The Impact of Green Technology Innovation's Mediating Role on Digital Empowerment

Over the past few years, digital technologiesranging from 5G and cloud computing to AI and blockchainhave undergone unprecedented, breakthrough innovations. Concurrently, tightening resource endowments and environmental constraints have elevated global awareness of energy conservation and carbon neutrality. Against this backdrop, this study explores the potential mediating role of innovation in green technology in facilitating the translation of digital empowerment into two key outcomes: green high-quality economic growth at the macro-level, and carbon performance at the level of individual firms. Balanced panel data on Chinese A-share manufacturing firms (20152023), augmented by longitudinal cases of Baosteel, Maersk, and Siemens, enable the application of threshold regression and bootstrap mediation analysis to pinpoint non-linear turning points and quantify indirect effects. Empirical evidence reveals that digital empowerment significantly fosters green high-quality development, but its efficacy is transmitted mainly via accelerated green technology innovation; the relationship is U-shaped, exhibits pronounced industry heterogeneity, and is strongly moderated by regional environmental regulation intensity. These findings enrich the digitalgreen nexus literature, offering targeted theoretical insights and practical guidance for corporate strategy and policymaking under Chinas dual carbon goals.