In the current economic landscape, businesses are challenged by the dual imperatives of digital transformation and sustainability goals. While digital transformation is often heralded as a catalyst for innovation, its potential negative effects on green innovation remain underexplored. This study fills in this gap by analyzing 1443 listed companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange main board between 2013 and 2022, focusing on the mechanisms by which digital transformation impacts green innovation and on the moderated role of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Our findings reveal that digital transformation hinders green innovation by increasing financing constraints. However, good ESG performance mitigates these negative impacts by alleviating financing constraints, thereby fostering green innovation. Our findings hold up against endogeneity tests by applying instrumental variable methods. Notably, the effect of digital transformation and ESG differs significantly between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs). While non-SOEs experience more pronounced challenges, ESG also demonstrates a stronger moderating role, unlike in SOEs, where institutional advantages offset some of these constraints. These findings enhance the understanding of dual transformation challenges, offering practical implications for aligning digital and green strategies in diverse organizational contexts.

The paper provides a scholarly examination of academic studies of the ESG landscape in China through a systematic literature review with a major focus on the nature and intensity of regulatory guidelines and policies. While many studies indicate positive effects of Chinese ESG policies on corporate ESG performance and investment, they primarily focus on environmental aspects. This analysis of China’s ESG rating system exposes relationships between ESG ratings, corporate performance, financing costs, including both debt and equity financing. The research on equity financing costs is inconsistent and limited in scope, indicating the need for additional investigation. Of the factors influencing ESG, the past year has seen a surge in research on the topic of digital transformation and ESG performance. Most studies demonstrate thatdigital transformation contributes to ESG performance, and a few suggest that digital transformation positively moderates the effect of ESG performance on firm value enhancement. This review discusses the growth of ESG investment in China, focusing on pension funds, commercial banks, and ESG funds, as well as investor preferences. Despite the growing role of ESG in investment decisions, extant research is largely theoretical, underscoring the need for more empirical and quantitative studies. The research identifies gaps in studies devoted to ESG investment, including the need for comprehensive studies on the impact of ESG across various insurance types and industries, and the development of effective ESG quality assessment methods. This review is among the first academic resources summarizing and integrating various studies, and highlighting areas for future ESG research in China.

Despite the strategic imperative of digitalization, its impact on firm performance remains debated, often showing initial negative effects. Using a panel of 1,543 Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) listed firms (2013-2023), we investigate the dynamic relationship between digital transformation (DT) and financial performance. Employing two-way fixed-effects models and path analysis, we uncover dynamic effect: DT negatively impacts financial performance contemporaneously, mediated by increased financing constraints, but yields positive returns in the long run. Crucially, we find that strong Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance mitigates the negative short-term effects of DT. Robustness checks, including replacement variables, PSM-DID and addressing endogeneity, confirm our findings. This study contributes by reconciling mixed evidence on DT's value, identifying financing constraints as a key mechanism, and demonstrating strong ESG enhances early-stage financial resilience.

Brand value remains a crucial element for listed companies striving to sustain competitiveness amid the double-cycle economic context. Using panel data from Chinese A-share listed companies spanning 2017–2021, this study employs a threshold effect model to probe into the boundary conditions of the complex relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and brand value. It empirically investigates the role of board characteristics in shaping the brand value of listed companies through their involvement in CSR, considering the dimensions of board size and board shareholding ratio. The results reveal that a commitment to social responsibility enhances brand value up to a certain point. However, prolonged and extensive resource investment can divert the company’s focus, leading to a detrimental impact on brand value. This manifests as a non-strict inverted U-shaped threshold effect between CSR and brand value. Furthermore, the study explores variations in board size and board shareholding ratio, uncovering that board members’ perspectives on CSR commitment are subject to distinct constraints. This dynamic results in a non-linear, symmetric U-shaped relationship between CSR and brand value-initially negative and subsequently positive. The study explores whether board characteristics intervene in CSR decision-making and thus contribute to brand value, with a view to guiding listed companies’ board governance practices and optimizing the path to brand value enhancement.