Impact of energy restructuring on green technology innovation in the context of climate policy uncertainty

ABSTRACTThis research delves into firms' green innovation response to climate policy uncertainty (CPU). We distinguish green management innovation from green technological innovation and investigate the moderating effect of belonging to a high‐energy‐consuming industry and investors' climate attention. Based on Chinese A‐share listed firms in 2008–2022, we reveal a positive influence of CPU on green management innovation but a more limited effect on green technological innovation. However, firms' green technological innovation response is found to be more positive in the high‐energy‐consuming industry, and increased climate attention by investors strengthens CPU's facilitating effect on both green management and green technological innovation. In terms of longer‐term outcomes, we reveal that firms' participation in green technological innovation prompted by CPU significantly bolsters firms' competitive advantage. Our research offers novel insights into the inconsistent debate relationship between CPU and green innovation and influencing contextual factors.

Digital finance provides a premises guarantee for green technology innovation, and effective environmental regulation helps to achieve green and sustainable development. This article selects Chinese urban panel data from 2011 to 2019 to explore the impact mechanism of the influence of digital finance and environmental regulation on the innovation capacity of green science and technology. It is found that extensive financing channels and the strong information-matching ability of digital finance have a significant promoting effect on local green science and technology innovation. Moreover, government environmental regulation not only facilitates the development of green technology innovation locally and in nearby regions, but also strengthens the utility of digital finance in driving green science and technology innovation. Further research found that the influence of digital finance and environmental regulation on the ability of green science and technology innovation has regional heterogeneity, and only digital finance in Central China can promote green science and technology innovation in both local and adjacent areas. Therefore, the government should continue to promote the development of digital finance, optimize environmental regulations by increasing environmental protection subsidies and creating a green innovation environment, and further stimulate willingness to innovate green technologies. At the same time, it is also important to note the coordinated development and governance with neighboring regional governments.

In the era of green economic development, green finance serves as a crucial catalyst for green technological innovation, and both may significantly drive the upgrading of industrial structures. This study combines green finance, green technological innovation, and industrial structure into a research framework, analyzing data from 29 Chinese provinces (2003–2020) to empirically assess their impacts on China’s industrial structure using a two-way fixed-effects model. The results show the following: first, green finance and green technological innovation can significantly promote the upgrading of China’s industrial structure directly and synergistically, a finding corroborated by various robustness tests. Secondly, heterogeneity analysis reveals that there is a “path-dependency effect” in the development of green finance and technology innovation: in areas with higher population density, more developed technological markets, and lower fiscal pressure, the synergistic promotion of the upgrading of industrial structure is stronger. Thirdly, further research indicates that green finance and technology innovation impact the upgrading of industrial structure variably under command-and-control, market-incentive, and voluntary environmental-regulation tools. The most effective policy is the voluntary regulation tool, which involves higher levels of public participation. This study offers valuable insights for fostering green technology innovation, refining environmental policies, and enhancing the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure.

A step toward the attainment of carbon neutrality and SDG-13: Role of financial depth and green technology innovation

Threshold effect of green credit on firms’ green technology innovation: Is environmental information disclosure important?

Does the coupling of digital and green technology innovation matter for carbon emissions?

Based on the panel data of 283 cities in China from 2009 to 2018, this paper analyzes the effect of urban green scientific and technological innovation enhancement on hazardous air pollutants using the GS2SLS method, which simultaneously controls for model endogeneity and spatial spillover effects and reveals the transmission mechanism of urban green scientific and technological innovation level. It was found that (1) There is a significant spatial spillover effect of hazardous air pollutants between regions, both in China as a whole and in the eastern, central, and western parts of the country, and the spatial spillover effect of hazardous air pollutants is significantly greater in the eastern and central parts of China than in the western parts. (2) Green technological innovation has a significant inhibitory effect on hazardous air pollutants in cities in eastern and central China. An extended study found that the improvement in green technology levels in innovative cities has a better effect on controlling hazardous air pollutants than in non-innovative cities. (3) The energy- saving and green economy effects have a mediating influence on the effect of green technological innovation on hazardous air pollutants in cities, and the simultaneous occurrence of these two effects in green technological innovation serves to enhance the transmission of hazardous air pollutants in order to facilitate the long-term management of haze.

