Patient Capital and Corporate Green Transition: The Mediating Role of Maturity Mismatch from a Cross-Period Perspective

Against the backdrop of global carbon neutrality, corporate green transition faces a core contradiction between long project cycles and short-term financing bias. Using panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2023, this study employs two-way fixed effects and mediation effect models to explore the impact of patient capital on substantive green transition. The results show that: (1) Patient capital significantly promotes green transition, as evidenced by increased green patent applications and higher environmental investment intensity; (2) Maturity mismatch plays a partial mediating role-patient capital reduces mismatch by optimizing debt maturity structure, resolving the "short-term debt for long-term investment" dilemma; (3) The effect is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, heavy-polluting industries, and firms with high financing constraints, and stricter environmental regulation strengthens this mediating effect. This study enriches green finance research by introducing the "time dimension" and provides emerging market evidence for patient capital's role in sustainable development.