Digital platforms enabling carbon neutral technology innovation: based on market incentives and government constraints

In recent years, extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and typhoons have occurred frequently around the world, causing a large number of casualties and property losses, and seriously affecting the normal operation of human society. Climate change directly affects the global natural environment, economic development, social order and international cooperation, threatens human survival and development, and is a great challenge facing all mankind (Zeng et al., 2023). In its State of the Global Climate 2023 report, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) noted that 2023 was the hottest year on record, with an average annual temperature 1.45 ± 0.12 °C higher than the pre-industrial level^{Footnote 1}. Additionally, it is nearer the Paris Agreement’s target of keeping the rise in the average world temperature to 1.5 °C^{Footnote 2}. Of particular concern is that August 2024 once again set a new monthly hottest record, with the global average temperature for the three consecutive months of June, July and August 2024 exceeding the average for any summer since NASA began keeping records, by 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit^{Footnote 3}. The above grim data shows that global climate governance is necessary and urgent. In light of this, China is actively investigating a low-carbon and sustainable economic development model in order to fulfill the green development objective of economic growth and industrial transformation while lowering carbon emissions (Li et al., 2023). But economic development has not effectively decoupled from energy consumption, and problems such as dependence on high-carbon paths, inefficient resource allocation, ecological environment constraints, and serious environmental pollution are still prominent. To this end, Implementation Plan for Peaking Carbon Neutral by Science and Technology (2022–2030) issued a series of action plans to accelerate the promotion of green and low-carbon technology innovation can be achieved by several means such as basic research, technology research and development, application demonstration, achievement promotion, personnel training, and international cooperation. In this context, accelerating the development of low-carbon technologies such as carbon capture, carbon storage and energy generation, promoting carbon emission reduction and carbon offset, and breaking the barriers to low-carbon innovation are the fundamental ways to fulfill the objective of “carbon neutral”.

The swift advancement of nascent digital technologies, including big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and 5 G communications, has consistently prompted significant transformations and modifications in the worldwide industrial terrain in the age of the digital economy. The platform economy, which is embodied by digital platforms, has grown quickly and demonstrated a strong momentum of development as a result of the United States, Germany, Russia, Japan, and other nations actively pursuing digital development strategies. It affects all aspects of social development. As of the end of 2023, there are 59 Internet platform businesses with a global market value of over $10 billion, totaling 12.9 trillion US dollars, a 42.0% increase, according to Platform Economy Development Observation (2023) report published by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. In March 2024, China’s Government Work Report pointed out that the leading role of innovation should be given full play, digital industrialization, and industrial digitalization. The full integration of digital technologies with the real economy should be actively encouraged, further indicating the importance of deepening digital development. As a crucial component of the digital economy, digital platforms have unique advantages in information dissemination and processing, resource integration and innovation, and can play a role in the resilience of infrastructure, institutions, economy, and society (Song and Qiu, 2021). Therefore, this study believes that digital platforms are very likely to become a significant driving factor in advancing green and sustainable development with low carbon emissions. The question to ponder is: Can digital platforms promote the level of carbon neutral technology innovation? If the answer is yes, how do digital platforms contribute to carbon neutral technology innovation? Based on China’s regional heterogeneity, do digital platforms have unique rules and characteristics for carbon neutral technology innovation? In order to answer the above questions, the study selects the dataset comprising panel information from 30 provinces across China, spanning the years from 2011 to 2022, and explores the direct, indirect and nonlinear impacts of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation by establishing baseline regression model, intermediary effect model and dynamic threshold model.

The marginal contributions of the study are manifested in the following three key areas: firstly, connect digital platforms with carbon neutral technology innovation, explore the deep relationship between the two through empirical analysis, and enrich the theoretical system of digital empowerment; Secondly, using the disclosure of Y02 patents in the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) as a measure of carbon neutral technology innovation has the advantages of unified standards, strong compatibility and high segmentation; Finally, based on the perspective of market incentives and government constraints, the study integrates technology market development and environmental regulation into the same research framework, explores the transmission mechanism of digital platforms affecting carbon neutral technology innovation from different angles, provides theoretical support for deepening the cognition of the innovation effectiveness of digital platforms and offers valuable theoretical insights and practical implications for achieving the objective of “carbon neutral”.

The remainder of the study is organized as follows: The second part collates the literature related to digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation; The third part delves into the mechanistic analysis and the research hypothesis presented in the study; The fourth part outlines the construction of the model, the measurement and interpretation of variables, the sourcing of data, and provides descriptive statistics; The fifth part makes a comprehensive analysis of the empirical results of the study, and carries out the robustness test; Finally, the study summarizes, describes the academic value, and puts forward policy implications and future prospects.

Research on digital platforms

In the era of the digital economy, digital platforms as a special digital technology plays a crucial role, but there is still relatively little research on digital platforms in academic circles (Bonina et al., 2021). The existing researches are mainly carried out from three factors: definition of connotation, measurement technique, and influence effect.

First, definition of connotation. In a broad sense, digital platforms are defined as a new type of model of business operations based on the intermediary and business arrangement of the relationship between technology and society (Langley and Leyshon, 2017). Some scholars understand it as a combination of various digital resources (Constantinides et al., 2018). In a narrow sense, from the perspective of Marxism, digital platforms can be divided into three types of platforms: offline service trading, online commodities trading, and advertising (Xie et al., 2022) according to their different charging modes and types of traded goods.

Second, measurement technique. In the relevant research on digital platforms, the natural logarithm of the interaction term between the province’s online retail sales and the number of broadband Internet users in each city is widely accepted as the proxy variable of digital platforms (Liu and Xia, 2023). In addition, there are the TOPSIS^{Footnote 4} entropy weight method, questionnaire method (Parker et al., 2021), two-dimensional scale measurement (Cenamor et al., 2019; Ahmed et al., 2022), and other methods.

Third, influence effect. With the gradual penetration of digital platforms into every facet of social and economic production as well as daily living, scholars have verified the positive effects of digital platforms on economic growth and social development from multi-dimensional perspectives such as technology oversight (Gawer, 2014), industrial structure (Helfat and Raubitschek, 2018) and tactical leadership (Miric et al., 2019). Some other scholars have conducted relevant research on the market monopoly risk of digital platforms from the perspective of risk (Sun, 2021), and proposed that digital platforms are effective measures for anti-monopoly regulation (Tang, 2021).

Research on carbon neutral technology innovation

A crucial step toward being “carbon neutral” is carbon neutral technology innovation which has been widely considered by scholars. Related research mainly from the connotation definition, impact, and institutional background of three aspects of the study. First, the connotation definition. “Carbon neutral” means net zero emissions of carbon dioxide, that is, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by human activities reaches a balance in a certain period (Wang et al., 2022). Carbon neutral technology innovation is a breakthrough technology innovation with the goal of “dual carbon”. It is a technology innovation system composed of zero-carbon technologies such as energy saving and efficiency improvement, low-carbon technology, renewable energy generation, alternative combustion technology, and negative carbon technologies such as carbon capture and disposal (Huang et al., 2021).

