Digital transformation serves as a new driving force and engine for enterprise innovation. Meanwhile, the national strategy of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality has set new goals and requirements for the green development of the Chinese manufacturing industry. From the three-dimensional perspective of “strategy-resource-institution,” this paper explores the impact and mechanism of digital transformation on green technology innovation of Chinese manufacturing enterprises and the heterogeneous impact of the institutional logic of ownership structure. Using a sample of 1,016 A-share listed manufacturing companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2011 to 2019 and based on big data text mining and a negative binomial regression model, this study finds that: (1) Digital strategy significantly enhances green technology innovation capability of enterprises; (2) digital resource investment partially mediates the effect of digital strategy on the enhancement of green technology innovation capability; and (3) the ownership structure of enterprises plays a moderating role in the mediating relationship mentioned above. Specifically, compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), non-stateowned enterprises (NSOEs) show no significant difference in the stages where digital strategy promotes green technology innovation and guides digital resource investment. However, they demonstrate higher efficiency in transforming digital resource investment into green technology innovation. The robustness test indicates that the significant effect of digital strategy and resource investment on green technology innovation in enterprises remains valid in the medium term, with a continuous enabling effect. There is no significant difference between SOEs and NSOEs in the medium and long term in promoting green technology innovation through digital transformation. Further, introducing keyword text networks to explore the structural impact of digital strategy, this study finds that digital product and manufacturing strategy are adequate strategic dimensions to enhance green technology innovation capability, and digital financial strategy and digital marketing strategy have no direct promoting effect on green technology innovation of enterprises. From the perspectives of strategies, resources, and institutions, the research findings elucidate the process mechanisms of digital acceleration in the green transformation of manufacturing and the heterogeneous effect of ownership structure and provide critical theoretical insights into the role mechanisms and contextual factors of digitalization on green innovation in manufacturing enterprises. Moreover, this study offers scientific decision-making support for incentivizing the manufacturing industry to seize the opportunities of industrial digitalization and accelerate carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.

The digital economy, underpinned by fundamental digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data, facilitates business model innovation, thereby enabling firms to achieve distinctive competitive advantages. While the digital economy creates more development opportunities for businesses, it also subjects them to higher levels of competitive threats. Therefore, business model innovation is both a proactive choice to perceive and exploit external opportunities and a reactive adaptation to identify and mitigate external threats. The digital economy drives business model innovation through digital information, internet platforms, digital technologies, and new business models and formats. As such, firms should utilize data resources innovatively to update their value logic, build digital ecosystems based on internet platforms, enhance digital technology integration to enable agile responses, and gain insights into emerging economic formats to promote cross-industry integration and innovation.

Based on a data-driven theoretical approach, this study utilizes Qingdao Internet of Food Co., Ltd. (IoF) as a study case to explore the mechanism of digital business model innovation within manufacturing enterprises. Employing a dynamic logic framework of “data-driven processes-dynamic capability enhancement-digital business model innovation,” this paper elaborates the process of digital business model innovation using the Grounded Theory. The findings indicate that realizing digital business model innovation is contingent upon the effective utilization of organizational data resources. Data-driven processes are crucial driving factors for digital business model innovation, unfolding through three critical stages: demand source identification, scenario chain linkage, and network sharing and interaction. These data-driven approaches significantly influence and enhance organizational dynamic capabilities, supporting the intermediary mechanism of data-driven processes as the antecedents to optimize the components of an enterprise’s digital business model. From a holistic generative perspective, digital business model innovation is realized through a dynamic process encompassing three dimensions: value proposition alignment, scenario experience optimization, and value network expansion. This study aims to offer theoretical insights and practical suggestions for business model innovation in the digital economy era.

Corporate digital transformation and green transformation are the key paths to realizing China's high-quality development, and exploring how corporate digital transformation affects green innovation models holds both significant theoretical value and pragmatic enlightenment. By taking the A-share listed companies in China from 2002 to 2021 as research samples, this paper distinguishes between energy conservation and environmental protection green innovation models based on the IPC Green Inventory and the content of green innovation. This paper empirically examines the influence of corporate digital transformation on the green innovation model selection and its mechanism. The study finds that corporate digital transformation strongly motivates enterprises to select green innovation model, a role that stems from the utilization of digital underlying technologies. The research and development investment of digital greenization plays a mediating role in this process. Market competition, informal environmental regulations and government innovation subsidies can moderate enterprises’ strategies for selecting green innovation models. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that digital transformation drives corporate selection of energy-saving green innovation to a greater extent in industries that have a greater need for green transformation, such as the manufacturing industry. The results of this paper identify the effect of corporate digital transformation on green innovation model selection at the theoretical level and provide important insights into the coordinated development of Chinese corporate digitalization and greenization at the practical level.