In the carbon neutrality strategy, understanding the effects of green finance on green technology innovation is conductive to promoting the green transformation of the economy. Based on the micro-level and provincial panel data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2019, this study explored the impact of green financial development on the enterprises’ green technology innovation. Both mediating effect and moderating effect models were employed to determine the impact of green finance on green technological innovation. It was found that green finance significantly improved the enterprises’ green technology innovation, despite sufficient incentives for “quantity” and relatively insufficient motivation for “quality”. The mechanistic tests demonstrated that the green finance could encourage enterprises to improve green technology innovation by alleviating corporate financing constraints. The green innovation effect of green finance was gradually increased when the regional intellectual property protection was improved. The heterogeneity test indicated that the incentive effect of green financial development on green technology innovation was more evident in state-owned enterprises, enterprises with good internal control quality, and enterprises in the growth period. If only enterprises in the recession stage received green financial support, a “green innovation bubble” might occur. The research conclusions enrich the theories on the driving factors of enterprise green innovation and provide empirical evidence for enhancing the competitiveness of enterprise green innovation and achieving carbon neutrality.

How does heterogeneous green technology innovation affect air quality and economic development in Chinese cities? Spatial and nonlinear perspective analysis

This paper evaluates the importance of combining digital finance with conventional finance and information technology (IT) to bring new opportunities for green technology innovation and transformation within polluting industries. This study builds a theoretical framework "digital finance → financing constraints → R&D investment → green technology innovation" to demonstrate the causal mechanism between digital finance and firms' green innovation by using the serial two-mediator model. The study shows that digital finance could reduce financial constraints and increase R&D investments, thereby improving enterprises' green technology innovation in the long run. Moreover, based on the moderating effect model, we find that digital transformation in a polluting firm tends to strengthen the linkage between digital finance and green technology innovation through supervising the use of loans, reviewing green technology innovation projects, and reducing managers' short-sighted behaviors to avoid agency problems. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis shows that the effects of digital finance on green innovation are more apparent in state-owned enterprises and the regions with lower financial development and with higher financial supervision.

Digitization has been the new engine for high-quality economic development. This paper explores how digitization affects enterprises’ green technology innovation. The study finds that digitization has a positive effect on enterprises’ green technology innovation. The mediating effect suggests that digitization can promote enterprises’ green technology innovation by optimizing the structure of human capital, increasing the attention of media and easing the financing constraints. The heterogeneity test finds that the larger the enterprise scale, the higher quality of internal control, and the stronger the promotion of digitalization to green technology innovation; The greater degree of environmental regulation of enterprises and the higher degree of industry competition, the more prominent the impact of digitization on its green technology innovation. This paper is a useful supplement to the traditional digital analysis framework, helping enterprises to better drive green technology innovation through digital transformation.

Under the guidance of a high-quality development strategy, upholding the long-term concept of green development is the foundation allowing polluting companies to resist external environmental threats and retain their legitimate business statuses. However, the top managers of companies do not always hold long-term perspectives. To this end, we investigate the impact of management myopia on green technological innovation and its mechanism of action for heavy polluters using zero-inflated Poisson regression analysis for 2007–2020 for A-share listed heavy polluters. The empirical results show that the logarithmic value of green technological innovation decreases 1.251 units for each 1-unit increase in the management myopia level demonstrated by heavily polluting enterprises. Moreover, these results are more significant in heavily polluting enterprises with high management shareholding and those that receive more government subsidies. However, managerial myopia is suppressed in heavily polluting firms with many independent directors and institutional investors. A further study found that managerial myopia had the most significant negative impact on green technological innovation for heavy polluters in the central region, and each 1-unit increase in the managerial myopia level decreased the firm’s green technology innovation level by 3.577 units. The findings of this paper have important implications for heavily polluting firms seeking to improve their senior management appointments and governance structures, promote green technology and technological innovation, and achieve high-quality corporate development.

The cultivation mechanism of green technology innovation in manufacturing industry: From the perspective of ecological niche

In the context of today’s global environmental challenges, manufacturing enterprises are gradually taking green technology innovation as a strategy to enhance sustainable development ability. This study discusses the application of hybrid intelligent technology in promoting green technology innovation decision-making in manufacturing enterprises. Through data preprocessing and model construction, it is found that energy consumption, emissions, standard compliance, environmental quality and market response are closely related to the green technology innovation score of enterprises. The results show that efficient energy management and active compliance with environmental standards have a significant impact on improving the environmental performance and technological innovation of enterprises. The market’s positive response to green technology has significantly promoted the rapid development and application of the technology. This study not only provides manufacturing enterprises with strategy and decision support for green technology innovation, but also provides policy makers with insights for promoting sustainable development. Through in-depth analysis, this paper emphasizes the importance and effectiveness of comprehensive application of hybrid intelligent technology in the process of green technology promotion.

Green energy as a new determinant of green growth in China: The role of green technological innovation