Second, influence effects. The most direct environmental effect of carbon neutral technology innovation is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide, which is of great significance for realizing the goal of controlling the impact of human activities on the atmospheric temperature within the range of 1.5 °C–2.0 °C as stipulated in the Paris Agreement (Zhao and Li, 2021). Furthermore, researchers have looked at the effects of carbon neutral technology innovation from several angles, such as ecologically sustainable development (Zhang et al., 2022), cost-effectiveness and development prospects (Ren et al., 2021), risk (Zhao and Li, 2021) and cost control (Huang et al., 2022).

Third, institutional background. “Innovation Theory” emphasizes the important role of policy guidance in the progression of technology innovation (David et al., 2023). In order to actively explore the “combined punch” effect of digital and low-carbon development, The Chinese government has promulgated a range of policies aimed at fostering digital transformation and enforcing environmental regulation. (1) Digital transformation policy. In November 2017, the State Council released Guidelines on Advancing the Integration of “Internet + Advanced Manufacturing Industry” for the purpose of promoting the development of the industrial internet, aiming to build an internationally leading industrial Internet and promote the mutual promotion and synchronous upgrading of the physical economy and cyberspace. Digital Economy 2024 Work points pointed out that to expedite the advancement of breakthroughs in digital technology innovation, deepen the independent innovation of key core technologies, boost the competitive edge of core industries, actively foster novel business formats and paradigms, and establish digital industrial hubs. Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Development of Smart Cities and Fostering the City-Wide Digital Transformation were released in May 2024 by the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Bureau of Data, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Natural Resources. (2) Environmental regulations. In view of negative environmental externalities, the efficacy of implementing must environmental regulations be enhanced (Liu et al., 2022; Li et al., 2021). In 2014, the revised Environmental Protection Law came into effect, strengthening the legal status of environmental protection. In 2015, Overall Plan for the Reform of the Ecological Civilization System defines the overall goals, basic principles, and pivotal tasks pertaining to the reform of the ecological civilization framework. Measures for the Management of Ecological Environment Statistics came into effect in January 2023, further strengthening the standardization and accuracy of ecological environment statistics. On July 2024, Opinions on Accelerating the Comprehensive Green Transformation of Economic and Social Development clearly listed “leveraging the supportive function of scientific and technology advancements” as one of the important contents of the comprehensive green and low-carbon transformation, covering the three key links of scientific and technology innovation “research – R&D – promotion”. In addition, with the goal of addressing the issue of innovation externalities by offering subsidies for innovation and encouraging businesses to engage in green technology innovation and development, the New Energy Development Center mandates that local governments adhere to standards for energy intensity, the percentage of new energy in total annual energy consumption, and the reduction of pollutants in emissions (Shao et al., 2021). Figure 1 illustrates the evolution of policies related to digital transformation and environmental regulations.

Development of digital transformation policies and environmental regulations.

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Research on the digital economy affects technology innovation

Sustainable growth invariably requires both technology innovation and high-quality economic development, and the digital economy is progressively emerging as a new engine for boosting both of these factors in China. The existing research has studied the technology innovation effect of the digital economy from micro, meso, and macro levels. Micro level: The digital economy achieves dynamic, diversified, and complex equilibrium between supply-side input and demand-side analysis of technology innovation through scale economy, scope economy, and precise matching mechanism of production (Ding, 2020). EI-Kassar and Singh (2019) made an empirical analysis of the micro-survey data of 215 companies and found that the application of big data would affect the innovative green technology initiatives of businesses. Hunjra et al. (2024) utilized the low-carbon innovation data from Chinese publicly traded companies to validate the stimulatory impact of China’s Big Data Integrated Pilot Zone (BDCPZ) policy on enterprises’ engagement in low-carbon innovation. Meso level: The “enabling effect” of the digital economy is obvious. Realizing the industrial development of digital technology helps promote the digitalization, networking, and intelligent transformation of traditional industries and forms new models, new industries, and new business forms through industrial integration (Pei et al., 2018). Digital financial inclusion has the potential to directly decrease carbon intensity and exert an influence on it by facilitating the optimization of industrial structure and fostering the adoption of green technologies (Lee and Wang, 2022). In addition, the digital economy has a diffusion effect, and the allocation of innovation resources can break through the limitations of physical space, thus driving technology innovation (Wen et al., 2020). Macro level: The digital economy affects the total factor carbon productivity by having an impact on the efficiency of production’s input and output, as demonstrated, in particular, by the rise in factor input, the enhancement of factor allocation efficiency, and the increase in total factor productivity brought about by technology innovation and spillover (Hu and Wang, 2017). Baloch et al. (2024) pointed out that the digital economy plays a substantial role in contributing. to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by facilitating the energy transition. Certain researchers investigated the effects of various facets of financial decentralization on green total factor productivity, utilizing the SBM-GML model as their analytical framework (Zhan et al., 2022). In addition, in the process of promoting technology innovation, the digital economy has a favorable incentive effect on inclusive economic growth (Zhang et al., 2019), regional innovation (Jin and Yu, 2021), industrial structure upgrading (Liu and Chen, 2021), and high-quality development (Zhao et al., 2020).

Research on the impact of emerging digital technology on carbon neutral technology innovation

Taking advantage of the strong “east wind” pertaining to novel digital technologies, including blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence, and fifth-generation (5G) networks communication to help achieve carbon neutral is an important way to balance economic benefits and sustainable development. The relevant research mainly investigates the trajectory of influence exerted by newly emerging digital technologies on carbon neutral technology innovation. Emerging digital technologies can be used by promoting coordination between the supply and consumption sides of energy (Chen et al., 2021), digitizing tax collection and administration (Zeng and Yang, 2024), and enhancing digital infrastructure (Lin, 2024), advancing the digitization process within the service industry (Zhan and Pu, 2024), promoting industrial restructuring (Zhang et al., 2024) and alternative avenues significantly affect carbon neutral technology innovation. Moreover, Chen and Jiang (2024) confirmed this conclusion in their study using G20 countries as samples.

To sum up, the study believes that there remains potential for further enhancement in the realm of research on digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation: firstly, the majority of the current research on digital empowerment is concerned with the single-dimensional perspective of environmental governance effect or technology innovation effect, and few scholars combine “carbon neutral” with “technology innovation” in the historical intersection of “dual carbon” strategy and innovation-driven development to deeply reveal the enabling effect of digital platforms. Secondly, after a comprehensive search of relevant studies on digital enabling innovation, it is found that among the few existing studies on digital platforms and low-carbon innovation, few scholars fully consider the role of successful government and efficient market, and incorporate technology market development and environmental regulation into their research frameworks. Finally, based on the network characteristics of digital platforms, the complex nonlinear relationship between digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation needs to be discussed.

