The impact of digital transformation on green total factor productivity of heavily polluting enterprises

Introduction

Digital transformation has become an important engine for economic high-quality development and environment high-level protection. However, green total factor productivity (GTFP), as an indicator that comprehensively reflects economic and environmental benefits, there is a lack of studies that analyze the effect of digital transformation on heavily polluting enterprises' GTFP from a micro perspective, and its impact mechanism is still unclear. Therefore, we aim to study the impact of digital transformation on heavily polluting enterprises' GTFP and its mechanism, and explore the heterogeneity of its impact.

Methods

We use Chinese A-share listed enterprises in the heavily polluting industry data from 2007 to 2019, measure enterprise digital transformation indicator using text analysis, and measure enterprise GTFP indicator using the GML index based on SBM directional distance function, to investigate the impact of digital transformation on heavily polluting enterprises' GTFP.

Results

Digital transformation can significantly enhance heavily polluting enterprises' GTFP, and this finding still holds after considering the endogenous problem and conducting robustness tests. Digital transformation can enhance heavily polluting enterprises' GTFP by promoting green innovation, improving management efficiency, and reducing external transaction costs. The improvement role of digital transformation on heavily polluting enterprises' GTFP is more obvious in the samples of non-state-owned enterprises, non-high-tech industries, and the eastern region. Compared with blockchain technology, artificial intelligence technology, cloud computing technology, big data technology, and digital technology application can significantly improve heavily polluting enterprises' GTFP.

Discussion

Our paper breaks through the limitations of existing research, which not only theoretically enriches the literature related to digital transformation and GTFP, but also practically provides policy implications for continuously promoting heavily polluting enterprises' digital transformation and facilitating their high-quality development.

Top management team career experience heterogeneity, digital transformation, and the corporate green innovation: a moderated mediation analysis

Introduction

Drawing upon upper echelon theory and the resource-based view, this study employs a moderated mediation model to investigate the moderating role and underlying mechanisms of digital transformation in the influence of top management teams (TMT) on corporate green innovation.

Methods

Our analysis of panel data from 19,155 Chinese A-share listed companies (2011-2020) demonstrates that TMT career experience heterogeneity has a positive effect on green innovation, a relationship that is further strengthened by digital transformation.

Results

This study shows the role of digital transformation in amplifying the effects of TMT diversity on green innovation and the crucial role of industry-academia-research collaboration as a mediator. Heterogeneity analysis highlights that non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) show more agility than state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in leveraging heterogeneous TMT to drive green innovation. Conversely, green innovation in SOEs benefits more from digital transformation, which includes both its direct and indirect effects of digital transformation. Enterprises located in non-Yangtze River Economic Belt regions benefit more from digital transformation, demonstrating the importance of a balanced distribution of digital resources.

Discussion

This study provides novel insights into leveraging inclusive leadership and digital capabilities to enhance ecological sustainability. This study underscores the potential of diversified TMTs and digitalization technology integration to catalyze green innovation, which is critical for environmentally responsible transformation.

Does Digitization Promote Green Innovation? Evidence from China

Green innovation is an important strategy in seeking sustainable competitive advantages. This paper investigates the impact of enterprise digitization on green innovation and its mechanisms. We find that enterprise digital transformation has a significant effect on the promotion of green innovation. This positive effect mainly stems from the advantage of resource reallocation generated by enterprise digitalization that can alleviate financing constraints and raise risk-taking levels. Furthermore, the level of economic development strengthens the impact of enterprise digitization on green innovation, and the positive relationship between enterprise digitization and green innovation is stronger in regions with stronger environmental regulation and higher intellectual property protection, as well as in state-owned and heavily polluting enterprises. Digitization can optimize resource utilization, strengthen the capacity of green innovation in pollution reduction and promote the clean production of enterprises. Our results show that enterprise digitization plays a positive role in innovation activities. Furthermore, our results show that enterprise digitization plays a positive role in innovation activities.

Does the Digital Economy Promote the Reduction of Urban Carbon Emission Intensity?

The impact of the digital economy is increasing, and its environmental effect has attracted more and more attention. The digital economy promotes the improvement of production efficiency and the government's environmental governance capacity, and contributes to the reduction of urban carbon emission intensity. In order to study the impact of digital economy development on urban carbon emission intensity, this paper analyzes the theoretical basis of the digital economy on the reduction of carbon emission intensity, and then, based on the panel data of cities from 2011 to 2019, uses the two-way fixed effect model for empirical testing. The regression results show that the development of the digital economy has promoted the reduction of carbon emission intensity of cities, promoted the green transformation and upgrading of cities, and lays a foundation for China to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutralization through the improvement of human capital investment and green innovation level. The basic conclusion is robust by changing core explanatory variables, changing samples, replacing regression methods, and shrinking and truncating tests. The impact of the digital economy on urban carbon emission intensity varies with the location, grade and size of the city. Specifically, the development of the digital economy in cities in the eastern and central regions, cities at or above the sub provincial level, large cities and non-resource-based cities has promoted the reduction of urban carbon emission intensity. In terms of resource-based cities, the development of the digital economy in renewable resource-based cities and resource-based cities dominated by iron ore and oil mining has promoted the decline in urban carbon emission reduction intensity.

The Connection between Absorptive Capacity and Green Innovation: The Function of Board Capital and Environmental Regulation

The stress of environmental regulations, sustainable development objectives, and global warming is becoming more prominent now. Most studies conclude that the industrial sector is largely at fault and under tremendous pressure to address these climate change issues. This study highlights the significance of green innovation to Chinese firms in mitigating these conservational challenges, and the study probes the association between green innovation and absorptive capacity. Additionally, board capital (the social and human capital of directors) and environmental regulation-both drivers of green innovation-are explored as moderators between green innovation and absorptive capacity. With appropriate econometric methods and theoretical support from the natural resource-based review, the resource dependency theory, and the Porter hypothesis, the results indicate the positive relationship between green innovation and absorptive capacity. They also reveal board capital and environmental regulation as positive moderators, emphasizing their significance to green innovation. This study offers several suggestions and directives for stakeholders, such as businesses, policymakers, and governments, to foster green innovation for greater profitability, minimizing negative industrial consequences.

