Analyzing the Relationship between Digital Transformation Strategy and ESG Performance in Large Manufacturing Enterprises: The Mediating Role of Green Innovation

In the era of the digital economy, digital technology brings new opportunities for enterprises’ development. The degree of enterprises’ digital transformation determines their development level and potential. At present, China’s “double carbon” policy is having a profound impact on the industry. The relationship between digital transformation strategy and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance is analyzed based on the digitalization and sustainable development goals of enterprises, and on the basis of positioning enterprise digital transformation level through the strategic alignment model (SAM). Data are collected by questionnaire survey from 224 large manufacturing enterprises in China as a sample for empirical testing by the hierarchical regression method. The empirical results show the following. (1) Digital transformation strategy has a direct positive and significant impact on enterprise ESG performance. Specifically, it is reflected in the two dimensions of digital transformation strategy, namely business digitalization and platform digitalization, which have a significant direct positive impact on enterprise ESG performance. (2) Enterprise green innovation plays a significant intermediate role in promoting the relationship between digital transformation strategy and enterprise ESG performance. (3) The two dimensions of green innovation, namely green process innovation and green product innovation, both play a partial mediating role in promoting business digitalization and platform digitalization development level to enterprise ESG performance, respectively. It can be concluded that business digitalization and platform digitalization can improve enterprise ESG performance by promoting green process innovation and green product innovation. Therefore, enterprises should clarify the direction of development of their digital transformation strategy, emphasize green innovation, and continuously improve their ESG performance to create favorable conditions for achieving sustainable development.