Artificial Intelligence and Green Innovation in Chinese Enterprises: From the Perspective of Resource Allocation

Abstract

The rise of artificial intelligence offers a critical opportunity to drive green innovation and advance sustainable development. However, the existing literature lacks sufficient systematic exploration of the relationship between the two from the resource allocation perspective. Taking initial application scenarios of artificial intelligence among Chinese enterprises as the research context, this paper employs a multiple mediation and threshold model to systematically examine its linear and nonlinear influencing mechanisms, so as to further enhance the green innovation-driven effect of artificial intelligence. The research findings show that (1) at the initial application stage, artificial intelligence can facilitate both substantive and strategic green innovation simultaneously, and such impacts present significant heterogeneity across industries and enterprise property rights. (2) Mechanism analysis verifies the existence of parallel and chain mediating effects of financing constraints, R&D investment, and labor force quality between artificial intelligence and green innovation. (3) The threshold effect test suggests that the impacts of artificial intelligence on green innovation and substantive green innovation feature a single threshold centered on corporate ESG performance, while no threshold effect is observed for strategic green innovation. This study provides a reliable theoretical and practical reference for enterprises to leverage artificial intelligence to advance green transformation and sustainable development.