Research On The Impact Of Environmental Protection Input On Enterprise Performance

The role of the digital economy as a "stabilizer" and "accelerator" of the national economy is increasingly prominent.With the development of the national economy,the whole society is paying more and more attention to environmental issues.The "14th Five Year Plan" period is a key period for China to achieve the goal of "carbon peak,carbon neutral",and greening and digitization have become the trend of high-quality development of enterprises.Enterprises,especially heavy polluting enterprises,which are the main emitters of pollutants,should bear corresponding environmental responsibilities.However,some entrepreneurs believe that increasing investment in environmental protection means increasing operating costs and reducing corporate profits.However,whether increasing investment in environmental protection will inevitably reduce corporate performance has not been consistently concluded by existing research.The relationship between environmental investment and corporate performance may be influenced by other internal business activities or external resource supply.Therefore,using theoretical analysis and empirical testing to explore the relationship and impact mechanism of various variables has important practical significance.Due to the significant impact of digital transformation on business efficiency,there have been studies on environmental investment and corporate performance,but little attention has been paid to the role of digital transformation.Therefore,this article aims to achieve the following goals through research: first,clarify the impact of environmental investment on enterprise performance,and the mechanism of digital transformation in it;Secondly,in view of China’s national conditions,study the differences in the impact of environmental protection investment on enterprise performance among enterprises with different property rights;Thirdly,research is conducted from the perspective of enterprise scale to analyze the differences in the impact of environmental investment on the performance of enterprises of different scales.Based on a summary of domestic and foreign literature and relevant theories,this paper empirically analyzes the impact of environmental protection investment on corporate performance using 2284 observations from 416 listed companies in heavy pollution industries in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2019 as research samples,and conducts a heterogeneity analysis in terms of property rights and scale.The findings are as follows:(1)There is a U-shaped relationship between environmental protection investment and corporate performance that decreases first and then increases;(2)Under the regulatory effect of enterprise digital transformation,the U-shaped relationship between environmental protection investment and enterprise performance is more significant;(3)There is heterogeneity in the U-shaped relationship between environmental investment and corporate performance.Compared with state-owned holding enterprises,the U-shaped relationship between environmental protection investment and enterprise performance in non-state-owned holding enterprises is more significant.Compared with small-scale enterprises,the U-shaped relationship between environmental investment and enterprise performance is more significant in large-scale enterprises.This conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests.Based on the above conclusions,the following suggestions are proposed:(1)Increase investment in environmental protection and make enterprises aware of environmental protection;(2)Accelerate digital transformation and make enterprises environmentally intelligent;(3)Select appropriate performance improvement strategies based on the differences in enterprise resources.