Digital Government Construction and Provincial Green Innovation Efficiency: Empirical Analysis Based on Institutional Environment in China

Green innovation provides powerful incentives to achieve sustained social progress. However, the available research examines the financial drivers of green innovation, overlooking the impact of digital government development and the institutional environment. The integration of digital government construction with the institutional environment, and the coupling of the two with green innovation, will paint a picture of the future that promotes sustainable social progress and the modernization of governance. This research utilizes data from 31 provinces in China from 2018 to 2022 to study the impact of digital government construction and the institutional environment on the provincial green innovation efficiency. An empirical analysis is conducted on the basis of analyzing the spatiotemporal evolution and pattern of digital government construction, the institutional environment and the provincial green innovation efficiency. Firstly, digital government construction emphasizes data openness and sharing, and data become a key link between those inside and outside the government. The digital platform becomes an important carrier connecting the government and multiple subjects in collaborative innovation to continuously shape a new digital governance ecology. The netting of digital ecology is conducive to the institutional environment, serving to break the path dependence and create a more open, inclusive and synergistic institutional environment. Based on this, we consider that digital government construction positively affects the institutional environment, and this is verified. Secondly, a good government-market relationship, mature market development, a large market service scale, a complete property rights system and a fair legal system brought about by the improved institutional environment provide macro-external environmental support for enhanced innovation dynamics. Based on this, it is proposed that the institutional environment positively affects the provincial green innovation efficiency. Meanwhile, building on embeddedness theory, the industrial embeddedness of the institutional environment for green innovation highlights the scattered distribution of innovation components. Geographical embeddedness stresses indigenous resource distribution grounded in space vicinity and clustering. The better the institutional environment, the greater the forces of disempowerment at the industrial tier and the easier it is for resources to flow out. This may potentially have a detrimental role in improving the local green innovation efficiency. In view of this, it is proposed that the institutional environment negatively affects the provincial green innovation efficiency, and this is verified. Thirdly, digital government construction, as an important aspect of constructing a digital governance system and implementing the strategy of a strong network state, can effectively release the multiplier effect of digital technology in ecological environment governance and green innovation, continuously enhancing the provincial green innovation efficiency. In view of this, it is proposed that digital government construction positively affects the provincial green innovation efficiency, and this is verified. When the institutional environment is used as a mediating variable, digital government construction will have a certain non-linear impact in terms of provincial green innovation efficiency improvement. Building on the evidence-based analysis results, it is found that the institutional environment plays a competitive mediating role. This study integrates digital government construction, the institutional environment and the provincial green innovation efficiency under a unified analytical structure, offering theoretical inspiration and operational directions to enhance the provincial green innovation efficiency.