The Impact of China's ETS on Corporate Green Governance Based on the Perspective of Corporate ESG Performance

To achieve China's "dual carbon" and common prosperity goals, corporate green governance is crucial. A key tool for promoting green growth is environmental legislation, particularly market-based regulation. With China's carbon emission trading as a natural experiment, we adopt the DID method to quantitatively compare the gap between ESG performance of pilot and non-pilot carbon trading enterprises before and after policy implementation, thereby examining the impact, mechanism and optimization conditions of market-based environmental policy on corporate green governance based on panel data of China's A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2019. In addition, PSM-DID and other methods are employed for preventing estimation bias caused by sample self-selection bias. It is found that: (1) the green governance level of pilot firms can be considerably improved by a carbon emission trading scheme (ETS); (2) the ETS primarily encourages enterprises to uphold their ESG obligations through increasing regulatory pressure from the government and corporate involvement in clean innovation; (3) enhancing regional marketization can strengthen the impact of carbon trading policy, and enterprises that are large and non-state-owned exhibit better performance with regard to green governance as a result of carbon trading policy. This paper provides practical experience for promoting corporate green governance to achieve the "dual carbon" goal based on a market mechanism from a micro perspective.

Impact of Digital Transformation on Enterprise Carbon Intensity: The Moderating Role of Digital Information Resources

In the context of China's "digital power" strategy, the realization of a green and low-carbon shift in manufacturing has become a necessary condition to promote the economy, and the digital factor has increasingly become a new driving force. The text mining and IPCC methods were used to measure manufacturing enterprise digitalization and the level of enterprise carbon emission intensity from 2011 to 2021, respectively. This study then explored the impact of digitalization on manufacturing enterprise carbon emission intensity based on the least squares method model and instrumental variable method model. This research comes to three conclusions. (1) Digitalization can significantly reduce the enterprise carbon emission intensity of China's manufacturing industry, and the influence shows a "marginal increase." (2) Notably, a mechanism analysis indicates the intermediary effect sizes of four crucial intermediaries: green technology innovation > financing constraint > information asymmetry > energy use efficiency. Interestingly, digital information resources positively moderate the positive effect of digitalization on carbon emission intensity through three paths: financing constraints, green technology innovation, and information asymmetry. (3) The influence shows evident signs of heterogeneity-as environmental regulation, financial development, executive education, and R&D quality advance, the inhibiting effect of digitalization on enterprise carbon emission intensity becomes more pronounced. Finally, corresponding policy suggestions are proposed.

The Nexus between Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility, Green Intellectual Capital and Green Innovation towards Business Sustainability: An Empirical Analysis of Chinese Automobile Manufacturing Firms

Manufacturing organizations have a pivotal role in reducing the adverse impact of global warming by adopting sustainable practices and producing environmentally-friendly products. Organizations are engaged in environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) and emphasize green intellectual capital (GIC), green innovative products and support for business sustainability (BUS). The current study aims to analyze the impact of organizational ECSR and GIC on green innovation (GIN) and BUS. The data for 237 participants from the manufacturing firms were analyzed via partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The study results revealed that ECSR and GIC are crucial for GIN and BUS. The study's findings revealed that ECSR positively and significantly impacts green relational capital (GRC) and green structural capital (GSC). However, ECSR's positive impact on green human capital (GHC) was insignificant. Further, the results of the mediation analysis show that GIN serves as a full mediator between GIC's two components, GRC and GSC and a partial mediator between GHC and BUS. This study extends the environmental management literature and suggests measures for practitioners to enhance organizational capabilities in order to address environmental issues through innovative green initiatives.

Extrusion Effect or Promotion Effect? The Effect of Environmental Regulation on Enterprise Green Innovation

This paper took the policy of China' Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan as an exogenous shock to reflect the change in environmental regulation intensity. By matching environmental policies with micro data of listed companies in China, this paper explored the effect and mechanisms of environmental regulation on enterprise green innovation. Through constructing difference-in-difference (DID) and difference-in-difference-in-difference (DDD) models, we found the following to be the case: (1) Environmental regulation had a significant positive effect with the green innovation level of Chinese listed companies. (2) Compared with non-regulated industries, this policy has led to a significant increase (5.4%) in the amount of firms' green patent applications in regulated industries, and the promoting effect was more obvious in key areas that are strictly controlled by this policy. (3) Compared with non-state-owned enterprises, it had a stronger impact on the green innovation of state-owned enterprises. (4) Mechanistic analysis showed that China's environmental regulation can play a resource compensation effect by increasing environmental protection subsidies for enterprises' green innovation behaviors. Additionally, it can force firms to increase investment in environmental pollution governance by raising pollution penalties, thus exerting the forcing effect. This paper provides new evidence for Porter's hypothesis and can provide a reference for developing countries promoting green innovation through environmental policies and regulations.

Climate change framing and innovator attention: Evidence from an email field experiment

Drawing the attention of innovators to climate change is important for green innovation. We report an email field experiment with MIT using messages about the impact of climate change to invite innovators (SBIR grantees) to apply to a technology competition. We vary our messages on the time frame and scale of the human cost of climate change across scientifically valid scenarios. Innovator attention (clicks) is sensitive to climate change messaging. These changes in clicks also predict higher application rates. The response varies by individual characteristics such as location-based exposure to climate change risks and whether innovators have climate-related innovations. Finally, using a structural model of innovator attention, we provide estimates of the implied discount rate of time and the elasticity of attention to lives at stake.

Towards achieving the sustainable development goal 9: Analyzing the role of green innovation culture on market performance of Chinese SMEs

Green innovation culture is essential to the Chinese 14th five-year plan aligned with sustainable development goal 9. This study examines the relationship between green innovation culture and market performance of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We evaluated hypothesis by taking a sample of 564 SMEs employees in China through an online survey. The structural equation modelling (SEM) method is used to analyze data. The findings showed that green innovation culture positively influence product and marketing innovation. Similarly, marketing innovation positively affects product innovation and market performance. In addition, product innovation has a substantial effect on market performance. The outcomes of this study imply that SMEs in emerging economies should concentrate on green innovation culture to improve their market performance. In addition, the identification of study limitations and suggestions for further research are also addressed for all stakeholders involved with SMEs.

How the Pilot Low-Carbon City Policy Promotes Urban Green Innovation: Based on Temporal-Spatial Dual Perspectives

Enhancing green innovation levels is an important objective of the pilot low-carbon city policy (PLCC) in China, but the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the PLCC policy's effect on green innovation is unclear. Based on panel data from 285 Chinese cities during 2005-2020, this paper assesses the impact of PLCC on regional green innovation using the difference-in-difference (DID) method. The empirical results demonstrate that the PLCC can obviously promote urban green innovation. In terms of the temporal dimension, the policy effect of PLCC on regional green innovation shows an inverted "U" shape and peaks in the seventh year after implementation. From the spatial dimension, the PLCC can promote surrounding cities' green innovation through spatial spillover effects within 200 km, and the spillover effect decreases with increasing distance. Mechanism analysis indicates that the PLCC policy can promote regional green innovation by enhancing regional environmental regulations and alleviating financing constraints. This paper explores the temporal and spatial policy effects of PLCC, which can provide effective paths and policy recommendations for China to achieve its "dual carbon" goals.