This paper selects China’s A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2021 as the research sample and explores the impact of digital transformation on corporate green technology innovation and the moderating role of corporate competitive position in this relationship. The research findings are as follows: Digital transformation plays a significant role in promoting corporate green technology innovation. The improvement of corporate competitive position weakens the promoting effect of digital transformation on corporate green technology innovation. The moderating effect of the corporate competition position is more pronounced in the enterprises of the eastern and western regions, as well as in the listed companies in the manufacturing industry. The promoting effect of digital transformation on utility model patent innovation is dramatically attenuated when the corporate competitive position is strengthened. However, the weakening effect on invention patent innovation is not statistically significant.

Business model innovation faces multiple tests of legitimacy. Most extant research in this area has been conducted from institutional and strategic perspectives while paying insufficient attention to the perspective of evaluators. Based on the institutionalization of China’s online car-hailing industry from 2012 to 2018, this paper analyzes the legitimacy judgment of the stakeholders from the perspective of evaluator categorization and explores the legitimation mechanism of business model innovation. It finds that evaluators judge the legitimacy of business models based on category cognition. Therefore, to achieve the bridging, spillover, and accumulation effects of legitimacy, the legitimation strategy of online car-hailing platforms should dynamically adapt to different evaluators, judgment models, and categorization standards. Ultimately, as quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, the legitimation of innovative business models is achieved in this way. In this process, stakeholders categorize and evaluate online car-hailing based on prototypes and value goals, and establish a two-way interactive mechanism, which is from behavior guided by cognition to cognition given feedback by behavior. This paper combines the legitimacy judgment with category theory to explain how individual cognition drives the emergence of new categories and identifies a series of legitimacy strategies based on categorization, thus providing theoretical support and practical inspiration for exploring the legitimation of business model innovation.

The digital transformation that induces the disruption of traditional production models is as crucial as the green development emphasized during the construction of an ecological civilization. However, there is ongoing debate about whether, and under what contextual conditions, digital transformation promotes corporate green innovation. Using data from A-share listed enterprises on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2012 to 2019, this study employs a fixed effect model to analyze the effect of digital transformation on green innovation and its specific mechanisms. There are four findings. (1) Digital transformation significantly improves green innovation in enterprises. This conclusion is supported by quantile analysis and endogenous treatment based on a multi-period difference-in-differences model. (2) Digital transformation stimulates green innovation by enhancing absorptive capacity and internal control. (3) Industry heterogeneity analysis indicates that, compared with non-state-owned enterprises, digital transformation has a greater positive effect on green innovation in state-owned enterprises. The positive effect of digital transformation on green innovation is significant in technology-intensive enterprises but not in non-technology-intensive enterprises. (4) External context tests show that in regions with stringent environmental regulations, digital transformation significantly promotes green innovation, whereas in regions with weak environmental regulations, its effect is not significant. Furthermore, the positive correlation between digital transformation and green innovation remains largely unchanged as the level of green finance increases.

Digital transformation has brought new vitality into enterprises' innovative development. Traditional manufacturing industries have leveraged digitalization to drive technological advancements, thereby promoting corporate green technology innovation and achieving the goal of coordinated transformation toward digital and green development. This paper employs annual data of China's A-share listed manufacturing companies from 2007 to 2020 to examine the impact of digital transformation on corporate green technology innovation and the underlying mechanism of this impact. The results indicate that digital transformation significantly enhances corporate green technology innovation, and this enhancing effect is even more significant in state-owned enterprises and high-tech enterprises. The mechanism test reveals that enhancing digital transformation can not only improve enterprises' information transparency and strengthen positive market expectations, but also encourage enterprises to increase R&D investment, ultimately enhancing the level of their green technology innovation. The empirical findings of this paper can provide valuable insights for government departments to formulate strategies that can promote green innovation in the manufacturing industry, drive high-quality development, and contribute to the achievement of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets.