At present, limited research exists exploring the connection between digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation, which is difficult to provide an effective reference to foster sustainable development through digital empowerment and facilitate the achievement of “carbon neutral” goals. In order to make up for this lack of research, the study integrates digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation into the same research framework, and is committed to discussing the direct, indirect and non-linear impacts of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation, enriching the theoretical system of digital empowerment, guiding the practice of green and high-quality development, and providing references for the establishment of policies that support and promote innovative development through digital enablement.

Mechanism of direct conduction and research hypothesis

Carbon neutral technology innovation itself is an activity with high input, high risk, high cost and high income, high growth, and long-term characteristics (Hao and Sun, 2023). Digital platforms development has unique characteristics such as dynamic accuracy, energy-saving sharing, and technology spillover, which can directly affect carbon neutral technology innovation from two aspects: innovation process and output.

On the one hand, from the standpoint of the innovation process, the online trading market based on digital platforms has become an important place for the distribution of resources for innovation, which supports the growth of carbon neutral technology innovation (Li et al., 2023). Digital platforms can rely on digital technologies and information technologies including blockchain, AI, big data, and the Internet (Guo et al., 2022) to achieve dynamic and accurate prediction of the supply and demand of innovation resources and promote regional innovation entities to obtain on-demand flexible innovation resources (Ye et al., 2021). In addition, the organic integration of platform data and traditional resources can promote energy-saving sharing and reduce resource waste (Liu and Zhang, 2021).

On the other hand, when considering the output of innovation, digital platforms can improve the innovation demand fit of carbon neutral technology innovation output and the greening of technology systems, promote digital ecology and ecological digitalization, and thus have a positive impact on carbon neutral technology innovation. As an important carrier of digital development, digital platforms essentially reflect the connectivity of information networks among regional entities. By integrating highly connected information networks, they can provide spillover benefits from green technology innovation and satisfy the needs of innovation (Doloreux and Porto, 2016). Advanced digital infrastructure speeds up information sharing and dissemination among innovation entities, establishing the groundwork for green and methodical development of technology innovation.

However, in the development process of digital platforms, vicious competition, the Matthew effect, and other undesirable characteristics have become increasingly apparent, leading to serious platform monopoly (Sun, 2021), which to some extent will weaken the enthusiasm of innovation subjects and inhibit the improvement of the carbon neutral technology innovation level. Specifically: (1) Vicious competition. Improper use of digital platforms by enterprises may reduce benefits and even distort the allocation of market resources, and vicious competition is its extreme and special form (Xiong et al., 2017). This kind of vicious competition in the non-price situation is specifically manifested in the theft of trade secret data, destruction of intellectual property rights, and other vicious behaviours, and even some enterprises to reduce production costs and reduce investment in carbon governance, which seriously restricts the development of carbon neutral technology innovation. (2) “Matthew Effect”. Platforms that enter the market earlier and gain more financial and technology advantages through disruptive innovation will occupy a more favorable position in digital competition due to first-mover advantages, and the “Matthew Effect” of “the powerful stay powerful, and the weak stay weak” will continue to appear (Yang and Liu, 2014). Limited by core rigidity such as “new disadvantages” and “small-scale defects”, middle and small-sized enterprises will focus more attention on pursuing short-term profits to occupy market share to improve their industry status in the digital platforms ecosystem where opportunities and challenges coexist, and then disregard how technology R&D and carbon reduction affect the process of manufacturing and development. Thus, it does not support raising the general level of carbon neutral technology innovation.

The analysis presented leads the study to suggest research hypothesis 1: Digital platforms can directly affect carbon neutral technology innovation, but the direction of influence is uncertain.

Indirect conduction mechanism and research hypothesis

Carbon neutral technology innovation is a comprehensive measure of the sustainability of regional resource input, high-quality development, innovation demand fit, and green technology system. The study will discuss the possible transmission mechanism in the process of enabling carbon neutral technology innovation on digital platforms from two levels of incentive and constraint, based on the perspective of an effective market and successful government.

Examining the role of technology market development as a facilitating factor between digital platforms and advancements in carbon neutral technology innovation

Based on the “Transaction Cost Theory”, by providing an efficient online transaction venue, digital platforms simplifies the search, negotiation and payment process of technology suppliers and suppliers, greatly reduces the cost of technology transactions, enables more technology achievements to be rapidly transformed, and promotes the activity and in-depth technology market development. At the same time, starting from the “Information Asymmetry Theory”, the digital platforms effectively alleviates the problem of information asymmetry prevalent in the technology market by building a transparent information disclosure and evaluation system (Zhang and Kuang, 2024), enhances the confidence and investment willingness of technology buyers, and encourages technology providers to continuously improve technology quality and innovation ability, forming a positive cycle of technology market development. In addition, digital platforms can break the time and space restrictions of traditional technology markets, expand technology transactions to a global scale, and promote the diversification and internationalization of technology markets (Zhang et al., 2023).

Technology market development provides a strong technological impetus for achieving carbon neutral technology innovation. Based on the “Resource Base Theory”, under the influence of digital platforms, efficient markets can achieve Pareto efficient allocation through price signals, and fair distribution of labor, money, and other production inputs across the market, innovative vigor is exploding (Lu and Teng, 2023), which provides strong support for improving the level of carbon neutral technology innovation. In addition, the effective use of the technology market can also reduce the uncertainty in innovation activities, reduce innovation risks, and make the actors form a close and stable relationship in terms of function and information (Maillat, 1998). The high permeability of digital platforms through the majorization of the innovation production process and innovation achievements in the process of humanities, government, resources, rule of law, and other external environments (Yang and Jiang, 2021), to build a good innovation market soft environment, effectively improve the activity of carbon neutral technology innovation activities. Based on the “Efficient Market Theory”, the efficient market, as the “invisible hand”, plays the role of “resource distributor” in the process of digital platforms influencing the carbon neutral technology innovation.

Examining how environmental regulation functions as a mediator between digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation

Based on the “Information Economic Theory”, the digital platforms can collect, process and analyze massive environmental data in real time, providing the government with accurate environmental pollution monitoring and assessment tools, so as to enhance the scientific basis and pertinence of environmental regulation. At the same time, with the help of digital platforms, it is helpful to build a collaborative governance network that fully connects the government, the public, enterprises, environmental protection organizations and other entities. Through joint participation and benefit sharing, it can effectively stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of all sectors of society to participate in environmental protection, thus broadening the scope of implementation of environmental regulation, and continuously optimize regulatory strategies through feedback mechanisms, promoting a reasonable increase in the intensity of environmental regulation. In addition, as a green production input factor, data itself has the characteristics of extremely low marginal cost, low resource consumption and low pollution emission (Agyapong, 2020), enabling enterprises to implement green and low-carbon management strategies throughout the product life cycle, thus effectively limiting energy consumption and reducing carbon emission, and improving environmental regulation.