Impact of Environmental Tax on Corporate Sustainable Performance: Insights from High-Tech Firms in China

High-tech enterprises play an important role in leading the future industrial transformation, and their sustainable development deserves attention. Using data of 263 high-tech listed firms in China, we explore the impact of environmental tax on corporate sustainable performance, and the mediating role of green innovation. The results show that environmental tax positively affects corporate green innovation. However, the impact of environmental tax on the sustainable performance of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises is quite different. For private enterprises, environmental tax has an inverted U-shaped impact on both corporate financial performance and environmental-social performance. Furthermore, green innovation mediates the relationship of environmental tax and financial performance. In contrast with private enterprises, for state-owned enterprises, environmental tax has a negative linear impact on corporate financial performance. There is no empirical evidence supporting the effect of environmental tax on the environmental social performance of state-owned enterprises. The results imply that the government should implement different tax policies according to the firms' characteristics, to promote the corporate sustainable development, especially state-owned enterprises.

Environmental Transformational Leadership and Green Innovation in the Hotel Industry: Two Moderated Mediation Analyses

This research aims to investigate the relationships between transformational environmental leadership (ETL), organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE), and green innovation (GI). At the same time, green perceived organizational support (GPOS) and promotion focus (PF) roles were examined as moderators. Integrating transformational leadership, ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO), social exchange, expectancy, and regulatory focus theories, a quantitative research-based methodology was adopted with structural equation modelling (SEM), and smart partial least squares (PLS) program to analyze the obtained data from 388 guest-contact employees. The results show that ETL positively affects OCBE; in return, OCBE mediated the association between ETL and GI. The results also approved the positive moderation effects of the GPOS and PF variables on the association between ETL and OCBE. In the context of the hotel industry, we discuss the implications that these results have for both research and practice.

The impact of environmental information disclosure quality on green innovation of high-polluting enterprises

With the gradual increase of social awareness of environmental protection, environmental information disclosure has become the key for enterprises to accept social supervision and fulfill their social responsibility. This study examines the high-polluting enterprises that were listed on Chinese A-shares between 2008 and 2021. The influence of environmental information disclosure quality on green innovation is examined using ordinary least squares (OLS) as a benchmark model. The results show that the improvement of environmental information disclosure quality of high-polluting enterprises can significantly improve the quantity and quality of green innovation of enterprises and are mediated by alleviating financing constraints and enhancing cash reserves. Moreover, improving the quality of environmental information disclosure of highly polluting enterprises has a more significant contribution to the quantity and quality of green patents of non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises located in central and eastern China, and large enterprises. The findings of this paper provide theoretical support for achieving a "win-win" situation of environmental protection and green innovation.

The Impact of Green Innovation on Enterprise Green Economic Efficiency

In the process of China's transformation from high-speed to high-quality development, the role of green innovation has gradually begun to receive attention. Using 2163 observations of 687 listed companies from 2016 to 2020, this paper examined whether green innovation can improve green economic efficiency. The study found that green innovation significantly reduces the green economic efficiency of enterprises. In the case of insufficient protection of innovation achievements, limited knowledge and technology accumulation, and the absence of enterprise engagement in heavily polluting production and operation activities, the negative impact of green innovation on their green economic efficiency is more significant. Moreover, upgraded production processes, a high degree of freedom of technology selection and high market competition can help alleviate the negative impact of green innovation on enterprises' green economic efficiency, and when the above three conditions are simultaneously met, green innovation significantly promotes the green economic efficiency of enterprises. The above findings are contradictory to the assumption of most literature intuitively. However, after a series of tests, this paper found that green innovation can still stimulate overall environmental and economic performance in some conditions. Starting from the microenterprise level and based on actual emissions data, this paper examines whether and how green innovation affects high-quality development. The findings are of great significance to academic research, policy formulation, and enterprise production and operation.

How Big Data Affect Urban Low-Carbon Transformation-A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China

As a new factor of production, data play a key role in driving low-carbon and sustainable development relying on the digital economy. However, previous studies have ignored this point. Based on the panel data of 283 cities in China from 2007 to 2019, we investigated the construction of national big data comprehensive pilot zones (NBDCPZs) in China as a quasi-natural experiment, using the difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically test the impact of NBDCPZ policies on urban low-carbon transformation. The following conclusions can be drawn: NBDCPZ construction significantly promotes urban low-carbon transformation, and a series of robustness analysis supports this conclusion. NBDCPZ constructions mainly promotes urban low-carbon transformation by stimulating urban green innovation and optimizing the allocation of urban resource elements. Compared with eastern cities, small and medium-sized cities, and resource-based cities, the construction of NBDCPZs can promote the low-carbon transformation of cities in central and western China, large cities, and non-resource-based cities. Further analysis shows that the construction of NBDCPZs can only improve the low-carbon transformation of local cities, with negative spatial spillover effects on the low-carbon transformation of surrounding cities. Therefore, in the future, it is vital to consider the promotion effect of the construction of NBDCPZs on the low-carbon transformation of local cities and prevent its negative impact on the low-carbon transformation of surrounding cities.

Executives' ESG cognition and enterprise green innovation: Evidence based on executives' personal microblogs

Based on cognitive theory, we investigated the influence of executives' ESG cognition on corporate green innovation using data from Chinese manufacturing listed companies from 2010 to 2019. The paper first constructs a metric of ESG cognition of company executives by presenting a quantitative analysis of data from their personal microblogs using textual analysis. The findings show that executive ESG perceptions significantly improve corporate green innovation. After addressing the endogeneity issue through a series of robustness tests, the findings of this paper still held true. Further research found that the enhancement effect of executive ESG perceptions on firms' green innovation level was mainly found in the sample without heavy pollution and with lower financing constraints and a higher marketization process. This study makes an important contribution to the research on corporate green innovation based on the perspective of executive ESG cognition while also providing a theoretical basis and practical reference for corporate green innovation practices.

