Exploring core enterprises’ green development diffusion mechanisms

Considering the current bottleneck stage of global green development, exploring new transmission mechanisms for advancing and elevating green development is a critical challenge. Herein, we use data from Chinese listed companies to empirically examine the diffusion effect of core enterprises’ green development and the moderating effect of digital empowerment. Using degree centrality as the measurement approach, core enterprises and peripheral enterprises in the supply chain are classified. The impact of green development by core enterprises on peripheral enterprises is then examined through individual and year two-way fixed-effects regression. Results verify the mechanism by which green development is transmitted to peripheral enterprises through supply chain networks and explore a new driving force for green development, originating from core enterprises and taking the diffusion effect as the path. Notably, core enterprises’ green development can effectively promote peripheral enterprises’ green development and digital empowerment exerts a positive moderating effect. These conclusions remain robust when employing different ranking thresholds for core enterprises, a one-period lag, variable substitution, and multiple IV tests. Furthermore, digital empowerment primarily enhances core enterprises’ green development diffusion effects through strategic leadership, driving technological adoption, and employee empowerment. This study expands the academic frontier of research on corporate green development, explores a research direction for the firm-level diffusion effect of green development, and provides practical insights for developing policy interventions in advancing corporate practices for global green development.