Policy mix comprehensiveness, resource availability and green innovation of firms

Abstract

The functionalist view of policy mix comprehensiveness always regarded it as the extensive use of policy instruments and strategies to solve the multiple failures in sustainability transitions, but ignored the politic and power relations embodied in. To fill this gap, this study extended the concept of policy mix comprehensiveness from the perspective of political sociology, and proposed that the policy mix comprehensiveness represented the complex and tangled relations between governments and the governed, which might increase risks and administration burdens, thus impaired the green innovations of firms. This study further proposed that the resource availability of firms could moderate the relations between policy mix comprehensiveness and green innovation of firms. 22989 firm level data from Chinese textile industry were collected to verify the hypothesis. Our research found that policy mix comprehensiveness has positive correlations with green management innovation of firms, while has negative correlations with green technology innovation of firms, thus impaired the overall green innovation of firms. The financial resources, political resources and knowledge resources could moderate the relationship between policy mix comprehensiveness and green innovations. In doing so, our study provided a foundation for future research to explore the interactions between government and the governed and the organization behaviors in policy mix research.