In recent years, the internet business model has become a popular concept, and has been adopted by an increasing number of traditional enterprises. However, the question remains whether this adoption is a strategy-driven decision or a blind follow of trends. Therefore, this study is conducted on Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2020 to examine the existence, underlying motives, and economic consequences of peer effects in traditional enterprises adopting internet business models. The results show significant peer effects among traditional enterprises adopting internet business models. The examination of driving mechanisms reveals that peer effects of internet business models are more significant in enterprises with asset-light structures, higher degrees of virtualization, lower market valuations, and greater financing pressure, supporting the conceptual catering hypothesis rather than the strategic drive hypothesis. Further tests reveal that while adopting internet business models enables enterprises to receive some government subsidy and market reaction in the short term, it only promotes tactical innovation rather than real innovation and does not improve the financial performance of these enterprises. This further indicates that peer effects of internet business models are not a strategic drive but rather a matter of conceptual catering.

Leadership plays a crucial role in fostering employee innovation. Which kind of leadership style is more closely associated with higher levels of employee innovation? This question remains a matter of debate in empirical research. To answer this question, this study proposes a theoretical framework based on self-determination theory (SDT) to explain the variation in correlation coefficients between different leadership styles and employee innovation. Using meta-analysis, this study synthesizes evidence from 432 independent empirical studies (229 in Chinese and 203 in English, with a total sample size of 161,599) to test the hypotheses. The results show that: (1) Transactional leadership, ethical leadership, transformational leadership, servant leadership, leader-member exchange (LMX), empowering leadership, inclusive leadership, and authentic leadership all have significant positive correlations with employee creative performance, with the correlation increasing; (2) factors such as individualism, the method of performance appraisal, the time point of data collection, the measurement of leadership styles, the measurement of employee creative performance, and publication language partially moderate the relationship between leadership styles and employee creative performance. The results align with the theoretical forecasting and contribute to the development of SDT. More importantly, this study provides key practical insights for managers by suggesting that employing the appropriate leadership style can effectively enhance employee creative performance.

This paper incorporates individual digital literacy into corporate management practice to explore the relationship between managers’ digital literacy and the performance of corporate green technology innovation. The results show that managers' digital literacy can contribute to corporate green technology innovation. Specifically, a greater degree of digital literacy among the top management team is associated with better performance in corporate green technology innovation. Even if the management does not have an educational background in core digital technologies, their work experience related to core digital technologies such as computers and information technology can help promote corporate green technology innovation in the later stage. There is the heterogeneity in the managers' digital literacy role in promoting corporate green technology innovation, which is more significant in the sample of regions with low levels of the digital economy development, sufficient media attention, and non-heavily polluting enterprises. Digital transformation plays a mediating role between managers' digital literacy and corporate green technology innovation. Through further research, we find that the improvement of managers' digital literacy can contribute to the enhancement of corporate value in the future. The conclusions enrich the research horizon of upper echelons theory, explore the value and differentiated effect of digital human capital in the new era, and provide empirical evidence at the micro level that digital technologies promote the green and sustainable development of the economy.

While the heterogeneous knowledge of a diverse workforce sparks innovation, it also poses many management challenges. Therefore, human resource practices that seek unity while embracing diversity have become a hot topic in both academia and industry. Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study defines the components of diversity & inclusion human resource practice (DI-HRP), uncovers the mechanism by which it influences employees’ innovative behavior through thriving at work, and examines the moderating role of shared leadership. Through multi-point tracking and hierarchical multiple regression analysis of 461 valid samples from 37 companies, this study finds that (1) DI-HRP positively influences employees’ innovative behavior; (2) thriving at work mediates the relationship between DI-HRP and employees’ innovative behavior; and (3) shared leadership positively moderates both the direct impact of DI-HRP on thriving at work and employees’ innovative behavior, as well as the indirect effect via thriving at work.

