Abstract:
As a new form of trade, digital trade is an important force driving the green technological innovation of enterprises. Based on Chinese firm-level microdata from 2016 to 2022, the article employs a two-way fixed effect model to investigate how digital trade affects the green technological innovation of enterprises. The results show that digital trade can significantly promote the green technological innovation of enterprises. Digital trade has a pronounced impact on the green technological innovation of enterprises in regions with a higher degree of marketization. From the perspective of patent types, digital trade has the most notable effect in promoting green inventive innovation in enterprises. Furthermore, the green technological innovation of non-state-owned and non-high-tech enterprises benefits more from the development of digital trade. Further analysis of the moderating effect model reveals that digital trade attracts FDI inflows. Moreover, the local support and knowledge spillovers from FDI play a positive moderating role in the process of digital trade affecting green technological innovation in enterprises. Therefore, to foster the green technological innovation of enterprises, this paper proposes improving the construction of digital trade infrastructure, optimizing policies related to FDI, applying precise measures to continuously improve the level of marketization, and supporting non-state-owned and non-high-tech enterprises in actively engaging in digital trade activities.