Narrow Results

Improving energy-environmental efficiency (EEE) is an important way to achieve China’s carbon peak, carbon-neutral goals and green transformational development. The scale of imports of intermediate goods has been increasing rapidly with the deepening of China’s opening up to the outside world, which has played a positive role in promoting high-quality development. Considering that enterprises are the main players in transforming energy consumption patterns and high-quality development, we investigated the impact of imported intermediate goods on EEE from a microfield perspective. The empirical results showed that imported intermediate goods significantly contributed to EEE and that firms’ innovation capacity and productivity are the corresponding influencing mechanisms. The effects of importing intermediate goods in foreign-invested enterprises, enterprises in the eastern and coastal regions and capital-intensive enterprises are more obvious in improving EEE. Further expansion of imports of intermediate goods, enhancement of enterprises’ capacity for independent innovation, deepening structural reforms and accelerated development of the digital economy can help enhance the promotional effect of imports of intermediate goods on enterprises’ EEE.