The Impact of New Quality Productive Forces on Corporate Environmental Performance: A Dual Perspective Based on Green Innovation and Environmental Information Disclosure

Abstract

In the era of coordinated advancement of the “dual carbon” goals and high-quality development, how to transform new quality productive forces into tangible environmental governance outcomes has become a core issue in enterprises’ green transformation. This study takes Chinese A-share listed companies from 2015 to 2024 as the research sample and systematically examines the impact of new quality productive forces on corporate environmental performance, as well as its underlying mechanisms and heterogeneous characteristics. To address potential endogeneity issues, the instrumental variable approach and propensity score matching method are employed. The baseline regression results show that an increase in the level of new quality productive forces significantly improves corporate environmental performance. The conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness checks, including replacing the explanatory variable, changing the regression model, excluding samples from municipalities, and adjusting the clustering level. Mechanism tests reveal that new quality productive forces exert their effects primarily through two pathways: first, by stimulating enterprises’ green technological innovation vitality and promoting the output of green invention patents, thereby providing technological support for environmental improvement; second, by enhancing the quality of environmental information disclosure, which increases the transparency and supervisability of corporate environmental behavior and forms a combined internal and external supervisory force that compels continuous improvement. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive environmental effect of new quality productive forces is more pronounced in enterprises with high profitability, in high-tech industries, and in heavily polluting industries, while the effect is relatively weaker in enterprises with low profitability, in non-high-tech industries, and in lightly polluting industries. This study not only theoretically expands the cognitive boundaries of the environmental effects of new quality productive forces and reveals the dual transmission mechanisms of green innovation and environmental information disclosure, but also provides practical references for enterprises to cultivate new quality productive forces in a differentiated manner according to their own resource endowments, thereby promoting green transformation.