According to “Porter Theory”, effective environmental regulation can increase the role of “innovation compensation” to offset businesses’ compliance costs, raise carbon productivity (Han et al., 2024), and foster a “win-win situation” that benefits the environment and the economy (Shen and Liu, 2012). Due to the external diseconomy of environmental pollution, environmental regulation is a significant category of social regulation imposed by the government. Through the use of administrative penalties, emission reduction restrictions, and other measures, environmental regulation can regulate the production and operation activities of enterprises to a certain extent and contribute to the promotion of carbon neutral technology innovation. Based on the “Government Intervention Theory”, the government, as a “tangible hand”, plays the function of “regulator” in the process of driving the improvement of carbon neutral technology innovation.

Consequently, the subsequent hypothesis is proposed in the study:

Hypothesis 2: Digital platforms can indirectly influence carbon neutral technology innovation by optimizing technology market development.

Hypothesis 3: Digital platforms can indirectly influence carbon neutral technology innovation by strengthening environmental regulation.

Nonlinear conduction mechanism and research hypothesis

According to “Metcalfe Law”, the value of digital platforms increases exponentially with the size of the user, meaning that technology market development is the key to releasing the potential of digital platforms. Simultaneously, “Network Externality Theory” emphasizes that the worth of a network things on the quantity of its users and the level of their interconnectedness (Li et al., 2023), and technology market development can promote the digital platforms to pool resources more effectively and accelerate the spread and application of carbon neutral technology. Environmental regulation, as external incentives, set the boundary conditions for technology innovation. Companies are only encouraged to look for digital platforms to reduce carbon emissions when the severity of laws reaches a particular threshold. Thus, both the technology market development and the environmental regulation play a threshold role in the impact of digital platforms driving carbon neutral technology innovation. The specifics are outlined below:

Technology market development

To some degree, the imperfect of the technology market development means that the impetus for technology innovation is insufficient, the research and development ability is limited, and there is a lack of effective innovation mechanisms and market incentives. In this context, because there aren’t enough resources for innovative technology, the dynamic accuracy, energy-saving sharing, and technology spillover advantages of digital platforms, playing a supporting role in carbon neutral technology innovation and development is challenging. Moreover, digital platforms may exacerbate the fragmentation of technology innovation, leading to the fragmentation and waste of innovation resources. The low-level technology market development is often accompanied by the imperfection of market mechanisms, and digital platforms may run into numerous challenges when trying to foster technology innovation, such as the lack of intellectual property protection, poor technology transfer channels, etc., which may become adverse factors that inhibit the positive role of digital platforms in carbon neutral technology innovation. On the contrary, high-level technology market development usually has a sound innovation system, strong R&D capability, and an active market mechanism (Li et al., 2021). Digital platforms can give full play to their advantages of information aggregation and dissemination to provide strong data support for carbon neutral technology innovation. By aggregating global innovation resources, reducing the threshold and cost of technology innovation, attracting more innovation entities to participate, forming innovation synergy, encouraging the sharing and interchange of technology knowledge, and thus accelerating the process of technology innovation (Hu et al., 2020). In addition, high-level technology market development usually has a sound intellectual property protection system and technology transfer mechanism, which provides a strong institutional guarantee for digital platforms to promote carbon neutral technology innovation.

Environmental regulation

When the level of environmental regulation is low, enterprises lack the motivation to bring forth a mutually beneficial outcome between environmental stewardship and economic prosperity through the “innovation compensation” effect. Although they have certain funds to guarantee their green R&D, they have a low probability of success in green technology R&D for the time being due to the limitation of their R&D level (Ambec and Barla, 2002). In addition, due to the government’s low environmental requirements for local economic development, manufacturing enterprises with a low level of scientific and technology innovation will invest limited resources into product production and manufacturing to reduce the capital investment in pollution control (Hou et al., 2020), and choose the end blocking method to deal with environmental constraints, and even appear the “green paradox”. The need for businesses to engage in green production is becoming more and more apparent as environmental regulation increases. Market competition will squeeze out “three high” enterprises, requiring businesses to update and optimize low-carbon production and technical circumstances, carry out low-carbon technology research and development and acknowledge the creative effects of environmental regulation (Albortmorant et al., 2016). In addition, the diversity of digital platforms provides a good technical foundation for carbon neutral technology innovation, reducing the challenge of business research and development, and the government will also provide corresponding pollution control subsidies and technology research and development subsidies to enterprises, further improving the driving force of carbon neutral technology innovation.

In conclusion, the study proposes hypothesis 4: In different technology market development and environmental regulation threshold intervals, digital platforms have nonlinear effects on carbon neutral technology innovation.

To sum up, Fig. 2 depicts the theoretical framework of the paper.

Theoretical framework diagram.

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Model construction

To test hypothesis 1 of the study, that is, digital platforms can directly affect carbon neutral technology innovation, the study uses a baseline regression model for baseline regression analysis, which can remove the impact of individual heterogeneity that is not detected on the estimation outcomes, so as to obtain a more accurate estimation. Therefore, the study adds the digital platforms development index to the framework for analyzing carbon neutral technology innovation and builds the following baseline regression model.

In formula (1), ({{rm{innovation}}}_{{rm{it}}}) means carbon neutral technology innovation of province i in year t, ({{rm{digital}}}_{{rm{it}}}) is the core variable in the study, representing the digital platforms development index, and ({{rm{X}}}_{{rm{it}}}) is the control variables in the model. It includes six variables: population density, urbanization level, industrial structure, the size of industrial enterprises, capital mismatch, and human capital accumulation in research and technology. In addition, ({{rm{alpha }}}_{0}) represents the intercept term, ({{rm{alpha }}}_{1}) is the parameter to be estimated, and ({{rm{alpha }}}_{{rm{n}}}) is the parameter vector to be estimated, ({{rm{lambda }}}_{{rm{i}}}) symbolizes the particular effect that cannot be observed, and ({{rm{varepsilon }}}_{{rm{it}}}) is the word for random disruption.

In addition, in order to test hypothesis 2 and hypothesis 3 of the study, that is, digital platforms can indirectly influence carbon neutral technology innovation by optimizing technology market development and strengthening environmental regulation, the study introduces two intermediary variables, technology market development and environmental regulation, and investigates the indirect transmission process using the model of the intermediate effect of digital platforms affecting carbon neutral technology innovation. The intermediary effect model can explain the influence mechanism between variables well, and help researchers deeply understand the path and mode of action of independent variables on dependent variables. Therefore, the study establishes the mediation effect model as follows:

In formula (2) and formula (3), mediation_it is the intermediate variable, ({{rm{beta }}}_{0}) and ({{rm{omega }}}_{0}) are the intercept terms, ({{rm{beta }}}_{1}), ({{rm{omega}}}_{1}) and ({{rm{omega}}}_{2}) are the parameters to be estimated, ({{rm{beta}}}_{n}) and ({{rm{omega }}}_{{rm{n}}}) are the parameters vector to be estimated, and other variables are the same as above.

