Evolutionary game study on green finance promoting low-carbon production in manufacturing enterprises under the industrial internet platform

Industrial Internet platforms are emerging as a key driver of digital transformation and low-carbon transition in manufacturing by integrating next-generation digital technologies with industrial production. At the same time, green finance has become an important policy instrument for supporting industrial decarbonization. However, how digital empowerment and green finance jointly shape manufacturing enterprises’ low-carbon production decisions remains insufficiently understood. Here, we develop a three-party evolutionary game model involving industrial Internet platforms, platform-affiliated manufacturing enterprises, and banks based on digital empowerment theory, sustainable development theory, and evolutionary game theory. Dynamic simulations are conducted to investigate the strategic interactions and evolutionary dynamics among these stakeholders under different scenarios. We find that the initial strategic choices of all participants influence the evolutionary trajectories and equilibrium outcomes of the system. For industrial Internet platforms, the cost of providing digital empowerment services, the digital empowerment cost coefficient, and the basic empowerment cost substantially shape manufacturing enterprises’ willingness to adopt low-carbon production. On the financial side, banks’ net returns from green credit, green lending interest rates, and the additional revenue generated through green credit further strengthen enterprises’ incentives to pursue low-carbon production strategies. These results demonstrate that effective digital empowerment and well-designed green financial incentives reinforce one another in facilitating the low-carbon transformation of manufacturing enterprises. Our findings highlight the importance of accelerating the development and diffusion of industrial Internet platforms while improving the design of green financial mechanisms to promote sustainable manufacturing. The study also provides new insights into the micro-level interaction mechanisms among digital platforms, manufacturing enterprises, and financial institutions, offering theoretical support and practical guidance for optimizing green finance policies and advancing high-quality, low-carbon industrial development.