Does digital transformation promote corporate carbon reduction? Evidence from Chinese A-share listed companies

The pressing issue of utilising digital reform to achieve sustainable development arises under the "dual carbon goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality". This study employs fixed-effect, mediation and moderation models to investigate the impact of digital transformation on carbon emissions and its internal mechanisms by analysing data from Chinese A-share listed companies between 2012 and 2021. The results demonstrate a robust inverted U-shaped relationship between digital transformation and corporate carbon emissions, with scale effects moderating, technological effects partially mediating and a discernible scale threshold. Moreover, the outcomes exhibit heterogeneity across companies, industries and regions. Specifically, enterprises in Midwestern and strictly environmentally regulated regions experience carbon reduction benefits at a lower level of digitalisation; notably Middle Reaches of Yangtze River Urban Agglomeration displays the earliest inflection point. Conversely, state-owned and non-technology-intensive companies show nonsignificant results. Consequently, this paper recommends that companies accelerate their transformation to surpass the threshold as early as possible and that the government should implement differentiated policies and environmental regulation strategies. Overall, this study not only enriches the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms between digital transformation and carbon emissions, but also provides empirical evidence to support related researches.