The bootlegging achievements initiated by employees play an important role in realizing high-quality development in China. Extant literature has not investigated the formation mechanism of bootleg innovation from the perspective of motivation. Therefore, this study integrates the cognitive factors of employees’ creative self-efficacy and psychological safety based on social cognitive theory and introduces performance prove goal orientation as the mediator from the perspective of motivation to explore its influence on bootleg innovation. Data collected from 468 employees from 53 technological companies at three time nodes demonstrate that: Creative self-efficacy and psychological safety can promote employees’ bootleg innovation; the combination of high creative self-efficacy and high psychological safety is more likely to drive bootleg innovation than the combination of double low levels of them; a consistent combination of creative self-efficacy and psychological safety is more likely to drive innovative behavior than an inconsistent combination of them; the combination of high creative self efficacy and low psychological security is more likely to drive bootleg innovation than the combination of the vice versa; employees’ creative self-efficacy and psychological security affect bootleg innovation mainly through the formation of performance-prove goal orientation; and the error management climate can positively moderate the mediating effect of performance-prove goal orientation. This study provides a new perspective on the formation mechanism of bootleg innovation and can serve as a practical reference for enterprises to motivate employees’ bootleg innovation.

Based on the description of Industrial 4.0, gig economy, sharing economy, employee sharing, and changes in the labor market, this study analyzes the important role of human capital management in these new environments. This study concludes that the human resource management focusing on promoting human capital of Chinese enterprises is confronted by the following development trends: localization mode, intelligent function, precise efficiency, and experiencing practice. Finally, in view of the above trends, the paper proposes that the government should support them through targeted policies and enterprises should maximize the value of their human capital. At the same time, employees should also make efforts to enhance their own sustainable human capital.

Spiritual leadership is identified as an effective factor in promoting employees’innovative behavior. However, in China, this process may be influenced by both organizational and group factors. This study develops a moderated mediation model to examine the mechanisms by which spiritual leadership affects the innovative behavior of R&D personnel, drawing from a combined perspective of career calling and organizational support. Data are collected through matched-pair surveys from 513 R&D employees and their line leaders across innovative organizations in Beijing, Shenzhen, Harbin, and Xi'an. Data analysis is conducted using SPSS 22.0 and LISREL 8.5. The findings indicate that spiritual leadership positively influences the innovative behavior of R&D personnel. Furthermore, career calling serves as a mediating factor in the relationship between spiritual leadership and innovative behavior. This mediating process is positively moderated by relational energy and perceived organizational support for creativity; specifically, the effect of spiritual leadership on innovative behavior through career calling is significantly stronger when relational energy and perceived organizational support for creativity are high.

Employees are key drivers of organizational innovation, and their creative performance is crucial for the survival and growth of an organization. While external and innovation oriented management practices may produce short-term results, sustained and proactive innovation depends on employees’ intrinsic motivation, continuous learning, and psychological vitality. This study, drawing on social identity theory, examines the effect of organizational identification on employee creative performance, with a focus on the mediating role of thriving at work and the moderating effect of servant leadership. Using survey data collected at four different time points from 202 leader-subordinate pairs, the study employs Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings indicate that organizational identification promotes employee creative performance through the partial mediation of thriving at work, with thriving at work-learning being more prominent than thriving at work-vitality. This indirect effect is further moderated by servant leadership. When servant leadership is strong, the positive effect of organizational identification on thriving at work and consequently on employee creative performance is amplified. Specifically, the mediating role of thriving at work learning is more significantly moderated by servant leadership than thriving at work vitality. These findings offer practical insights for fostering proactive innovation among employees and promoting sustainable development in enterprises

In contrast to traditional passive innovation behavior, proactive innovation behavior initiated by employees significantly impacts organizational performance. For manufacturing employees, proactive innovation behavior leads to high-quality innovation outcomes, thereby facilitating the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing sector. Trait mindfulness enhances self-awareness, stimulating intrinsic motivation, and proactive employee behavior. However, research exploring how trait mindfulness affects proactive innovation behavior in manufacturing is still limited. This study, anchored in self determination theory and viewed through intrinsic motivation, develops a chain mediation model whereby trait mindfulness influences proactive innovation through professional identity and thriving at work while examining the moderating role of a caring ethical climate. Utilizing a sample of 536 manufacturing employees, data analysis and hypothesis testing are performed using SPSS and Amos. The findings reveal that (1) trait mindfulness has a positive effect on proactive innovation behavior; (2) professional identity and thriving at work each act as partial mediators between trait mindfulness and proactive innovation behavior and together serve as chain mediators; and (3) a caring ethical climate positively moderates the relationship between trait mindfulness and both professional identity and thriving at work. Finally, management recommendations are proposed based on these empirical findings.