How Climate Commitment Impact Green Technology Innovation in Enterprises: From the Perspectives of Cross-border Knowledge Search and Digital Transformation
Document Type
Research-Article
Journal Name
Journal of the Knowledge Economy
Keywords
Corporate climate commitment, Cross-border knowledge search, Enterprise digital transformation, Green technology innovation, Moderated mediation model
Abstract
Climate change poses a significant challenge to the sustainable survival of humanity, necessitating collaborative efforts from various stakeholders. Enterprises are not only the primary emitters of greenhouse gases but also the ultimate contributors of carbon reduction. Existing studies have established that innovative green low-carbon technologies are crucial for achieving climate goals. Building on this research, we have developed a moderated mediation model and utilized data from a survey of 781 Chinese enterprises to empirically test whether corporate climate commitment promote green technology innovation and whether this relationship is mediated by cross-border knowledge search. Furthermore, we investigate whether the level of digital transformation within enterprises accelerates this mediating process. The empirical findings indicate that corporate climate commitment significantly enhance green technology innovation, both directly and indirectly through the facilitation of cross-border knowledge search. There is no significant difference between proactive knowledge search and reactive knowledge search in the two mediation paths, suggesting that both can effectively mediate the impact of corporate climate commitment on green technology innovation. The degree of digital transformation positively moderates the relationship between corporate climate commitment and proactive knowledge search, while its moderating effect on the relationship between climate commitments and reactive knowledge search is not significant. These results imply that, under corporate climate commitment, a higher degree of digital transformation can facilitate the process of cross-border knowledge search. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of climate commitments, green technology innovation, and digital transformation, and they can assist in the implement corporate climate commitment goals while avoiding “green-washing” behavior by enterprises. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.