Does ambient air quality standard contribute to green innovation of enterprises in China? Implications for environmental protection and public health

In the post-COVID-19 era, environmental pollution has been a serious threat to public health. Enterprises are in urgent need of enhancing green technology innovation as the main source of pollutant emissions, and it is necessary for governments to support green innovation of enterprises to reduce pollutant emissions and promote public health. In this context, this paper investigates whether the Ambient Air Quality Standard (AAQS) implemented in 2012 in China contributes to green innovation of enterprises, to provide implications for environmental protection and public health. By using panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2020, this study adopts the difference-in-difference model to analyze the policy impact of environmental regulation on green innovation of enterprises and its internal mechanism. The results show that AAQS has significantly improved the green innovation of enterprises. Furthermore, AAQS affects the green innovation of enterprises by virtue of two mechanism paths: compliance cost effect and innovation offset effect. On the one hand, AAQS leads to an increase in production costs of enterprises, thus inhibiting green innovation activities of enterprises. On the other hand, AAQS encourages enterprises to increase R&D investment in green technology, thus enhancing their green innovation. In addition, the impact of AAQS on firms' green innovation has heterogeneous characteristics. Our findings not only enrich the studies of environmental regulation and green innovation of enterprises but also provide policymakers in China and other developing countries with implications for environmental protection and public health improvement.

Going Abroad and Going Green: The Effects of Top Management Teams' Overseas Experience on Green Innovation in the Digital Era

Green innovation has become one of the most important approaches to achieving sustainable development in modern business. Top management team (TMT)'s overseas experience, as one type of unique resources, constitutes the cognitive basis of the team and thus influences firms' strategic decision-making. Based on the upper echelon theory, this study aims to investigate the effect of TMT's overseas experiences on green innovation performances. By utilizing a panel dataset of Chinese listed firms, this study shows that TMTs' overseas experience indeed promotes firms' green innovation performance and that both firms' digital transformation and regions' digital economy development positively moderate the relationship between TMTs' overseas experience and green innovation. These findings not only help managers better organize the TMT and green innovation strategy but also draw policymakers' attention to the importance of the digital economy and sustainable development.

Can Digital Finance Promote Peak Carbon Dioxide Emissions? Evidence from China

This paper uses Chinese provincial panel data from 2011 to 2019, measures CO₂ emissions of provinces in China using the IPCC method, and explores the impact of digital finance on CO₂ emissions through the SAR model and SDM. Empirical study shows that digital finance significantly reduces CO₂ emissions. Digital finance reduces CO₂ emissions by promoting energy industrial structure transformation and spreads to surrounding areas through spillover effects, contributes to increasing green patents granted and thus reduces regional CO₂ emissions, advances the green technological progress and therefore inhibits CO₂ emissions, but reduces the green technological progress in surrounding areas and increases CO₂ emissions due to the siphon effect. With the development of digital finance itself, the higher the level of financial regulation, green development and the green finance index, the better the effect of digital finance on CO₂ emission reduction. Additionally, digital finance significantly reduces CO₂ emissions in the south of China.

Industrial Coagglomeration, Green Innovation, and Manufacturing Carbon Emissions: Coagglomeration's Dynamic Evolution Perspective

The achievement of China's low-carbon development and carbon neutrality depends heavily on the decrease of manufacturing carbon emissions. From coagglomeration's dynamic evolution perspective, by using panel-threshold-STIRPAT and mediation-STIRPAT models, this study examines the relationships among industrial coagglomeration, green innovation, and manufacturing carbon emissions and explores the direct and indirect function mechanisms. Panel data of China's 30 provinces from 2010 to 2019 are employed. The results imply that, first, the impact of industrial coagglomeration on manufacturing carbon emissions is nonlinear and has significant threshold effects. Industrial coagglomeration negatively affects manufacturing carbon emissions, and as the coagglomeration level deepens, the negative effect has a diminishing trend in marginal utility. Once the coagglomeration degree exceeds a certain threshold, the negative impact becomes insignificant. At present, for 90% of China's regions, an increase in industrial coagglomeration level can help reduce manufacturing carbon emissions. Second, green innovation is a vital intermediary between industrial coagglomeration and manufacturing carbon emissions. It is a partial intermediary when industrial coagglomeration is at a relatively lower-level stage and a complete intermediary when industrial coagglomeration is at a relatively higher-level stage. These findings reveal the significance of optimizing industrial coagglomeration and the level and efficiency of green innovation to decrease carbon emissions.

Can Environmental Regulation Promote Green Innovation and Productivity? The Moderating Role of Government Interventions in Urban China

Can environmental regulation promote green innovation and the productivity of cities? The "Compliance Cost" (CC) perspective and the "Porter Hypothesis" (PH) offer contrasting views, whereas the existing empirical results are inconclusive. This paper aims to highlight the roles of multifaceted government interventions, including government-to-firm subsidies, tax levies on firms, and environmental infrastructure provisions, in moderating environmental regulation for realizing PH. Based on the fixed-effects models for Chinese prefecture cities from 2005-2013, we found that environmental regulation positively impacted green innovation but negatively affected productivity. The results of moderating effects suggest that environmental regulation can better promote green innovation if it is compounded with more government-to-firm subsidies, lower firm tax burdens, and increased environmental infrastructure provisions. We further decomposed the impacts of these interventions across seven fields of green innovation and found that subsidy and tax burden relief were especially effective in facilitating more GI in the sector of transportation and alternative energy production. This paper amplifies the theoretical framework of PH by accentuating the analytical lens of multifaceted government interventions but also provides insights into how local governments can effectively design "carrot-and-stick" policies to realize PH at the city level.

Corporate Digital Transformation and Green Innovation: A Quasi-Nature Experiment from Integration of Informatization and Industrialization in China

In the era of the digital economy, the rise and application of digital technologies have led to a series of systematic changes and disruptive innovations within enterprises. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of "Integration of Informatization and Industrialization", this paper examines the economic consequences of digital transformation from the standpoint of corporate green innovation, utilizing China's listed manufacturing firms as the research object. Using the DID model, it is discovered that through the implementation of corporate digital transformation, the output of green innovation increases significantly. The conclusions are still robust when using the parallel trend test, PSM-DID, placebo test, and the test of deleting the sample entering the pilot in the current year. Extended analyses find that corporate digital transformation has a greater effect on green innovation in regions with weaker digital economy, in industries with less rivalry, and in firms with larger size. The conclusions of this paper not only advance research on digital transformation and its economic consequences, but also provides theoretical proof and practical insights for advancing corporate digital transformation and enhancing the green development system.

Does Environmental Credit Rating Promote Green Innovation in Enterprises? Evidence from Heavy Polluting Listed Companies in China

Environmental credit rating (ECR) is a novel environmental governance tool proposed by China, but its implementation effect is still unknown. This study analyzed whether it achieves the goal of encouraging green innovation in enterprises. Based on the green patent data of listed companies in heavy polluting industries in China from 2010 to 2018, we constructed a heterogeneous timing difference-in-differences model to empirically study the impact of the ECR policy on green innovation. We find that the policy has significantly promoted heavy polluting enterprises' green innovation. Moreover, the results passed a series of robustness tests. Importantly, we find that the policy has a positive effect on enterprises' green innovation through the reputation mechanism and financing mechanism. Furthermore, the incentive effect of the policy varies with enterprise characteristics and regional characteristics: the green innovation effect of the policy is more obvious in large-sized and state-owned companies and companies in regions with low fiscal pressure and a high level of financial development are more likely to induce firms' green innovation. Our research will be of practical value to China's environmental management, as well as global value to other countries.

