Sustainable development is crucial to the survival and healthy development of enterprises, which is closely related to their financing situation. Supply chain finance is an effective way to improve and enhance the financing situation by easing financing constraints and reducing financing costs. As an important source of supply chain short-term financing, trade credit plays an important role in enterprise production and circulation. Taking Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2020 as samples, this paper studied the impact of trade credit on sustainable growth and its internal mechanism. Furthermore, we analyzed the moderating effect of digital finance development on the influence of trade credit on sustainable growth. It is found that receiving trade credit benefited firms’ sustainable growth. Furthermore, study found that receiving trade credit has a greater positive impact on the sustainable growth of enterprises in regions with higher levels of financial development, high-tech industries, state-owned enterprises and small enterprises. Whereas, the provision of trade credit had an obvious inhibiting effect on the sustainable growth of enterprises in the regions with low level of financial development, non-high-tech industries, private enterprises and small enterprises. The results of the influencing mechanism showed that receiving trade credit promoted firm’s sustainable growth by “agency cost reducing effect,” while providing trade credit inhibited firm’s sustainable growth by “forcing effect.” In addition, the development of digital finance weakens the positive impact of trade credit financing on enterprises’ sustainable growth but strengthens the negative impact of providing trade credit on sustainable growth. From the perspective of sustainable growth, this paper explained the role of trade credit financing in alleviating the financing dilemma of enterprises, which is urgently needed by most emerging economies pursuing high-quality development. Therefore, in order to give full play to the role of trade credit financing, the government should actively create a good credit environment. At the same time, the government should vigorously develop digital finance to enhance its ability to serve the real economy.

The study estimates the impact of cluster commercial credit on manufacturing total factor productivity from the perspective of county-level clusters. The data were collected from 1998 to 2015 from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database. Various econometrics methods were used to approach the study objectives. The study found that cluster commercial credit can significantly increase the total factor productivity of manufacturing. Through the analysis of the theoretical mechanism, it was found that improving the level of innovation and improving the efficiency of the capital allocation are important ways for cluster commercial credit to positively promote the total factor productivity of the manufacturing sector. The analysis of heterogeneity found that cluster commercial credit promoted the total factor productivity of state-owned enterprises, large-scale enterprises, capital-intensive industries, high-tech industries, and enterprises in coastal areas to a great extent. By constructing a quasi-natural experiment, using the method of multi-period double difference and PSM-DID to solve the problem of cluster commercial credit endogeneity, it passed the parallel trend, placebo, and other tests. Finally, this article further describes the relationship between corporate commercial credit and corporate total factor productivity from the enterprise-to-enterprise level and found that the use of commercial credit by enterprises has a significant and positive role in promoting corporate total factor productivity. The research results of this paper provide a reference for promoting the high-quality development of the country’s economy from the perspective of informal finance.

This study investigates the relationship between Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) and CO2 emissions in Pakistan using data from 2003 to 2019. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach is employed to perform impact analysis. The findings reveal an adverse impact of Chinese FDI on carbon emissions, underscoring the conflict between FDI and environmental sustainability. Population growth exacerbates CO2 emissions, while economic growth surprisingly shows no significant relationship. In contrast, green innovation emerges as a critical driver of progress in Pakistan, promoting positive environmental outcomes. Despite China’s green development initiatives, foreign direct investment in Pakistan continues to contribute to pollution and environmental hazards. The study recommends the adoption of carbon reduction technologies, the establishment of emission monitoring systems, the prioritizing of eco-friendly investments, the implementation of population control measures, the strengthening of environmental regulations, and the fostering of bilateral agreements to promote sustainability in Pakistan’s development trajectory.