwhile, results of a heterogeneity analysis confirm that DG construction has a more significant positive effect on the GT of non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises facing fierce industry competition, and enterprises located in the eastern region. This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between DG construction and corporate GT, further underscores the value of DG construction, and provides useful insights for improving DG development plans, enhancing enterprise GT performance, and achieving sustainable development.