Capital Formation, Green Innovation, Renewable Energy Consumption and Environmental Quality: Do Environmental Regulations Matter?

The world economy continues to witness a steady rise in carbon emissions, which makes it challenging to fulfill the terms of the Paris agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, countries worldwide enact environmental regulations to curtail environmental pollution to promote sustainable development. However, the importance of environmental regulations has not been fully validated in the previous literature. In addition, the concurrent roles of capital formation, green innovation, and renewability cannot be overlooked. Against this backdrop, this study selects data from G7 countries from 1994 to 2019 to explore the effect of environmental regulations, capital formation, green innovation, and renewable energy consumption on CO₂ emissions. In order to achieve the above research objectives, we employ the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MM-QR) for empirical analysis. The results reveal that capital formation significantly enhances environmental quality by reducing CO₂ emissions across all quantiles (10th-90th). Environmental regulations show a significant and negative impact on CO₂ emission mainly at the middle and higher emissions quantiles, while the effect is insignificant at lower quantiles (10th). Moreover, green innovation and renewable energy consumption mitigate CO₂ emissions across all quantiles (10th-90th), while economic growth deteriorates environmental quality in G7 countries. The panel granger causality results indicate the unidirectional causality running from capital formation, environmental regulations, and renewable energy towards CO₂ emissions, which implies that any policy related to these variables will Granger cause CO₂ emissions but not the other way round. Based on the findings, important policy implications are proposed to promote sustainable development in G7 countries.

Digital Transformation and Green Innovation of Chinese Firms: The Moderating Role of Regulatory Pressure and International Opportunities

The digitalization of business processes has increasingly challenged conventional wisdom in corporate green innovation. This empirical paper studies the timely but theoretically underexplored relationship between digital transformation and green innovation in a developing country context. Given that firms' digital transformation shifts organizational structures toward decentralization, we employ a digital perspective to analyze organizational coordination, control, and learning mechanisms and propose that digital transformation positively affects corporate green innovation. Moreover, drawing on structural contingency theory, we demonstrate that such effects can be strengthened by external contingencies, specifically regulatory pressure and international opportunities. Using a dataset of Chinese listed firms, we find empirical support for our hypotheses. Our study is one of the first to examine how firms can leverage organizational digital transformation to enhance their green innovation performance and thus provides new insights into the drivers of sustainable practices for firms in developing countries.

Can Green Innovation Improve Regional Environmental Carrying Capacity? An Empirical Analysis from China

Green innovation has become an important driving force for China's economic transformation and development. This paper selects the 2010-2020 provincial-level regions in China as samples, and adopts a multi-indicator comprehensive evaluation method to comprehensively, objectively and scientifically evaluate the environmental carrying capacity of air pollution in two dimensions: natural resource endowment and human activity impact, and also measures and calculates the green innovation in each province, city and autonomous region to explore the specific impact of green innovation on environmental carrying capacity and its spatial spillover effect; it also explores the heterogeneous effects of green innovation on environmental carrying capacity under different pollution environments. The conclusions show that: (1) Green innovation has a positive impact on environmental carrying capacity. (2) There is a spatial spillover effect of green innovation on environmental carrying capacity. In other words, in areas with higher PM2.5 concentration, that is, lower environmental quality, green innovation has a weaker ability to improve environmental carrying capacity; in areas with lower PM2.5 concentration, that is higher environmental quality, green innovation has a stronger ability to improve environmental carrying capacity. (3) In the process of green innovation affecting environmental carrying capacity, PM2.5 plays the part of a mediating effect, indicating that green innovation is an intermediate transmission mechanism affecting environmental carrying capacity, and the results show that the absolute value of the short-term indirect effect is greater than the absolute value of the short-term direct effect, and the long-term direct effect is greater than the long-term indirect effect.

The Impact of Digital Transformation on Corporate Environment Performance: Evidence from China

In recent years, the rate of climate change appears to have accelerated, and digital transformation and environmental performance have become increasingly important in the field of corporate social responsibility. Previous studies have mainly focused on the economic consequences of digital transformation. However, research on the effect of digital transformation on reducing firms' emissions is relatively rare. This study focused on two kinds of typical environmental pollutants: waste gas emissions and wastewater emissions. Using data on Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2018 and adopting the fixed effect model to investigate the emission reduction effect and mechanism of digital transformation on waste gas emissions and wastewater emissions of firms, we found the following: (1) digital transformation significantly reduces pollution emissions; (2) the relationship is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), high-polluting enterprises, and economically developed regions; (3) to gain a more in-depth understanding of how digital transformation affects the pollution emission behavior of firms, we further conducted mechanism tests and found that digital transformation reduces pollution by increasing total factor productivity and green innovation and improving firms' internal controls. The above conclusions still hold after a series of robustness tests, including alternative econometric specifications and overcoming potential endogeneity with an instrumental variable. Overall, our findings provide new insights into the effect of digital transformation on environmental pollution emissions. Hence, all governments should pay more attention to digital transformation for sustainable development and improved environmental quality.

Local Government Debt and Green Total Factor Productivity-Empirical Evidence from Chinese Cities

In recent years, the expansion of local government debt (LGD) in China has caused widespread concern. Enhancing green total factor productivity (GTFP) is an important way to coordinate resources, environment, and regional development and is an important indicator to realize the transformation of green economic development. Scientific assessment of the impact of LGD on GTFP helps promote the transformation of green economic development. This paper selects sample data from 271 cities in China from 2010 to 2019 and empirically investigates the mechanisms of LGD, green innovation, and financial market development on GTFP. The results show that (1) LGD expansion significantly suppresses GTFP in China; (2) green innovation mediates between the two, and LGD suppresses GTFP by reducing the level of green innovation; and (3) financial market development can mitigate the negative impact of LGD on urban GTFP. Therefore, the governance of LGD should be strengthened, the financial market environment should be optimized, the distortion of financial resources should be corrected, and innovative financing modes such as green finance and green credit should be encouraged to enhance GTFP.

