Geography Dispersion and Green Innovation: Evidence From China

The impact of legitimacy pressure and corporate profitability on green innovation: Evidence from China top 100

Digitization, perception of policy uncertainty, and corporate green innovation: A study from China

Purpose This study investigates how environmental information disclosure (EID) incentivizes corporate green innovation through dual pathways: executive green awareness and green management innovation. While existing literature has explored the relationship between EID and corporate environmental performance, limited research has addressed potential adverse effects such as symbolic compliance and innovation bubbles or examined the internal governance mechanisms through which EID fosters substantive green innovation. Design/methodology/approach Utilizing a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2022, data on environmental information disclosure and green innovation were collected from the CNRDS and CSMAR databases. Multiple regression models with instrumental variables, Heckman selection models and PSM-DID techniques were employed to address endogeneity concerns and empirically examine the impact of EID on both the quality and quantity of corporate green innovation. Findings Results indicate that EID significantly promotes both the quality and quantity of corporate green innovation. Mechanism analysis reveals that executive green awareness mediates the relationship between EID and both dimensions of green innovation, while green management innovation uniquely enhances innovation quality without significantly affecting innovation quantity. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that firm characteristics such as size, ownership structure and market position moderate the effectiveness of EID in promoting green innovation. Research limitations/implications This study has several limitations. First, the sample is confined to Chinese A-share listed companies (2010–2022), potentially limiting cross-contextual applicability due to China’s unique institutional environment and the coincidence with a transitional period in environmental policy. Second, the theoretical model may omit important mediators beyond green awareness and green management innovation and residual endogeneity issues may persist despite methodological precautions. Future research should expand to cross-national samples, explore additional mediating mechanisms like environmental legitimacy, employ diverse methodological approaches including qualitative case studies and investigate how specific policy design features and their interactions with other instruments shape EID effectiveness. Practical implications The findings suggest that regulatory authorities should establish more stringent and specific EID standards with enhanced third-party verification mechanisms to prevent symbolic compliance. Additionally, differentiated disclosure guidelines based on firm characteristics could improve policy effectiveness. Given the significant impact of green management innovation on innovation quality, policymakers should encourage firms to strengthen internal green management systems and obtain environmental management certifications, thereby supporting national carbon neutrality objectives. Social implications The findings underscore how robust environmental information disclosure mechanisms can catalyze substantive corporate green transformation beyond mere symbolic compliance. As nations worldwide navigate sustainability challenges, properly designed disclosure frameworks can be leveraged as effective governance tools to address market failures in environmental innovation. When implemented with appropriate verification systems and tailored to specific organizational contexts, these mechanisms not only enhance corporate environmental responsibility but also contribute to broader societal goals such as climate change mitigation, resource conservation and sustainable economic development – ultimately fostering the social welfare enhancements inherent in public goods provision. Originality/value This study contributes to the sustainable development literature by systematically examining the multidimensional impact mechanisms of EID on corporate green innovation and providing evidence-based policy recommendations for promoting substantive green transformation in enterprises.

In the context of global climate change and resource scarcity, corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, as well as corporate green innovation, have emerged as pivotal drivers for fostering sustainable development. The heterogeneity of the top management team (TMT) significantly influences the direction and effectiveness of both ESG performance and corporate green innovation. Drawing on upper echelon theory, information decision-making theory, and social categorization theory, this paper conducts an empirical study using a sample of 314 manufacturing enterprises and employs multiple linear regression analysis to uncover the impact of TMT heterogeneity on corporate green innovation and the mediating role of ESG performance. The findings from this research suggest that TMT heterogeneity exerts a notable positive influence on green innovation (including green technological innovation and green product innovation), and that ESG performance plays a partial mediating role between TMT heterogeneity and green innovation. This research enriches the theoretical foundation of corporate green innovation from the perspective of TMT heterogeneity and offers pertinent suggestions for enterprises to advance their green innovation development.

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

Substantive innovation or strategic catering: Capital market pressure and corporate green innovation structure

This paper comprehensively employs literature research methods, normative analysis methods, and empirical analysis methods based on corporate governance theory and legitimacy theory. It employs theoretical deduction and hypothesis construction research approaches, treating heterogeneous institutional investors as independent variables, corporate green technology innovation as dependent variables, and environmental regulation as moderating variables. It selects data from Chinese A-share listed manufacturing enterprises from 2010 to 2022 as samples, and systematically analyzes the impact of heterogeneous institutional investors on corporate green technology innovation. The research results indicate that: focused institutional investors have a positive impact on corporate green technology innovation; temporary institutional investors have a negative impact on corporate green technology innovation; environmental regulations promote a positive relationship between focused institutional investors and corporate green technology innovation; environmental regulations suppress the negative relationship between temporary institutional investors and corporate green innovation. In summary, this article reveals that the role of heterogeneous institutional investors in corporate green technology innovation under the influence of environmental regulations exhibits dynamic, diverse, and complex characteristics. The research results can help us understand how and why different types of institutional investors affect green technology innovation in businesses. This can help companies make the best strategic decisions for green technology innovation, which will help them stay ahead of the competition and grow in the long term.

