The impact of bank credit corruption on firms' carbon emission reduction innovations: Empirical evidence from China

•Bank credit corruption has a negative influence on the carbon emission reduction innovation.•The impact of bank credit corruption varies across different regions and industries.•The level of market concentration affects the bank credit corruption effects.•Bank credit corruption alters the corporate asset situation. The study investigates the impact of bank lending corruption on enterprises' carbon emission reduction innovation behavior by analyzing data from the 2011–2020 China Enterprise Investment Environment Survey. The empirical findings highlight the significant influence of bank lending corruption on company carbon emission reduction innovation potential. Furthermore, the article focuses on the mechanism by which bank credit corruption affects firms' carbon emission reduction innovation ability, and discovers that bank credit corruption has a considerable impact on firms' assets, undermining firms' carbon emission reduction innovation and traditional energy companies and businesses in highly marketized areas are more negatively impacted by bank loan misconduct.