Study on the Influence Mechanism of Environmental Management System Certification on Enterprise Green Innovation

Improving the green technology innovation capability of enterprises is an important way for industrial enterprises to improve product quality and production efficiency and reduce industrial pollution and energy consumption. Based on the Porter hypothesis, this paper took the data of listed companies of the heavy polluting industry in Chinese A-shares from 2011-2018 as a study sample, and a difference-in-differences (DID) model was constructed to explore the impact of environmental management system certification (EMSC) on enterprises' green innovation. This paper also studied the differential impact between the EMSC and enterprises' green innovation from the perspective of enterprise heterogeneity. It was found that the EMSC has a significant promotion effect on the enterprises' green innovation; this promotion changes with the size and ownership of the enterprise and the lifecycle of the enterprise. Meanwhile, customer, shareholder, and creditor satisfaction all play a positive moderating role in the process of EMSC affecting green innovation, while the moderating role of supplier satisfaction is not significant. The findings of this paper have important implications for the understanding of the role of EMSC in promoting green innovation in enterprises.

Does Human Capital Matter for China's Green Growth?-Examination Based on Econometric Model and Machine Learning Methods

To tackle the increasingly severe environmental challenges, including climate change, we should pay more attention to green growth (GG), a path to realize sustainability. Human capital (HC) has been considered a crucial driving factor for developing countries to move towards GG, but the impact and mechanisms for emerging economies to achieve GG need to be further discussed. To bridge this gap, this paper investigates the relation between HC and GG in theory and demonstration perspective. It constructs a systematic theoretical framework for their relationship. Then, it uses a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model based on the non-radial direction distance function (NDDF) to measure the GG performance of China's 281 prefecture level cities from 2011 to 2019. Ultimately, it empirically tests the hypothesis by using econometric model and LightGBM machine learning (ML) algorithm. The empirical results indicate that: (1) There is a U-shaped relationship between China's HC and GG. Green innovation and industrial upgrading are transmission channels in the process of HC affecting GG. (2) Given other factors affecting GG, HC and economic growth contribute equally to GG (17%), second only to city size (21%). (3) China's HC's impact on GG is regionally imbalanced and has city size heterogeneity.

The Impact of Financial Deepening on Carbon Reductions in China: Evidence from City- and Enterprise-Level Data

This study extends the limited evidence of the China context by establishing a panel fixed-effect model to identify the nexus between financial deepening and carbon emissions. Using newly compiled city-level (287 prefecture-level and above cities) and enterprise-level (resource enterprises listed on the Chinese A-shares) datasets from 2007 to 2019, this study quantitatively evaluated finance deepening and analysed the impact of financial deepening on carbon emissions in China, with a particular consideration of green innovation. Our results document that financial deepening contributes to carbon reductions, as shown by the considerably decreased carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Both the city-level and enterprise-level estimates argue that financial deepening has a promoting effect on green innovation. Stimulating green innovation is identified as an important mechanism through which financial deepening can contribute to carbon reductions. Policy implications are presented based on the empirical results.

Digital Transformation on Enterprise Green Innovation: Effect and Transmission Mechanism

With the development of blockchain, big data, cloud computing and other new technologies, how to achieve innovative development and green sustainable development in digital transformation has become one of the key issues for enterprises to obtain and maintain core competitiveness. However, little of the literature has paid attention to the impact of digital transformation on enterprise green innovation. Using the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2020, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of enterprise digital transformation on green innovation and its transmission mechanism, by constructing double fixed-effect models. The results show that digital transformation has remarkably promoted the green innovation of enterprises. R&D investment, government subsidies, and income tax burden have played a conductive role between digital transformation and enterprise green innovation. Furthermore, digital transformation can significantly promote the high-quality green innovation of enterprises and also plays a more significant role in promoting the green innovation of high-tech enterprises and state-owned enterprises. A robustness test is carried out by using the lag data and changing the measurement methods of the dependent variable and independent variables, and the research conclusions are still valid. Based on resource-based theory and dynamic capability theory, this paper reveals the impact path of digital transformation on enterprise green innovation, further expanding the research field of digital transformation and enriching the research on the influencing factors of enterprise green innovation. This paper provides policy suggestions for the government to improve the enterprise green innovation level by increasing government subsidies and providing tax incentives and also provides reference for digital transformation enterprises to accelerate green innovation by increasing R&D investment, obtaining government subsidies, and acquiring tax policy support.

Can Digital Economy Promote Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction in Heavily Polluting Enterprises? Empirical Evidence from China

This paper examines the impact of digital economy on corporate energy conservation and emission reduction (CECER) using China's A-share listed heavily polluting enterprises from 2012 to 2019 as a sample. Our results show that: (1) Digital economy can significantly increase CECER, and this effect is significant for mining and manufacturing enterprises, and less significant for power, heat production and supply enterprises; (2) Mechanism research shows that digital economy promotes CECER through enhancing the green technology innovation capability, easing the financing constraints, and boosting market competition; (3) Heterogeneity research indicates that the promotion of digital economy to CECER is more significant in economically developed regions and regions with less financial pressure from local governments. This paper clarifies the factors influencing CECER and provides empirical evidence for achieving digital economy development and government goals for CECER.

Green Innovation, Corporate Environmental Ethics, and Competitive Advantages of Chinese Automobile Industry During COVID-19: Corporate Environmental Management as Moderator

Objective

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of green product and process innovation on the competitive advantages of the Chinese automobile industry during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study also examined the mediating role of corporate environmental ethics (CEE) and the moderating role of corporate environmental management in the relationship between the green product and process innovation on the competitive advantages of the Chinese automobile industry during COVID-19.

Methods

This study used a quantitative approach of research with the cross-sectional method for the collection of data. This study also used purposive sampling for the collection of data from the production managers of the automobile industry of China. The structural equation modeling-partial least squares (SEM-PLS) is used to analyze the data.

Results

The results of direct effects indicated that green product innovation has a significant and positive effect on the corporate advantages (β = 0.294, t = 2.868) and green process innovation also has a significant and positive effect on the corporate advantages (β = 0.350, t = 3.276). Moreover, green product innovation has also a significant effect on corporate advantages (β = 0.334, t = 4.258) and green product innovation has also a significant effect on corporate advantages (β = 0.269, t = 3.202).

Significance

The research in this domain about the antecedents of green innovation is still minimal in the previous literature. One of the antecedents of the green innovation, corporate environmental ethics is discussed in this study; thus, it provides the understanding of green innovation as the mediator which would mediate the relationship between corporate environmental ethics and competitive advantage in the auto manufacturing industry of China.

Novelty

This study is among very few to examine the relationship between green innovation, corporate environmental ethics, corporate environmental management, and competitive advantages of the Chinese automobile industry during COVID-19.

