With the increasingly prominent problems of global resource consumption and environmental pollution, industrial green transformation has become one of the requirements of China’s industrial development in the new era. However, there is a lack of research on the impact of technological innovation and technology introduction on the industrial green transformation of resource-based cities. To bridge this gap, this study uses the panel data of 115 resource-based cities in China from 2003 to 2016, and uses the dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation method to study the impact of technological innovation and technology introduction on industrial green transformation of resource-based cities. The results show that technology introduction has a negative effect on the industrial green transformation of resource-based cities, while technological innovation can have a positive effect. Meanwhile, technology introduction has imparted a greater role to technological innovation in promoting this transformation. In addition, the interactive effects between technological innovation and technology introduction have obvious heterogeneity on the industrial green transformation of different types of resource-based cities. Therefore, resource-based cities should continue to increase investment in scientific research, to constantly improve and consolidate their technological innovation ability, optimize foreign investment strategy in technology introduction, and strengthen the digestion and absorption of imported technology, while increasing technological innovation and personnel training.

Emerging economies face the challenge of increasing labor costs but also provide an opportunity to promote environmental governance and green development. Based on the perspectives of impetus and capability, the effects of rising labor costs and market environment on green technological innovation are investigated in this study. The empirical studies used the data of high-pollution firms in China from 2009 to 2018. Results demonstrate that rising labor costs deteriorates high-pollution firm performance, while highly competitive industries are affected more than other industries. Meanwhile, the influence of rising labor costs on green technological innovation has a threshold effect which illustrates an “inversely U-shaped” variation trend with the increase of degree of market monopoly. The labor costs will make biggest impact on the green technological innovation in the moderately concentrated market environment. Basing from these results, this study provides the following suggestions for emerging economies’ green development: Take rising labor cost as an opportunity to advance technological progress to the green direction, establish a sound market competition environment, and develop green finance to reduce the financing constraints of green technological innovation.

This study reveals the spatial impact of digital infrastructure (DI) on regional GIE, introducing two novel perspectives of industrial agglomeration - its concentration (IC) and diversification (ID). The results reveal that local DI significantly improves local GIE but has a “siphon effect” on neighboring areas, leading to an inhibitory effect. Local DI promotes local IC and ID, which enhances local GIE. However, local DI’s spillover effects decrease neighboring areas’ IC and ID, which reduces neighbors’ GIE. The spatial impact of DI on GIE exhibits heterogeneity among different city sizes, regional technological levels, and traditional infrastructure development. As regions’ DI develops, the siphon effect of DI on neighboring GIE gradually diminishes and thus DI promotes long-term GIE. Introducing LE and PE, this study provides rich empirical evidence for understanding the relationship between DI and GIE.

Seeking innovative development has become a necessity for global cities because of the accelerating consumption of natural resources and the increasing need for urgent control of environmental pollution. However, few studies have reported on the effect of innovative development on the green economic growth of resource-based cities. Therefore, this study aimed to construct the SBM model of unexpected output to measure the efficiency of green economic growth using data of 108 resource-based cities in China from 2004 to 2018, and to analyze the impact of innovative development and resource endowment on green economic growth using the systematic Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model. The following results were obtained: first, the green economic growth efficiency of resource-based cities exhibited a general trend of fluctuation and rise, but the efficiency of different resource-based cities was different in time and space. Second, although innovative development promoted the green economic growth of resource-based cities, the impact of different resource-based cities was heterogeneous. Innovative development promoted the green economic growth of resource-based cities in eastern China, comprehensive cities, metal cities, growth cities, and renewable cities. However, it had an inhibitory effect on the green economic growth of northeast China, west China, and oil–gas and nonmetal resource–based cities, but no significant effect on the green economic growth of other resource-based cities. Third, the nonlinear effect of resource endowment on the green economic growth of resource-based cities was not significant, but resource endowment had a “curse” effect on green economic growth. Meanwhile, heterogeneity analysis showed two effects of resource endowment on the green economic growth in different resource-based cities: curse and blessing. Fourth, the impact of innovative development on the green economic growth of resource-based cities was moderated by resource endowment. The impact of innovative development on green economic growth decreased with the increase in resource endowment. Therefore, resource-based cities should not only constantly increase innovation and improve resource utilization efficiency but also actively promote coordination and cooperation of regional resource-based industries so as to achieve green and sustainable development.