This study adopts a systemic perspective to investigate how China’s carbon emissions trading pilot (CCTPP) influences the internal configuration of the firm as a complex socio-technical system. We focus on the emergent property of digital–green synergy, which captures the integration between a firm’s digital and green transformation subsystems. Employing a panel dataset of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2024 and an event-study difference-in-differences methodology, we analyze the response of this system-level property to carbon market signals. The results demonstrate that policy intervention significantly enhances systemic synergy, with an effect equivalent to 4.4 percent of the standard deviation of the synergy index. The response follows a dynamic pattern, persisting for four years before gradually diminishing, thereby revealing the system’s adaptation process. Critically, the internal structure of the firm-system moderates this response, as financing constraints, executive compensation, and firm size represent key components of governance and resource-allocation subsystems and each exerts a significant negative moderating effect. Furthermore, environmental context matters, with the policy effect concentrating on firms located in central and southern regions and within non-manufacturing and non-high-tech sectors. These findings offer a system-based understanding of how carbon pricing interacts with corporate governance to facilitate integrated socio-technical transitions.
Li et al. (2026) studied this question.