How the Digital Economy Shapes Green Competitiveness: Empirical Evidence from China

In the context of global efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, green competitiveness has become a vital pillar for enterprises striving toward sustainable development. The digital economy, characterized by its capacity to optimize resource allocation and foster green innovation, plays an increasingly pivotal role in enhancing firms’ green competitiveness.To address this, the study employs a fixed-effects model and incorporates both mediation and threshold analyses to explore how the digital economy influences green competitiveness, while further identifying the optimal strategic conditions that enhance this relationship.The results indicate that:(1)The digital economy significantly enhances green competitiveness; however, the degree of its impact varies depending on the level of green finance, the maturity of the technology market, and the progress of digital transformation;(2) New productive forces and the misallocation of innovation resources act as mediating pathways linking the digital economy to green competitiveness;(3)There is a significant nonlinear relationship between the digital economy’s influence on green competitiveness and the extent to which low-carbon transition strategies are implemented and high-quality development goals are advanced.The results clarify the pathways through which the digital economy shapes green competitiveness, offering grounded insights that can guide more effective and context-specific policy efforts to support China's green transition and sustained quality growth.