Supply chain financing offers advantages over traditional channels such as bank loans and equity financing, including greater flexibility, lower transaction costs, and simplified approval procedures. However, when a firm’s sustainability faces uncertainty, access to supply chain financing may become constrained by multiple factors, including the risk tolerance of supply chain partners, market transparency, and corporate reputation. ESG, representing Environmental, Social, and Governance standards, is a critical framework for assessing corporate sustainability performance. Given that divergent ESG evaluations reflect disparate market assessments of a firm’s sustainable development capabilities, such divergence may affect supply chain financing by altering stakeholder trust dynamics. This research examines A-share listed firms in China (2016–2022) and reveals that divergence in ESG evaluations significantly inhibits firms’ access to supply chain financing. Mechanism validation suggests that divergent ESG evaluations amplify informational opacity, operational risks, and negative reputation, thereby influencing supply chain partners’ risk perceptions and trust levels. Heterogeneity analysis shows that corporate governance quality, regional trust levels, and ESG awareness modulate the negative impact of divergent ESG evaluations on supply chain financing. The asymmetric effects of divergent ESG evaluations on supply chain financing are further confirmed, with distinct manifestations between upstream suppliers and downstream customers. By bridging gaps in existing research on divergent ESG evaluations and supply chain finance, this work offers regulatory guidelines, operational recommendations for firms, and investment decision frameworks.

ESG serves as a key metric for measuring corporate sustainability, but divergence among rating agencies has led to uncertainty in such an assessment. This investigation identifies ESG rating divergence as a critical catalyst for corporate digital transformation, establishing empirical analysis through a robust positive correlation between the heterogeneity in sustainability assessments and organizational digitalization intensity. Comprehensive robustness examinations and endogeneity controls substantiate the persistent significance of this relationship. Mechanistically, such divergence drives technological adaptation by restructuring the R&D team composition and elevating capital allocation toward innovative initiatives. Contextual heterogeneity manifests through amplified effects in firms with elevated analyst scrutiny and stringent internal governance, whereas pollution-intensive enterprises exhibit significant effect suppression. These findings collectively advance theoretical frameworks concerning ESG evaluation economics and digital transformation drivers, while furnishing actionable implementation blueprints for corporate digitization strategists.

The institutionalization of environmental courts enhances regional environmental enforcement efficacy, which in turn exerts intensified regulatory pressure on local pollution intensive enterprises. Empirical evidence confirms that such judicial mechanisms significantly improve the supply chain financing capacity of regulated firms through a green governance channel. This causal pathway operates via three interrelated mechanisms: increased environmental disclosure transparency, strategic recruitment of executives with environmental expertise, and systematic ESG performance upgrades. Collectively these adaptations enable polluting enterprises to achieve better supply chain financing conditions. Subgroup analysis identifies three dimensions of heterogeneous treatment effects. First, the financing enhancement effect is more pronounced among larger enterprises due to their greater resource allocation flexibility. Second, firms with gender-diverse leadership, particularly those employing female executives, demonstrate stronger responsiveness to environmental regulations. Third, enterprises operating in less technology intensive sectors benefit more substantially from compliance driven financing improvements, as their operational structures are more amenable to rapid environmental governance adjustments.

Compared with conventional financing approaches, supply chain financing demonstrates superior adaptability in risk management, greater cost-effectiveness in financial control, and enhanced efficiency in approval processes, owing to its deep integration with industrial chains. This investigation explores the intrinsic relationship between digital innovation and corporate supply chain financing. To ensure the rigor and reliability of the research conclusions, we adopt an empirical research method based on the OLS econometric regression model to systematically examine the relationship between digital innovation and supply chain financing. Our findings reveal that digital innovation positively influences corporate operations and information disclosure quality, thereby facilitating supply chain financing acquisition. Specifically, digital innovation enhances both Tobin’s Q and information transparency, which consequently improves firms’ access to supply chain financing. Furthermore, we observe pronounced heterogeneity in digital innovation’s impact on supply chain financing accessibility, with more pronounced effects observed in state-owned enterprises, mature firms, and regions with less developed legal frameworks. From the perspective of theoretical contributions, this study enriches the application scenario of signal transmission theory. We verify that operational improvement driven by digital innovation can serve as an effective signal to alleviate information asymmetry in supply chain financing. Meanwhile, we supplement the research on information asymmetry theory by providing a digital solution to mitigate information frictions between supply chain partners. In terms of practical contributions, we provide actionable insights for firms. Specifically, our findings guide firms to leverage digital innovation to improve supply chain financing accessibility. Additionally, these findings offer references for supply chain stakeholders and relevant authorities to optimize financing support mechanisms.