Does Spatial Location Competition Shape Enterprises’ Green Technology Innovation? The Moderating Roles of Digital Transformation and Environmental Uncertainty

The research objective of this paper focuses on the core relationship between “spatial location competition and enterprises’ green technological innovation”. It aims to systematically reveal the intrinsic impact mechanism of spatial location competition on enterprises’ green technological innovation and further clarify the moderating effects of two key variables which are digital transformation and environmental uncertainty in this relationship. Specifically, this study explores the impact mechanism of spatial location competition on enterprises’ green technological innovation, with a particular focus on the moderating role of digital transformation. Based on the resource-based theory, this paper constructs a theoretical framework of “location competition—digital transformation—green innovation”. Using panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies as the research sample, the empirical results show that there is a significant negative correlation between spatial location competition and enterprises’ green technological innovation. Furthermore, the level of enterprises’ digital transformation can effectively mitigate this negative impact and enhance the incentive effect of spatial location competition on green technological innovation. The findings of this study have important theoretical and practical implications. They suggest that the government should establish a regional policy system to promote the coordinated development of “digital + green” initiatives and strengthen the integration and supervision of digital technology and green technology, thereby providing institutional guarantees for enterprises to improve green technological innovation through spatial location optimization and digital transformation.