Abstract
Climate change and ecological challenges are among humanity's most pressing issues. These challenges require collaborative efforts between the university and industrial enterprises to develop solutions that can help reduce the impact of climate change on the environment and promote sustainable development. However, the impact of these University-Industrial (U-I) collaborations on regional low-carbon innovation performance has received limited attention. To bridge this gap, our study investigates the influence of U-I knowledge creation and commercialization on regional green innovation in China, utilizing panel data from 31 provinces between 2008 and 2017. Our research advances the Regional Innovation System theory by integrating the low-carbon concept into the Regional Innovation System framework and enhancing our comprehension of the link between U-I collaboration and low-carbon innovation. We have also identified two moderation factors: the absorptive capacity of industrial enterprises and the level of digitization in a region. Our findings challenge the prevalent perspective on the significance of industrial enterprises' absorptive capacity in Regional Innovation System theory and Knowledge Management theory, revealing the moderating role of industrial enterprises' absorptive capacity in a region on the relationship between U-I knowledge creation and regional low-carbon innovation performance is not universal.