Only the data features of unknown variables may be identified by the conventional static threshold model from the standpoint of mathematical statistics, making up for the shortcomings of grouping regression methods, but it causes bias in model estimate by failing to address the issue of endogeneity among variables. Therefore, in order to test hypothesis 4 of the study, that is, digital platforms have a nonlinear impact on carbon neutral technology innovation within different technology market development and environmental regulatory threshold ranges. The study draws on Hou et al. (2018), taking into account carbon neutral technology innovation early dependency and dynamic features, and drawing into the lag term ({{rm{innovation}}}_{{rm{it}}-1}) variable. Technology market development and environmental regulation serve as threshold variables in a dynamic threshold model and are constructed by using the systematic GMM estimation method, which resolves the endogenous problem-related estimation deviance of the conventional static model.

A single threshold model that shows how digital platforms impact the quality of innovation is found in formula (4). The threshold variable in the study is denoted by ({{rm{th}}}_{{rm{it}}}), ({rm{I}}left({{bullet }}right)) is the role of indication, and the value is 1 if the associated requirements are met; if not, it is 0. ({{rm{eta }}}_{0}) is the single threshold value, ({{rm{varphi }}}_{1}), ({{rm{gamma }}}_{11}) and ({{rm{gamma }}}_{21}) are the parameters to be estimated, and ({{rm{gamma }}}_{{rm{n}}1}) is the parameter vector to be estimated, and other factors are the same as previously mentioned.

Measurement and description of variables

Variable explained

Carbon neutral technology innovation. A significant study on the classification of low-carbon patents has been underway since 2009 by the European Patent Office (EPO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). The study project found climate change mitigation technology patents from the extensive worldwide patent database by labeling patents dispersed across many classification systems, creating a new category in the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) known as the Y02 classification system. The United States Patent Office and the European Patent Office together developed a joint patent categorization, the Y02B, Y02C, Y02E, Y02P, Y02T and Y02W patents in the Y02 series under the Y classification are classified as the statistical objects of carbon neutral technology patents (Cao and Su, 2023). Given the growing significance of technical advancement and intellectual property rights in climate change mitigation, the study uses the latest CPC-Y02 system to measure carbon neutral technology innovation, which has the advantages of unified standards, strong compatibility, and high segmentation, etc. Table 1 shows the specific class numbers and areas of patent application.

Core explanatory variable

Digital platforms. In the study, citing the approach taken by Li and Huang (2021), the development degree of digital platforms in each province is characterized by residents’ internet contact and online retail scale. The former serves as the social foundation for the growth and diversification of different digital platforms, while the latter directly reflects how far forward e-commerce platforms have come in terms of development. This study specifically uses the natural logarithm of the interaction term by the number of broadband Internet users in each province and their online retail sales as the proxy variable of digital platforms. The more the value, the more developed digital platforms is in the city, the more capable it is of allocating resources, and the more intensely platforms compete with one another (Liu and Xia, 2023).

Intermediary variables and threshold variables

The study mainly measures the intermediate variables from two aspects: the incentive effect of an efficient market and the restraint effect of a successful government. (1) Market incentive level: technology market development. The total of technology commodity exchanges is the technology market (Zhang and Lin, 2015), and the exchange status of technology commodities in different provinces can be reflected in the technology market’s transaction volume index (Liu, 2006; Zhang et al., 2016). In light of this, the study measures the degree of each province’s technology market development by the volume of technology market transactions; (2) Government constraint level: environmental regulation. Environmental regulation is an important concern of research on carbon neutral technology innovation. It is an environmental standard formulated and promulgated by the government and plays a supervisory role for market players (Hou et al., 2023). The study uses pollution control to complete the investment measurement.

Control variables

The study incorporates several control variables from the macro, meso, and micro levels to guarantee the robustness of the model results. The macro level mainly includes population density and urbanization level; The meso level includes the industrial structure and the size of industrial enterprises; The micro level includes capital mismatch and human capital accumulation in research and technology. Specifically: (1) Population density. Population density measures the degree of concentration of economic activities. According to the practice of Zheng and Li (2020), the number of permanent residents per square kilometer is selected as the metric index of population density. (2) Urbanization level. To a great measure, the degree of urbanization reflects the inventiveness of cities and towns, which is measured by the proportion of each province’s urban population to its overall population. (3) Industrial structure. The ratio of the tertiary sector to the secondary industry serves as a proxy for the industrial structure, which has a significant influence on innovation. (4) The size of industrial enterprises. The size of industrial enterprises is closely related to the efficiency of innovation activities, and is an important factor affecting the quality of innovation. The paper is measured by the ratio of industrial output value to the number of regional enterprises. (5) Capital mismatch. According to the practice of Chen and Hu (2011), capital mismatch is measured by constructing price relative distortion coefficient. (6) Human capital accumulation in research and technology. Science and technology human capital can reflect a region’s innovative research and development ability, and is determined by the natural equivalent of full-time R&D employees.

Sources of information and descriptive statistics

Thirty regions in China from 2011 to 2022 are used as research samples in the study. The data is removed because it is lacking in Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, China (Han et al., 2024). The Bureau of Statistics of China provides all of the original, publicly available data used in this article. To avoid heteroscedasticity and multicollinearity, logarithmic and standardized processing of related variables were carried out. The linear interpolation method was utilized to fill in some missing data. Table 2 displays the descriptive statistical findings for every variable.

Analysis of stationarity test results

To make sure that every variable can pass the stationarity test, the unit root test is performed on the data prior to regression. Otherwise, it is easy to appear false regression phenomenon. In the study, ADF test methods and KPSS test methods were employed to evaluate the model’s variables’ stationarity. Table 3 displays the results of the ADF test. The null hypothesis is rejected by every variable, that is, the stationarity test is passed. Based on the findings of the KPSS test, the test statistics of all variables are far less than the critical value of 5% (0.463), so the null hypothesis of “stationary process” can be accepted. It can be concluded that the variables used in the study are stationary series and can be further studied empirically.

Analysis of the outcomes of benchmark regression

Based on the theoretical framework and empirical research design of the impact of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation, this paper adopts the least square method to conduct baseline regression analysis. According to the benchmark regression model constructed by formula (1), the sample range is divided into the whole country, the southeast of Hu Huanyong Line, and the northwest of Hu Huanyong Line. The baseline regression findings of the effect of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation are displayed in Table 4. The national sample regression estimation results are shown in model (1). The sample regression estimation findings of the northwest and southeast regions, respectively, demarcated by the Hu Huanyong Line, are represented by model (2) and model (3). The development of digital platforms has a strong direct promoting effect on the improvement of the carbon neutral technology innovation level overall, as demonstrated by the model (1), where the influence coefficient of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation is 0.459 and very significant. This finding supports hypothesis 1 of the study. A significant number of cross-border connections, cooperation, and platform-based exchanges will result from the growth of digital platforms, which can offer diverse and multi-channel innovation resources for the development of carbon neutral technology innovation. This will also increase the region’s total carbon neutral technology innovation capability.

