Navigating Strategic Balance: CEO Big Data Orientation, Environmental Investment, and Technological Innovation in Chinese Manufacturing

Abstract

In the digital age, China’s economic development is transitioning from high speed to high quality. Through the application of digital technology, China’s manufacturing industry is moving toward more environmentally friendly and sustainable innovation, which makes it of great significance to study the effect of green investment and big data on innovation. Grounded in strategic management theory, this paper examines the interplay between CEO big data orientation, environmental investment, and their joint impact on technological innovation in manufacturing enterprises. Data are extracted from annual reports of listed Chinese manufacturing companies using computer-assisted text analysis methods and evaluated with negative binomial regression. The results indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between CEO big data orientation and technological innovation. The results further explain that as CEO big data orientation increases, enterprises with higher levels of green investment will reach the peak of technological innovation performance earlier. According to China’s intelligent manufacturing in 2035, we have proposed some methods and suggestions for green investment and big data applications.