Can digital policy improve corporate sustainability? Empirical evidence from China's national comprehensive big data pilot zones

Digital policy can drive digital transformation in enterprises, yet there remains inadequate empirical proof to support whether this policy has an enhancing effect on the corporate sustainability. Based on this, this paper takes Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2018 as samples and China's National Comprehensive Big Data Pilot Zones (BDPZ) as a quasi-natural experiment. A difference-in-differences method was used to analyze the impact and transmission mechanism of the policy on the corporate sustainability. The results show that BDPZ policy can enhance the corporate sustainability and the reliability of the findings is demonstrated by a series of robustness tests. From the mechanism test, the BDPZ construction can strengthen the infrastructure effect, stimulate the talent effect and enhance the transaction effect to advance corporate digitalization and enhance their sustainability. From the heterogeneity analysis, the corporate sustainability enhancement effect of BDPZ construction is more significant for hightech enterprises, but not for resource-intensive industries and enterprises in cross-regional type pilot zones. This study intends to supply micro-level empirical support for the policy dividends of digital policy, as well as policy references and empirical proof for the popularization of BDPZ model to empower digital transformation of enterprises.