In terms of control variables, population density negatively affects carbon neutral technology innovation and its effect coefficient is −0.038, which means that the allocation of innovation resources may face greater challenges in regions with high population density. Due to limited resources, it may be difficult to obtain sufficient support and funding for innovative projects, thereby affecting the progress of carbon neutral technology innovation; Urbanization level has a favorable effect on carbon neutral technology innovation, which is basically consistent with the research conclusion of Sun (2023). For every 1 unit change in urbanization level, the level of carbon neutral technology innovation will increase by 1.520 units. The rationale might be that when urbanization levels rise, economic scales also rise. It provides a broad market space for technology innovation from both sides of supply and demand. The need for clean-energy, energy-saving, and emission-reduction technologies is rising along with the urban population and economy, which creates a powerful market pull for the development and use of carbon neutral technology; The influence coefficient of industrial structure on carbon neutral technology innovation is 0.161, indicating that the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure promotes the development of traditional industries with high energy consumption and high pollution to green and low-carbon emerging industries, and has a positive role in promoting carbon neutral technology innovation; The size of industrial enterprises has a negative impact on carbon neutral technology innovation and its effect coefficient is −0.063, possibly because large enterprises often face greater transformation costs and path dependence in the development process, which is easy to cause innovation inertia. Due to limited resources, small and medium-size enterprise are more inclined to seek efficient and innovative strategic solutions to enhance market competitiveness and facilitate the development of carbon neutral technology innovation; The positive effect coefficient of capital mismatch on carbon neutral technology innovation is 0.091, which means that under certain circumstances, capital mismatch may prompt innovation resources to flow to areas with higher potential returns, thus promoting carbon neutral technology innovation; Each unit increase in human capital accumulation in research and technology will promote the increase of carbon neutral technology innovation by 0.244 units. The study of Li et al. (2022) also affirmed the promoting role of human capital in improving the level of regional innovation. The increase in research and technological talent will not only directly enhance research and development capabilities, but also facilitate knowledge sharing, technological innovation diffusion and cross-border cooperation, thereby accelerating the transformation of carbon neutral technology innovation from theory to practice.

In terms of heterogeneity analysis, as shown in model (2) and model (3), digital platforms have a greater influence on the development of carbon neutral technology in the southeast of the Hu Huanyong Line than in the northwest. The study hold that the possible reason lies in the high level of economic development in the southeast of the Hu Huanyong Line, with more perfect infrastructure and higher popularization and application of digital technology. At the same time, there are more high-tech talents and scientific research institutions in the region, and enterprises and governments attach greater importance to digital technology and environmental protection, making it easier for digital platforms to obtain technical support and financial guarantees in promoting carbon neutral technology innovation. Therefore, in the southeast of the Hu Huanyong Line, digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation have a broader space for development.

Mechanism analysis

The test results for digital platforms intermediate mechanism that affects carbon neutral technology innovation are shown in Table 5. The core and intermediary variables in the model’s effect coefficient and significance level indicate that under the influence of technology market development and environmental regulation, digital platforms exert an indirect influence on carbon neutral technology innovation, supplying enough proof in the study to support hypothesis 2 and hypothesis 3. Model (4) and model (5) are the results of step-to-step regression based on model (1) using technology market development as the intermediary variable; Environmental regulation serves as the intermediate variable in model (6) and model (7), which are based on model (1). The specific analysis is as follows:

Digital platforms may greatly advance the state of the technology market and the effect coefficient is 0.558, which is essentially in line with the research finding of Chen (2024). Providing that other variables stay the same, every 1 unit increase in the technology market development level index will significantly increase the level of carbon neutral technology innovation by 0.478 units. Under the influence of technology market development, the indirect effect of digital platforms on the level of carbon neutral technology innovation (0.558*0.478) is same direction as the direct effect (0.192), the role of promoting carbon neutral technology innovation is enhanced, suggesting that technology market development plays a positive influence on the relationship between digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation. The possible reason is that the boom in the technology market has prompted increased funding for technical innovation and research and development, providing a continuous impetus for the development of carbon neutral technology. With the increasing demand for low-carbon and environmentally friendly technologies in the technology market, the technology market will spontaneously adjust the allocation of resources and encourage the creation, implementation, and study of related technologies.

The model estimation results with environmental regulation as the intermediary variable show that digital platforms significantly improve environmental regulation with an impact coefficient of 0.153, and the direct impact coefficient of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation is 0.448. Moreover, each 1 unit increase in the environmental regulation index will result in a 0.072 unit increase in the carbon neutral technology innovation level, which is essentially in line with the research findings of Li et al. (2024). The carbon neutral technology innovation level has indirectly grown by 0.011 (0.153*0.072) units due to the development of digital platforms, accounting for 2.4% of the total effect. Through data support and information sharing, digital platforms help the government formulate environmental regulation policies more accurately, improve the pertinence of environmental regulation, and employ digital platforms to oversee the application of environmental regulation policies to guarantee environmental regulation efficacy. At the same time, environmental regulation policies can provide market demand and a driving force for carbon neutral technology innovation. Under the role of environmental regulation, businesses will aggressively fund low-carbon technology research and development, advancing carbon neutral technology innovation.

Nonlinear effect analysis

Before threshold regression, it is determined whether the study exhibits the threshold effect. As shown in Table 6, Bootstrap repeated sampling showed that both technology market development and environmental regulation passed the single threshold effect’s significance test, nevertheless none of them were able to pass the double threshold test, supporting hypothesis 4 put out in the study. That is, within different technology market development levels and environmental regulation threshold intervals, carbon neutral technology innovation is nonlinearly impacted by digital platforms. To more thoroughly investigate the estimation and confidence interval of the threshold value. The least square likelihood ratio statistic, or LR, is used to establish the threshold value. The predicted threshold value is the value at which LR equals 0. The two variables’ single threshold likelihood ratio function diagrams are created, and the results can be seen in Figs. 3 and 4.

Likelihood ratio function of technology market development level: single threshold.

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Likelihood ratio function diagram of environmental regulation: single threshold.

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According to the “Threshold Theory”, there is a significant single threshold effect that exists of technology market development and environmental regulation in the nonlinear influence mechanism of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation. The threshold value and confidence interval estimation results are displayed in Table 7. Among them, the threshold value of technology market development is 6.0799, which is located in the 95% confidence interval of [5.9550, 6.1506]. The threshold value of environmental regulation is 4.0281, located in the confidence interval of [3.8700, 4.0414]. Therefore, based on the threshold data, the two threshold variables are divided respectively, and the level of technology market development is divided into the level of the weak technology market development and the level of the strong technology market development. The environmental regulation is divided into weak environmental regulation interval and strong environmental regulation interval. In summary, there is a significant nonlinear threshold effect in the interaction between digital platforms and the development of carbon neutral technology.

