Financing the Twin Transition: How Patent Pledges Leverage Intangible Assets for Digital–Green Synergistic Transformation

ABSTRACT Against the backdrop of aligning digital expansion with green growth objectives, exploring effective financial support pathways for firms' digital–green synergistic transformation (DGST) holds significant theoretical and practical value. This study examines the impact, mechanisms, and heterogeneity of patent pledge financing on firms' DGST, using data from Chinese A‐share listed companies between 2010 and 2022. The results show: First, patent pledges significantly promote DGST, and this finding remains robust after robustness checks and endogeneity treatments. Second, mechanism analysis confirms that alleviating financing constraints and optimizing innovation structure are the key channels through which patent pledges drive DGST; by addressing funding bottlenecks and improving the allocation of innovation resources, they provide dual support for integrated digital–green development. In addition, patent pledges enhance managerial incentives, further promoting DGST. Third, we uncover significant regional and corporate divergence in how patent pledges drive DGST. The impact intensifies for high‐tech entities and those with robust banking ties and large‐scale firms, whereas regional factors such as heightened green commitment and digital maturity further amplify these benefits. Fourth, debt default risk weakens the positive effect of patent pledges on DGST. Moreover, both digital patent pledges and green patent pledges significantly promote DGST, whereas only invention patent pledges exhibit a significant transformation effect, highlighting the importance of patent quality and financing capacity. This study enriches the literature on intellectual property finance and DGST, offering empirical evidence and policy implications for improving patent pledge financing systems and promoting high‐quality corporate transformation.