Atmospheric environmental resources and corporate green innovation: Blessing or curse of the weather?

Abstract

Green technology innovation is an important way to realize corporate green transformation and sustainable economic development. Regional resource endowments can influence local policies and corporate innovation decisions. This paper examines whether and how atmospheric environmental resources, that is, the capacity of the atmospheric environment to accommodate and purify pollutants, have an impact on corporate green innovation. Using the data of China's A-shares listed heavily polluting firms from 2012 to 2022, we find that the atmospheric environmental resources inhibit corporate green technology innovation, indicating a “resource curse” effect. The mechanism test reveals that regional environmental resources affect corporate green technological innovation by influencing local governments' environmental protection concern, economic concern, environmental enforcement and public concern. Further analysis shows that the impact of atmospheric environmental resources on corporate green technology innovation differs before and after the Paris Agreement, and varies across different levels of financial development, industry competition, corporate characteristics, and executive traits. This paper presents a new perspective of regional atmospheric environmental resources and its impact on corporate green technology innovation, revealing the mechanisms behind corporate green innovation from an external perspective, which has implications for governmental departments and corporate environmental governance decision-making.