After socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, how to promote the high-quality development of China’s economy has become a major strategic issue that has attracted the attention of the political, business and academic communities. This paper uses the main effect model and the intermediary effect model to investigate the impact of the business environment on the high-quality development of enterprises and the transmission role of innovation activity in this impact, and selects the A-share listed companies in China’s capital market from 2013 to 2022 as sample data. The research shows that optimizing the business environment can help promote the high-quality development of enterprises, and innovation activity plays a positive role in the business environment affecting the high-quality development of enterprises. Further analysis shows that government environment, market environment, legal environment and opening environment all have a significant positive impact on the high-quality development of enterprises, while the public service environment has a positive impact on the high-quality development of enterprises, but not significant; the business environment in the eastern and central regions has a significant positive impact on the high-quality development of enterprises, while the business environment in the western region has a positive impact on the high-quality development of enterprises, but it is not significant; the business environment has a significant positive impact on the high-quality development of private listed companies, while the business environment has a positive impact on the high-quality development of state-owned listed companies, but it is not significant; both invention patents and utility model patents have significant conduction effect, while design patents have no significant conduction effect. These conclusions have certain enlightenment significance for further improving the business environment in China and promoting the high-quality development of enterprises.