Digital–Green Collaborative Technological Innovation and Firm Transformation: A Systems Perspective on Total Factor Productivity

Digital and green technological innovations are increasingly viewed as interdependent components of firm transformation, yet their combined effects are still insufficiently understood from a systems perspective. Rather than treating digitalization and greening as separate innovation trajectories, this study conceptualizes their integration as digital–green collaborative technological innovation and examines whether this socio-technical synergy improves firm-level total factor productivity (TFP). Using panel data for Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2022, we construct firm-level measures of digital innovation, green innovation, and their interaction based on patent information, and employ multi-dimensional fixed-effects models to assess their productivity effects. The results show that digital–green collaborative technological innovation significantly improves corporate TFP, and this finding remains robust after addressing potential endogeneity, replacing the TFP measure, excluding information-technology-intensive industries, expanding the sample period, and employing invention patents as an alternative proxy for innovation quality. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the productivity-enhancing effect is more pronounced among non-state-owned enterprises, firms located in central China, and firms operating in regions with stronger intellectual property protection. Further decomposition of TFP reveals that digital–green synergy promotes firm transformation through three channels: improving micro-level production efficiency, optimizing labor allocation efficiency, and enhancing capital allocation efficiency. These findings contribute to systems-oriented research on technological innovation by showing how complementary digital and green capabilities jointly reshape production systems and factor allocation. They also provide practical implications for firms and policymakers seeking to promote sustainable transformation through integrated innovation strategies.