Under the “dual carbon” strategy, innovation driving has become the core force for corporate green transformation, with human resources, a key element of green innovation, increasingly gaining attention. This study utilizes data from A-share listed companies to evaluate the impact of China’s urban talent introduction policies on corporate green innovation, focusing on the three dimensions of green product, process, and management innovation. The results reveal that urban talent introduction policies significantly promote corporate green innovation in three areas: green product innovation, green process innovation (end-of-pipe pollution control), and green management innovation. The influx of high-quality talent and optimization of the labor structure represent vital pathways for achieving this impact. Different talent types play different roles in different dimensions of green innovation. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that talent introduction policies have a stronger promoting effect on the green innovation performance of large enterprises, technology-intensive industries, and enterprises in relatively weak regional economies. For enterprises with public–private partnerships, talent admission policies have a more pronounced impact on their green product innovation and process innovation (end-of-pipe pollution control). Furthermore, the impact of talent policy on corporate green innovations in products and processes varies with the intensity of local government intervention. This study emphasizes the key role of talent introduction policies in promoting green innovation, providing theoretical foundations and policy references for implementing sustainable development strategies and environmental protection objectives.

Green innovation is essential for achieving sustainable economic development. By setting environmental targets, local governments encourage corporate green innovation, which is crucial for promoting high-quality economic growth. Using data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2022, we find that local governments’ environmental targets promote corporate green technology innovation. This effect is more pronounced in regions with lower economic targets and among firms that receive government R&D subsidies or lack political connections. A mechanism analysis reveals that environmental targets drive green innovation by increasing environmental investments. Our findings highlight the critical role of government in setting and implementing environmental targets, thus providing theoretical support for further corporate green technology innovation.

Purpose This study aims to examine whether a chairperson’s having sisters impacts corporate green innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach The study sample has 627 Chinese non-stated-owned enterprises. Using the OLS regression controlling for year and industry fixed effects, the empirical results support the research hypothesis. Findings Compared with chairpersons who have brothers only, firms whose chairpersons have sisters produce higher output on green innovation. That is, there is a “sister effect” in corporate green technology innovation. The more sisters, the higher output on corporate green innovation. Originality/value The authors contribute to the “culture and finance” research paradigm by examining the effect of the gender of chairpersons’ siblings on corporate green technology innovation performance.

Green innovation is an important way for enterprises to achieve high-quality economic development, and it is also the way to achieve the goal of double carbon. Green innovation has therefore become a research hotspot. With the acceleration of the digitalization process in equipment enterprises, intelligent manufacturing equipment enterprises located at the top of the industrial chain are in urgent need of green core technology innovation activities. In order to explore the internal mechanism of core green technology innovation, this research introduces reputation theory into the evolutionary game analysis process. By constructing an evolutionary game model between the government and intelligent manufacturing equipment enterprises, this research analyzes the dynamic factors that affect the selection and evolution of the main strategies of the players in the evaluation game. The results show that corporate reputation, core green technology innovation profit, government subsidies, government reputation, and the cost for the government to support core technology, among other factors, importantly affect the game between the government and the enterprises. At the same time, since both the government and the enterprises are affected by the initial state and the maximization of the interests of both sides of the game, it is difficult for them to spontaneously reach an ideal stable and balanced state through a virtuous circle. The greater the profits and the reputation premium the core green technology innovation brings to the enterprises, the more favorable it is for the enterprises to choose core green technology innovation; government subsidies within a certain range will also drive enterprises to choose core green technology innovation. When the value of enterprise core green technology innovation is low, the cost for the government to support core green technology innovation is lower, enterprises will lose more opportunities and decline in global competitiveness, and it will become more favorable for the government to evolve towards supporting core green technology innovation. On the contrary, the government will gradually transfer its tangible hand to the intangible hand of the market based on the consideration of subsidies, innovation costs, and reputation. The results of this research are intended to provide a theoretical basis and practical reference for Chinese intelligent manufacturing equipment enterprises to better achieve green core technology innovation.

