Impact of smart city pilot policy on heterogeneous green innovation: micro-evidence from Chinese listed enterprises

As a new form of urbanization, smart city construction in China represents an innovative approach to promoting economic growth and environmental protection. This paper takes the smart city pilot policy (SCPP) as a quasi-natural experiment. Based on the panel data of Chinese listed enterprises during 2007–2021, the impacts of SCPP on heterogeneous enterprise green innovation (EGI) are explored using the difference-in-differences method. The results indicate that SCPP can effectively promote EGI. Particularly, SCPP contributes more significantly to energy conservation innovation at source and technology-based green innovation than end-of-pipe governance innovation and administration-based green innovation. Mechanism tests reveal that SCPP can promote EGI by increasing enterprise digitalization. SCPP is also subject to government environmental monitoring and public environmental supervision, thus encouraging EGI. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that SCPP exhibits more prominent promotion effects on EGI in eastern and central regions, non-resource-based regions, and large enterprises. Furthermore, SCPP promotes EGI while leading to long-term improvements in enterprise economic performance. This study can provide not only micro-evidence from Chinese listed enterprises for understanding the heterogeneous green innovation impact of smart city construction. The findings can also provide valuable references for other developing countries experiencing rapid urbanization and industrialization in their pursuit of green development.