Table 8 displays the dynamic threshold regression results. Model (8) represents the model estimation results when technology market development is the threshold variable and the model estimation results are shown by model (9) when environmental regulation is the threshold variable. The following are the specific constraint implications of each threshold variable:

Regarding the model estimation outcomes of technology market development as a threshold variable, at low levels of technology market development (Technology market development ≤ 6.0799), the digital platforms can significantly promote carbon neutral technology innovation, and the influence coefficient is 0.229. When the technology market development exceeds the threshold value of 6.0799, its influence coefficient on carbon neutral technology innovation increases to 0.279. The research shows that a relatively low level of technology market development is conducive to the driving role of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation, and with technology market development gradually improving and crossing the threshold value, digital platforms will play a more beneficial role in enhancing carbon neutral technology innovation under the high level of technology market development threshold. The possible reasons are as follows: When the technology market development is only getting started, problems such as information asymmetry, high transaction costs, and scattered innovation resources are common, which limit the effectiveness of digital platforms in integrating innovation resources, accelerating technology diffusion and commercialization process, and confirm the “Market Failure Theory”. With the gradual maturity of the technology market, the market mechanism has been optimized and the market failure has been alleviated. In a high level of technology market development, information transparency is significantly improved, information asymmetry between innovators and investors is reduced, and digital platforms are able to collect and communicate innovative information more effectively, facilitating funding matching and market recognition of innovative projects. The high-level stage of the technology market is often accompanied by a more perfect incentive mechanism and property rights protection system, which can ensure that innovators can get the benefits that match their innovation achievements, so as to stimulate the enthusiasm of innovators. Digital platforms play a more significant role in helping to translate and commercialize inventions. In addition, in the high-level technology market, through the combination of market mechanisms and policy means, the externalities of carbon neutral technology innovation can be internalized, which helps to stimulate the motivation of innovators and encourage the quick development of carbon neutral technology innovation.

According to the model estimation results using environmental regulation as the threshold variable, digital platforms have a significantly positive impact on the development of carbon neutral technology when environmental regulation is less than the initial threshold value of 4.0281, with a coefficient of 0.136. When the environmental regulation is in the upper range (Environmental regulation > 4.0281), the positive promoting effect of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation will be further strengthened. The aforementioned findings demonstrate that, depending on the degree of environmental regulation, there is a nonlinear link between digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation. This is comparable to what Hou et al. (2023) found, which also confirms the “Porter Hypothesis”. The possible reasons are as follows: Businesses are less under pressure to protect the environment and don’t have outside pressures pushing technology innovation when environmental regulation are relatively lax. At this point, despite the ease of information exchange and technology integration provided by digital platforms, companies may be more inclined to maintain the status quo rather than invest resources in technology innovation due to the lack of sufficient incentives. When environmental regulation intensifies further till it surpasses the crucial point, strong environmental regulation compel businesses to spend more on technical innovation in order to satisfy the ever-tougher environmental standards. In this case, the efficiency and convenience of the digital platforms have been fully utilized, and more abundant resources and support for technology innovation have been provided for enterprises. In addition, a high level of environmental regulation may also trigger technical cooperation and exchange within and outside the industry, resource sharing and collaborative innovation through digital platforms, and further promote the rapid development of carbon neutral technology innovation.

The test results for model AR (1) and model AR (2) are shown in Table 8 below. The threshold model for dynamic panels is reasonably constructed. According to Hansen’s test, P > 0.05 means that no reasonable instrumental variable null hypothesis is rejected which further confirms the rationality of using first-order difference GMM.

Robustness test

Using the robustness test methods suggested by Qi and Li (2018) and Dang et al. (2021) as a guide, this research conducts a robustness test on the influence of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation using four different approaches to determine whether the results are reliable: adjust the research sample, alter the sample period, reduce control variables and instrumental variables method. The results of the robustness test are displayed in Table 9.

Adjust the research sample

Model (10) displays the outcomes of testing 26 Chinese province-level regions by excluding the top and worst two regions from the digital platforms development index. Explanatory variable coefficients and significance levels are not significantly different from the above results, demonstrating the reliability of the empirical findings in the study.

Alter the sample period

The robustness test is conducted by shortening the sample period. In 2015 and after, China’s internet economy grew quickly and some publications considered 2015 to be the inaugural year for pertinent studies in the domain of the digital economy (Dang et al., 2021). The study is mainly concerned with the impact of digital platforms development on carbon neutral technology innovation. Therefore, the sample period is adjusted to 2015–2022 to conduct empirical estimation again. Model (11) shows that the model coefficient and significance level are in line with the findings of the research reported in the study, which confirms the model results in the study’s robustness.

Reduce control variables

The control variables “population density” and “urbanization level” are deleted in the study, and the obtained, as shown in model (12), no significant difference compared with the above, demonstrating the reliability of the empirical results in the study.

Instrumental variables method

Learning from the ideas of Sun et al. (2023), Huang et al. (2019) and Ye et al. (2021) to construct instrumental variables, the cross-fertilization term (data) of “Comprehensive national big data pilot region” and “Comprehensive national big data pilot region approval time” are used to represent endogenous variables, and degree of relief (iv1) and quantity of post offices (iv2) are used as instrumental variables. If the province is set up as a comprehensive national big data pilot region, it is 1 in the current and subsequent years, otherwise 0; The building and installation of digital equipment as well as the transmission of digital information are somewhat impacted by degree of relief. The post office is a carrier to facilitate communication and generate information exchange, and the number of post offices is often highly correlated with the Internet penetration rate and the evolution of technology in communication, which meets the requirements of tool variable selection. In order to estimate the model, this study merged the two-stage least squares approach (2SLS) with the difference-in-differences method (DID).

According to the two-stage least square regression model (13) and model (14), the first-stage regression shows that the correlation hypothesis of instrumental variables is confirmed by the substantial correlation between all instrumental variables and endogenous variables. After resolving the endogenous issue, the second stage regression results’ coefficient is significantly positive at the 1% level, suggesting that the paper’s conclusion remains valid. In addition, the Cragg-Donald Wald statistic is 26.310, above the 10% threshold value of 19.93, suggesting that there is no issue with the weak instrumental variable. The over-recognition limitation is effective, as indicated by the Hansen test value being greater than 0.05. The study’s hypothesis 1 is further confirmed based on the analysis above.