Based on China's current emphasis on green development and the bottleneck of green innovation faced by enterprises in practice, this paper focuses on analyzing the role of executives' overseas experience in corporate green innovation. Utilizing data from A-share listed companies in China from 2008 to 2022, this study finds that CEOs with overseas experience significantly promote corporate green technology innovation. The study further reveals the intrinsic mechanisms by which CEOs with overseas experience promote firms' green technological innovation, including the positive impact of their internationalized vision, environmental protection concepts and long-term planning on firms' innovation decisions. Meanwhile, the study also takes into account the heterogeneity of firms, and finds that the overseas experience of CEOs in private firms has a more significant effect on green technological innovation than that of state-owned firms. Through empirical research, this paper clarifies the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of CEOs with overseas experience on corporate green technology innovation, which provides useful insights for corporate management practice and policy making.

This paper has exaimed the causal effect between media pressure and corporate green innovation through the micro-perspective of internal governance. We find that media pressure is supposed to effectively improve the enterprise green technology innovation, ownership concentration, independent directors and salary incentives have a significant positive U-shaped regulatory effect on the relationship between media pressure and enterprise green technology innovation. CEO duality and equity incentives are significantly moderating the relationship between media pressure and corporate green technology innovation. As for property heterogeneity, media pressure effectively improves the enterprises green innovation performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-state-owned enterprises (Non-SOEs). Specifically, the moderating effect of internal governance elements is consistent with the baseline results in the Non-SOEs sample, while ownership concentration inverted U-shape regulates this process and other internal governance elements are consistent with the baseline results and in the SOEs sample.

This article uses the “Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone” promulgated in 2017 as an example to construct a quasi-natural experiment and uses the difference-in-difference method to test the impact of the implementation of the “Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone” on the green innovation activities. It was found that the policy promotes the quantity and quality of corporate green innovation. The mechanism test showed that policy promotes the R&D investment and expands the credit scale. The study further found that green finance policies enhance the green innovation of enterprises as government environmental regulation is strengthened. Finally, green innovation by state-owned enterprises is more strongly promoted in the pilot green finance reform and innovation zones, and green innovation by enterprises in non-polluting sectors is more sensitive to the policy, with a heterogeneous pattern of policy effects in eastern and non-eastern China. Therefore, green finance policies should be promoted to achieve an effective combination of financial resource allocation and corporate green innovation to promote the construction of ecological civilization.

Green innovation is an important focus for promoting the construction of ecological civilization and green development. As China’s most typical industrial agglomeration zone, whether development zones can promote park enterprises to carry out green technology innovation is an important topic that needs to be studied urgently. Based on the combination of Chinese industrial enterprise data and patent data, this paper focuses on the impact of development zone establishment on corporate green innovation through building a multi-period DID model, and combined with the regional bias characteristics of development zone policies, it discusses the difference of the impact of development zone establishment on the green innovation of enterprises in the eastern region and the central and western regions and the logical mechanism behind it. The study finds that the establishment of development zones promotes the green innovation of enterprises as a whole, which not only helps to promote the application of green utility model with lower patent value, but also helps to promote the application of green invention with more patent value. From the results of dynamic effects, the long-term incentive effect of development zone establishment on enterprise green innovation is greater than the short-term incentive effect. After the 2003 rectification of China’s development zone policies, there has been a clear central and western bias, but this regional bias may undermine economic sustainability. As a result, the green innovation incentive effect of development zone establishment on enterprises in the eastern region is significantly higher than that on enterprises in the central and western regions. Compared with the central and western regions, the establishment of development zones may more closely match the location characteristics of the eastern region and the external environment. In the long run, the establishment of development zones has significantly enhanced the incentive effect of green technology innovation for enterprises in the eastern region, while the incentive for green innovation for enterprises in the central and western regions is still insufficient, and has not achieved the expected policy guidance effect. The study also finds that the regional heterogeneity of the green innovation incentive effect in development zones may mainly come from the differences in market environment, intellectual property protection, local competition, openness to the outside world, and foreign direct investment between different regions. The establishment of development zones must be consistent with the local economy. Only by adapting the characteristics to the external environment can we better play the role of green innovation and environmental governance. This research not only expands and deepens the relevant research on development zone policies from the perspective of regional bias, but also helps to provide micro level evidence and new test standards for the evaluation on the effect of the implementation of development zone establishment policies from the new perspective of enterprise green innovation. At the same time, the conclusions of this paper can provide new policy insights for achieving a win-win situation of industrial agglomeration and ecological environment, and promoting the implementation of green development strategies.