Global Value Chain Participation and Green Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms

Green innovation is one of the most important approaches to prevent environmental pollution and foster sustainable development. Embedded in the global production networks, manufacturing firms have been found not only to be the main drivers of innovation but also the main polluters in developing countries. However, relatively few studies have systematically considered the effect of global value chain (GVC) participation on green innovation in the context of developing countries. By using a panel dataset of Chinese listed manufacturing firms, this study conducts panel data fixed-effect analyses and uses the instrumental variable two-stage least square model to investigate the effect of GVC participation on firms’ green innovation performance. The results show that increased GVC participation leads to improved green innovation performance of Chinese firms. Meanwhile, further heterogeneity analyses show that the impact of GVC participation on green innovation is more pronounced for firms with greater financial constraints, state-owned firms and firms in labor- or pollution-intensive industries, located in the eastern regions of China. Therefore, this study sheds light on the implication that actively participating in GVC is the key to promoting sustainable growth when facing the need for transformation in developing countries.

The Effects of Green Intellectual Capital on Green Innovation: A Green Supply Chain Integration Perspective

To demonstrate how green innovation (GI) effectively occurs, this study examines the effects of green intellectual capital (GIC) on GI from the perspective of green supply chain integration (GSCI). Based on a natural-resource-based view and knowledge-based view, the authors constructed an intermediary model of GIC-GSCI-GI, and analyzed the effects of green absorptive ability (GAA) and relationship learning ability (RLA) as moderators. An empirical survey of 328 Chinese manufacturing companies was conducted. Our results indicate that three dimensions of GIC positively impact GI. The mediating effects of internal and external GSCI exist in the relationship between GIC and GI. The moderating effects of GAA and RLA in these effects were also verified. Our study provides further empirical evidence for the relationship between GIC and GI, highlights the effects of companies' internal and external abilities on GI, and suggests new ways and implementation contexts for GI.

Green Innovation Behavior Toward Sustainable Tourism Development: A Dual Mediation Model

The rapid increase in globalization has fostered the emerging ecological challenges to halt human civilization, substantially highlighting the need for environmental management. The study’s primary objective is to analyze the impact of environmental perception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and attitude toward environmental CSR on sustainable tourism development while considering the mediating role of national park identification goals and employee pro-environmental behavior. The data was collected from the 338 employees working in the Chinese tourist firms’. The study variable’s reliability and validity was checked by using Composite Reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted (AVE). Study results show that environmental CSR perception and attitude toward environmental CSR positively impact sustainable tourism development, national park Goal identification, and employee pro-environmental behavior. National Park goal identification and employee pro-environmental behavior mediate between sustainable tourism development and environmental perception of corporate social responsibility and attitude toward environmental CSR.

The Impact of the Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone on the Green Innovation-Evidence from China

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.

Can Digital Financial Inclusion Promote Green Innovation in Heavily Polluting Companies?

This paper takes the China A-shares listed companies in heavy polluting industries from 2011 to 2020 as samples, combines the digital financial inclusion index to empirically examine the impacts of digital financial inclusion development on the green technology innovation of heavily polluting companies, and reveals its mechanism of action and its heterogeneity of the impacts of enterprises’ green technology innovation in different development stages. The empirical research results show that the development of digital financial inclusion is able to promote the green innovation of heavy-polluting enterprises. Its main manifestation is that the development of digital financial inclusion helps the increase of green patent applications of heavy-polluting enterprises. This conclusion is validated through the endogeneity and robustness tests. The test results of the mechanism of action show that digital financial inclusion promotes green innovation of enterprises by alleviating corporate financing constraints and financial mismatch problems. Further research results show that the role of digital financial inclusion in promoting green technology innovation in heavy-polluting enterprises is more pronounced in mature enterprises. Therefore, this study provides a theoretical basis for the development of digital financial inclusion to promote heavy-polluting enterprises to achieve green transition through green technology innovation, thus achieving the “dual carbon” goal.

How Government Size Expansion Can Affect Green Innovation-An Empirical Analysis of Data on Cross-Country Green Patent Filings

The expansion of government size will have dual effects on a country’s green innovation. An appropriately sized government size increases marginal productivity and stimulates the development of green innovation by increasing government expenditure. On the contrary, an excessively sized government creates a huge administrative agency, which not only increases the tax burden but also damages social welfare by excessive intervention. Therefore, the effect of government size on green innovation is not linear. In order to prove this proposition, this study examines the impact of government size on green innovation in 166 countries between 1995 and 2018, using a two-way fixed effects model. The results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between government size and the level of green innovation, indicating that optimal government size may maximize a country’s green innovation output. The results further suggest that this inverted U-shaped relationship is mainly influenced by environmental regulations and financial support. Finally, our heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the inverted U-shaped relationship is more pronounced for countries with high organizational inertia and more R&D expenditure than for those with low organizational inertia and less R&D expenditure. This finding makes up for the research gap between government size and green innovation and provides a reference for countries to formulate the optimal government size to improve the level of green innovation.

How Do Green Innovation Strategies Contribute to Firm Performance Under Supply Chain Risk? Evidence From China's Manufacturing Sector

With environmental issues increasingly becoming prominent in today's business world, firms may need to pay extra attention to developing their environmental strategies and capabilities in response to environmental concerns and achieving sustainable growth. While a broad consensus exists on the value of green innovation, current empirical research on how different types of green innovation strategies may account for the international performance of a firm remains scant. Addressing this gap is important because determining how to better manage a firm's green innovation strategies nowadays has become increasingly important for firms hoping to achieve and maintain their sustainable performance advantages. This study aims to bridge this gap by systematically examining how various types of green innovation strategies (i.e., green product, green process, and green service innovations) can be beneficial to firms in an emerging market economy. This study also examined the important role that potential risks of supply chain play in shaping the relationships between various types of green innovation strategies and firm performance. This study proposes that the effective management of supply chain risks may be important to the successful implementation of green innovation strategies because green innovation has increasingly become a collaborative effort. This study empirically tested the hypotheses by gathering survey data from a sample of 337 firms in China's manufacturing industries. Results demonstrate that the green innovation strategies of firms are positively related to their firm performance. Additionally, the potential risks faced by the firms in efficiently and effectively managing their supply chain significantly moderate the impact of green product innovation and green process innovation strategies on their firm performance. This study not only offers useful theoretical implications for the green innovation strategy research and for better and effective supply chain risk management. It also provides important practical guidelines and managerial actions that practicing managers can implement to accelerate their green innovation strategy, assess the effect of supply chain risks, and thus improve firm performance in the post-pandemic era.