Conclusion

The study is based on the innovation and development of digital empowerment technology and the basic requirements for achieving the goal of “carbon neutrality”. Based on China’s inter-provincial panel data from 2011 to 2022, the study uses the benchmark regression model, the intermediary effect model, and the dynamic panel threshold model, and for the first time introduces technology market development and environmental regulation into the complex relationship between digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation. Taking population density, urbanization level, industrial structure, the size of industrial enterprises, capital mismatch, and human capital accumulation of research and technology human capital as control variables, the study reveals the influence mechanism of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation using an empirical test and a theoretical analysis, verifies the four hypothesis proposed above and evaluates how reliable the findings are. The research conclusions are mainly reflected in three aspects:

1. (1)

   Digital platforms directly influence the development of carbon neutral technology innovation, and there is regional heterogeneity. With Hu Huanyong Line as the boundary, the effect is more significant in southeast China. The level of carbon neutral technology innovation will rise by 0.459 units for every unit increase in the growth of digital platforms. The development of digital platforms can provide diversified and multi-channel innovation resources for the development of carbon neutral technology innovation, which will result in numerous cross-border relationships, platform-based collaborations, and exchanges, as well as the realization of an expansion of the region’s overall capacity for carbon neutral technology innovation. This conclusion is robust with the support of four robustness testing methods: adjust the research sample, alter the sample period, reduce control variables and instrumental variables method.

2. (2)

   Digital platforms also have indirect influences on carbon neutral technology innovation to varying degrees, and environmental regulation and technology market development both positively influence this process. Increased investment in R&D and technical innovation has been prompted by the rise of technology market development, providing a continuous impetus for the development of carbon neutral technology. With the increasing demand of the technology market for low-carbon and environmentally friendly technologies, the technology market will spontaneously adjust the allocation of resources and encourage the research and development and application of related technology. The government can better create environmental regulation policies and increase the relevance of environmental regulation by using digital platforms for data support and information sharing. At the same time, environmental regulation policies can provide market demand and impetus for carbon neutral technology innovation. Under the role of environmental regulation, businesses will make significant investments in low-carbon technology research and development, thus promoting carbon neutral technology innovation.

3. (3)

   Under the threshold range of higher levels of technology market development and environmental regulation, digital platforms are more effective at encouraging the development of carbon neutral technology innovation. When technology market development are minimal, the market mechanism is not perfect, and the necessary basic resources for technology innovation research are lacking. As the technology market develops further to break through the critical value, digital platforms can fully leverage their advantages of information aggregation and dissemination to provide a powerful driving force for carbon neutral technology innovation. When environmental regulation are minimal, the region lacks the dynamic mechanism to promote carbon neutral technology innovation, and the enabling effect of digital platforms on regional environmental governance is low. As the intensity of environmental regulation continues to increase until it breaks through the critical value, the promotion role of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation will be enhanced, and a high level of environmental regulation will compel businesses to carry out research and development on low-carbon technology, thereby enhancing the level of carbon neutral technology innovation in the region. This further validates the presence of environmental regulation in the realm of digital empowerment.

Academic value

First, the study combines digital platforms and carbon neutral technology innovation, explores the deep and complex relationship between them, and enriches the theoretical system of digital empowerment. Second, for carbon neutral technology innovation, the existing research has not unified its measurement methods. The study measures the carbon neutral technology innovation using the disclosure amount of Y02 patents in the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC), which has the advantages of unified standards, strong compatibility and high segmentation. Finally, the study examines the impact mechanism of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation from a multifaceted perspective, incorporating technology market development and environmental regulation into the research framework based on the viewpoint of market incentives and governmental constraints. In addition to offering theoretical backing for enhancing understanding of the innovative efficacy of digital platforms, it also offers crucial theoretical direction and real-world application for reaching the objective of “carbon neutral”.

Policy recommendations

In light of the aforementioned research findings, the study makes the following recommendations to support carbon neutral technology innovation:

1. (1)

   Encouraging the thorough integration of industry, university, research, and application. The realization of carbon neutral technology innovation requires cross-field, all-round, and multi-level collaboration, and the deep integration of industry, university, research, and application is an important support point to enhance the ability of carbon neutral technology innovation. Actively promote cooperation between universities, scientific research institutions, and enterprises, establish carbon neutral technology innovation alliances, and collaborate to do technology creation, research, and achievement change. Strengthen the development and introduction of abilities while doing this, establish a carbon neutral technology innovation talent pool, and offer a solid assurance of talent for technology innovation. In addition, the government should also improve overseas collaboration and exchanges, absorb knowledge from other countries’ advanced carbon neutral technology innovation experience, and raise China’s international position in the world’s low-carbon economy.

2. (2)

   Strengthen policy guidance and financial input. The government has formulated a sound policy system for carbon neutral technology innovation, clarified the important position of technology innovation in the field of carbon neutral, and provided a strong policy guarantee for technology innovation. At the same time, increase the capital investment in carbon neutral technology innovation, through the establishment of special funds, tax incentives, and other ways to attract more social capital to invest in carbon neutral technology innovation. In addition, a sound technology innovation evaluation mechanism has been established to reward technology innovation projects that have achieved remarkable results and stimulate the enthusiasm of enterprises and scientific research institutions for technology innovation.

3. (3)

   Improving the innovation ecology and environment. A good innovation ecology and environment is an important guarantee for technology innovation. The government ought to fortify the defense of intellectual property rights and offer dependable legal assurances for technology advancement. At the same time, a sound service system for technology innovation has been established to provide all-around services such as information consultation, technology transfer, and achievement transformation for technology innovation. Strengthen science popularization and publicity, increase public awareness and participation in carbon neutral technology innovation, and form a good atmosphere for the whole society to jointly pay attention to and support carbon neutral technology innovation.

Future outlook

Of course, there are limitations to the study that will also be the focus of future research by our team: (1) The research object for the study is provincial panel data from China for empirical testing and analysis. Although it can provide theoretical reference for revealing digital platforms enabling carbon neutral technology innovation, the current paper mainly focuses on China, a single emerging technology country, for empirical research, which limits the generality and adaptability of the findings to some extent. The study fails to conduct cross-country comparative analysis due to resource constraints, data availability and research focus setting. In the future research, our team will strive to extend the research scope to other countries and regions, such as the European Union and the United States to carry out a more thorough cross-national comparison study. A study of this kind would allow for a more thorough evaluation of the impact of digital platforms on carbon neutral technology innovation and provide more valuable insights for policy making on a global scale; (2) With the rapid development of digital platforms, how to effectively govern them is attracting the attention of academia and policymakers. Among them, the more prominent issues are platform anti-monopoly and intellectual property protection. A new type of monopoly known as a digital monopoly has also resulted from the growing marginal returns to scale of digital platforms. Therefore, in how to protect intellectual property rights from infringement while considering the platform’s innovative value, a more thorough examination of its efficient governance model is warranted; (3) This study investigates how digital platforms affect the development of carbon neutral technology innovation from the dual perspectives of market incentives and government constraints, but there may be other factors affecting the intensity and direction of the two. Therefore, we will attempt to incorporate more influencing factors for a more thorough analysis in the follow-up study and further unlock the “black box” of digital platforms that facilitate the development of carbon neutral technology; (4) Since all the data in this study are from China Statistical Yearbook and other public materials, the data for 2023 has only been updated to 2022, and the data for 2023 has not been published. In future studies, we will further use the latest data to conduct a more comprehensive and detailed examination and discussion on the research results, so as to ensure the credibility and cutting-edge of the study.