Artificial intelligence and firm green innovation: empirical evidence from the application of robots in China

In promoting the development of intelligence worldwide, the transformation of enterprise production modes driven by intelligence can improve green manufacturing. The impact of intelligent development on Chinese enterprises’ green innovation are investigated based on multisource heterogeneous data. Research shows that the green innovation of firms significantly benefits from intelligent development, and this conclusion is still valid when the endogeneity problem and a series of robustness analyses are considered. The heterogeneity analyses reveal that the effect of intelligent development on green innovation is more obvious for state-owned enterprises, enterprises with high market concentrations, and firms in the central and western regions of China. The mechanism analyses indicate that intelligence can expand production scales, optimize the allocation of factors, and promote R&D investment. Through the scale effect, allocation effect, and R&D effect, enterprises' green innovation can be improved. The analyses of the spillover effect show that the improvement of green innovation through intelligent development not only overflows from upstream to downstream industries but also overflows from downstream to upstream industries; a linkage effect is created, which fosters collaborative innovation between upstream and downstream firms.