New media environment, environmental regulation and corporate green technology innovation:Evidence from China

Abstract

Understanding the impact and mechanisms between new media environment, environmental regulation and corporate green technology innovation are crucial to achieve environmentally inclusive growth of sustainable development goals. Based on the sample of Chinese A-share listed companies in the heavily polluting industries for the period 2010–2020, this paper investigates the impact of the new media environment and environmental regulation on corporate green technology innovation. The empirical results indicate that (i) the new media environment can motivate heavily polluting enterprises to meet stakeholder demands and significantly improve their corporate green technology innovation; (ii) heterogeneous environmental regulatory instruments (pollution charges and environmental protection subsidies) can jointly improve the green technology innovation of corporations through pushback and compensation effects; and (iii) effective environmental regulation tools can strengthen the stakeholder relationship between the government and enterprises, enhance the resource preparation and dynamic capabilities of heavily polluting enterprises to respond to public opinion crises, and thereby positively moderate the promotion of new media environments on corporate green technological innovation. Our findings help identify new drivers of corporate green technology innovation and confirm the combined effects of the new media environment and environmental regulation in stimulating corporate green behavior, which can facilitate the construction of ecological civilization.