Can Industrial Digitalization Promote Regional Green Technology Innovation?

Regional green technology innovation (RGTI) carries ecological and technological externalities, serving as a crucial force in aligning economic development with the imperative of environmental preservation. Industrial digitalization (indig) exhibits innovative, quality -enhancing, and efficiency -enhancing traits. Yet, the exact effects of indig on RGTI have not been extensively studied. In this study, based on provincial data from 2013-2019 in China, we investigated the linear and nonlinear relationships, spatial characteristics and underlying mechanisms between indig and RGTI through a Hansen threshold model and a mediating effect model. The results showed that: i. indig fluctuates while RGTI increases steadily, both displaying evident spatial agglomeration traits and a unipolar characteristic of regional heterogeneity; ii. indig has effectively boosted RGTI at both national and regional levels, with the exception of the northeastern region; iii. There was a single threshold for industrial digitalization and the positive driving trend exhibited a "marginally increasing" characteristic; iv. Two critical elements, namely industrial structure advancement and marketization, have partial intermediary roles. Basing on these results, this study presents several policy recommendations. (c) 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. on behalf of Journal of Innovation & Knowledge. This is an open access article under the CC BY -NC -ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)