Driving Mechanism for Manufacturer's Decision of Green Innovation: From the Perspectives of Manager Cognition and Behavior Selection

From the perspectives of manager cognition and behavior selection, this paper analyzes the cognitive basis of manufacturer’s green innovation and discovers that the embodied cognition of the manager has an important influence on the selection of green innovation behavior. Next, the behavior activation in the four stages of manufacturer’s green innovation, namely, initiation, termination, change, and solidification, was analyzed, and two behavior selections were proposed: the adaptive legitimacy with institutional logic as the cognitive starting point and the strategic legitimacy with efficiency logic as the cognitive starting point. On this basis, the authors examined four types of manufacturer decisions of green innovation (compliance, selection, creation, and control) driven by manager cognition and behavior selection. The examination reveals how should the manager, facing the growing environmental pressure, form a correct cognition, select the right behavior, and make the proper green innovation decision, which promotes the green, sustainable development of manufacturers.

Organizational Behavior in Green Supply Chain Integration: Nexus Between Information Technology Capability, Green Innovation, and Organizational Performance

Stakeholder pressure and public awareness of environmental protection drive organizations to improve environmental practices in the supply chain (SC), such as green supply chain integration (GSCI) and green innovation (GI). The use of information technology (IT) is crucial to manufacturing organizations' GSCI and performance. However, the research on the relationship between IT capabilities, GSCI, GI and organizational performance is still limited. Therefore, empirical research is needed on the cognitive thinking of employees using IT capabilities to improve GSCI and organizational performance. The data for this study comes from SC personnel in manufacturing organizations through a structured questionnaires and was analyzed by employing structural equation modeling. Based on the results, this paper concludes that organizational IT capabilities positively affect the GSCI and improve organizational performance (environmental and operational performance). Furthermore, the study discovered that GI increases organizational performance and acts as a positive mediator in the link between GSCI and performance. The findings contribute to existing GSCI and GI knowledge, which can provide a bird's eye-view to develop an organization's IT capabilities to achieve competitive performance goals.

Do Managerial Ties Help or Hinder Corporate Green Innovation? The Moderating Roles of Contextual Factors

Green innovation has significant implications for firms' financial, environmental, and social performance. However, its externalities may inhibit the proactive involvement of firms in such initiatives. In this study, we examined the roles of two types of managerial ties (i.e., business and political) in green innovation and further investigated the moderating effects of two types of contextual factors (i.e., environmental regulations and competitive intensity). By conducting an empirical study using survey data from 218 samples, we confirm that business ties positively affect green innovation while political ties have an inverted U-shaped effect. Moreover, the relationship between managerial ties and green innovation is contingent on specific context settings. Our results show that the environmental regulations enforced by the government strengthen both the effects of business and political ties, while the competitive intensity has no effect on the relationship between business ties and green innovation; however, it sharpens the curvilinear effect of political ties.

The Impact of Green Credit on the Green Innovation Level of Heavy-Polluting Enterprises-Evidence from China

This article uses the "Green Credit Guidelines" promulgated in 2012 as an example to construct a quasi-natural experiment and uses the double difference method to test the impact of the implementation of the "Green Credit Guidelines" on the green innovation activities of heavy-polluting enterprises. The study found that, in comparison to non-heavy polluting enterprises, the implementation of green credit policies inhibited the green innovation of all heavy-polluting enterprises. In the analysis of heterogeneity, this restraint effect did not differ significantly due to the nature of property rights and the company's size. The mechanism test showed that green credit policy limits the efficiency of business investment and increases the cost of financing business debt. Eliminating corporate credit financing, particularly long-term borrowing, negatively impacts the green innovation behavior of listed companies.

Do Tournament Incentives Matter for CEOs to Be Environmentally Responsible? Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Relying on tournament theory and environmental management research, we examine how CEO tournament incentives induce top executives to invest more in green innovation. Using a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2016, we find evidence that CEO tournament incentives are positively associated with green innovation. In addition, we find that a positive relationship between CEO tournament incentives and green innovation is stronger in state-owned enterprises than in non-state-owned enterprises. These results support tournament theory, which proposes that better incentives induce top executives’ efforts to win the tournament incentives, and such efforts are subject to fiercer competition among employees, which improves firms’ social and financial performance. Moreover, our findings have implications for policy makers and regulators who wish to enhance environmental legitimacy by providing tournament incentives to top executives.

Local governments’ environmental emphasis and corporate green innovation: evidence from China

To study the effect of green industrial policies comprehensively, this paper takes uses a sample of Chinese Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2019 to study the impact of local governments’ environmental emphasis on corporate green innovation. The results show that local governments’ environmental emphasis has a significant positive impact on the number of green patents of enterprises. More importantly, local governments’ environmental attention mainly plays its role by improving the environmental protection awareness of corporate executives and increasing environmental protection subsidies. In addition, the effect of local governments’ environmental emphasis is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises, firms with low financing constraints, and heavily polluting firms. Further research finds that local governments’ environmental emphasis has a significant role in promoting the number of green invention patents and non-invention patents, but only green invention patents enhance the intrinsic value of enterprises.

Determinants of Green Innovation to Achieve Sustainable Business Performance: Evidence From SMEs

Environmental degradation and global warming are major challenges to humankind in the twenty-first century. Thus, businesses are now adopting and incorporating more sustainable manufacturing methods to produce environmental products and services. It is inevitable for organizations to adopt green practices and achieve sustainable performance. This extant research addresses how to obtain sustainable development (SD) through green innovation (GRIN). The main purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive model by integrating natural resource-based view (NRBV) and triple bottom line (TBL) framework. Three antecedents namely green absorptive capacity (GAC), sustainable human capital (SHC), and organization support (OS) were selected, and their influence was checked on GRIN of the SMEs from manufacturing sector. This study included all three factors of TBL: environmental, economic, and social sustainability in terms of GRINs possible consequences. Data were randomly collected from 304 firms in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia through questionnaire. Convergent and discriminant validity analyses were conducted to assure validity and reliability, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to assess the relationships between variables using smartPLS 3.0 software. Further, firms were categorized into two groups based on company size-small and medium-to explore group differences. Hence, firm size was included as a moderator in the proposed model and multi-group analysis (MGA) was performed. The results indicate that GAC, SHC, and OS have positive influence on GRIN within SMEs. Further, results reveal GRIN had strong significant impact on all three variables of sustainable performance. The study concludes with MGA results that provided evidence of significant group differences, with a stronger relationship between GAC and GRIN in medium-sized firms compared to small-sized firms. Similarly, the relationship between GRIN and environmental performance was stronger in medium-sized firms than small-sized firms. This study is unique and provides practical and theoretical implications. This paper offers an integrative model for sustainability which may be of interest to scholars, marketers, and policymakers.