Marketization of Data Elements and Enterprise Green Governance Performance: A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on Data Trading Platforms

Green corporate governance not only contributes to the sustainable development of enterprises but also promotes the overall environmental improvement of society, achieving a win–win situation for both the economy and the environment. With the development and progress of society, data factors have become a key motivator for corporate green governance, and the promotion of marketization of data elements (MDE) is of great significance in releasing data factor dividends and strengthening the green development system. It is particularly important to clarify the correlation between enterprise green governance performance (GGP) and data factor marketization as a necessary path for the sustainable development of Chinese enterprises. Using data from listed firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2010 to 2022, as well as the creation of a data trading platform as a quasi-natural experiment for building data factor markets, this research investigates the impacts of MDE on GGP. We found that MDE significantly contributes to GGP. After going through several robustness tests, this conclusion holds up. The mechanism verifies that data factor marketization promotes GGP by enhancing firms' innovation capability, optimizing data utilization, and alleviating firms' financing constraints. Through heterogeneity analysis, this paper explores how enhancing human capital level, developing high-tech firms, and developing digital finance can further contribute to the promotional effect of data factor marketization on firms' GGP. Finally, the analysis of economic consequences finds that data factor marketization not only enhances the GGP of enterprises but also brings about economic effects and enhances the value of enterprises. This paper effectively identifies the green governance effect of data factor marketization from the GGP perspective, which offers crucial policy recommendations for advancing GGP in the era of big data.