How Corporate Digital Capabilities Drive ESG Performance: A Study Based on Low-Carbon Innovation

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the rapid development of the digital economy, how enterprises can improve their ESG performance through digital capabilities has become a vital topic for high-quality development. This paper constructs a mediating effect model focusing on the correlations among corporate digital capabilities, low-carbon innovation and corporate ESG performance, and empirically tests the influencing mechanism of digital capabilities on corporate ESG performance. The research results show that corporate digital capabilities can significantly boost corporate ESG performance, which indicates that the accumulation of data assets and the improvement of digital capabilities help enterprises elevate their ESG performance; digital capabilities can prominently facilitate corporate low-carbon innovation, and low-carbon innovation exerts a partial mediating effect in the process where digital capabilities affect corporate ESG performance. From the perspective of low-carbon innovation, this paper reveals the internal path through which digital capabilities empower corporate ESG performance, and provides references for enterprises to advance the coordinated development of digitalization and green transformation.