Does China's carbon emissions trading policy improve the technology innovation of relevant enterprises?

China's carbon emissions trading (CET) policy aims to force relevant enterprises to implement low‐carbon technology innovation and address environmental challenges through marketization means. However, how China's CET policy may affect enterprise technology innovation and whether this effect may differ in industries remain to be further investigated. Therefore, based on the panel data of listed enterprises covered by the CET policy in China during 2009–2017, this paper employs the difference‐in‐difference (DID) and DID‐based propensity score matching models to evaluate the effect of CET on technology innovation. The empirical results indicate that the effect of China's CET on the technology innovation of related enterprises is generally not significant during the sample period, but this effect presents evident industrial heterogeneity. Specifically, among the eight CET‐covered industries, the CET policy helps to improve technology innovation for power and aviation enterprises but not in the other six industries (i.e., steel, chemical, building material, petrochemical, nonferrous metals, and paper), which implies that China's CET policy still has great potential for promoting the technology innovation of related enterprises. In addition, the central findings remain robust when the system generalized method of moment and DID‐based coarsened exact matching models are applied to consider the influence of omitted variables, unobservable confounders, and different matching methods.     

Different effects of technological progress on China's carbon emissions based on sustainable development

In this paper, we respectively decompose and study different effects of technological progress on carbon emissions in China based on the combination of the logarithmic mean Divisia index method, the Solow residual model, and spatial econometrics. Furthermore, we propose an improved approach to estimate the rebound effect index. By comparing the different effects of technological progress on carbon emissions, our results indicate that China's overall domestic technological progress reduced its carbon emissions over this period. As for the rebound effect index, the estimated results are higher than in previous studies because of the spatial rebound effect, which was ignored by previous studies. Regionally, although the eastern region had high rebound effects, the western region is at the greatest risk from the rebound effects. Finally, we present specific environmental policy proposals for China's sustainable development based on empirical results.     

Environmental regulation,pollution reduction and green innovation: The case of the Chinese Water Ecological Civilization City Pilot policy

This paper treats the Water Ecological Civilisation City Pilot (WECCP) policy as a quasi-natural experiment, and integrates environmental regulation, pollution reduction and green innovation into a unified analytical framework. Based on the pollution emission index and green patent data for 283 Chinese cities from 2010 to 2018, we examine the impact of WECCP policy on urban pollution emissions and green innovation by using a difference-in-differences model. The results show that the WECCP policy has significant regional pollution reduction effects, that is, the policy significantly reduces water pollution in the pilot cities, while it has a weak impact on air quality improvement. Also, we find that the WECCP policy significantly promotes the growth of the number of green patent applications in the pilot cities, indicating that the policy can significantly improve urban green innovation capacity. The mediating effect analysis shows that the WECCP policy can improve regional environmental quality by enhancing urban green innovation ability. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the WECCP policy has more significant effects on pollution reduction and green innovation in small cities.     

Exploring the linkages of green transformational leadership,organizational green learning,and radical green innovation

Radical green innovation is the necessary way for countries and firms to achieve sustainable development. Although the influencing factors of green innovation have attracted extensive attention, there is little research on the antecedents of radical green innovation. Drawing on organizational learning theory and attention-based view, this study proposes R-I ratio to measure the configuration of exploratory green learning and exploitative green learning, then analyzes the relationships among green transformational leadership, R-I ratio and radical green innovation, and examines the moderating effects of green R&D investment and environmental regulatory pressure. Based on a sample of 243 manufacturing firms in China's strategic emerging industries, the empirical results reveal that green transformational leadership promotes R-I ratio, and R-I ratio has inverted U-shaped relationship with radical green innovation. The results also find that green R&D investment plays U-shaped moderating role in the relationship between green transformational leadership and R-I ratio, and environmental regulatory pressure positively moderates the relationship between green transformational leadership and R-I ratio. The study not only reveals the relationships of green transformational leadership, organizational green learning and radical green innovation, but also provides theoretical guidance and management practice for manufacturing firms and government to promote radical green innovation.     

Effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions: Evidence from China's three urban agglomerations

Analyzing the effect of local government decision‐making competition on regional carbon emissions is important for reducing carbon emissions in rapidly urbanizing areas. Taking the energy rebound effect into account, this study analyzes the effect on carbon emissions of competition between local governments in decision making. Focusing on China's three urban agglomerations, this study further discusses how to avoid this influence. The results show that local government decision‐making competition is one of the main causes of the regional “green paradox”; the effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions has significant regional heterogeneity and spatial dependence, and the short‐term energy rebound effect is greater than the long‐term energy rebound effect; and local government decision‐making competition has three effects on carbon emissions that also have interaction and substitution effects between them: factor market distortion, investment bias, and the “race to the bottom” of environmental policies. However, four measures can reduce the effect of local government decision‐making competition on carbon emissions: one, improving the performance evaluation system of local governments; two, promoting the marketization of factor prices; three, improving both the energy efficiency and upgrading of industrial structures; and four, introducing macro emission reduction policies that allow the central government to intervene directly.     

Green innovation and SO2 emissions: Dynamic threshold effect of human capital

Green innovation is an effective path to decrease environmental pollutions. It is of immense interest to evaluate the roles of green innovation on SO₂ emissions reduction. We also investigate the static and dynamic threshold effect of human capital in the impacting paths of different innovations on SO₂ emissions. The empirical results show that the design patent increases SO₂ emissions while the development of utility patent can decrease SO₂ emissions based on the static analysis and dynamic analysis. Both the “pollution halo” and the “pollution heaven” hypotheses of foreign direct investment (FDI) are validated in China. Moreover, green innovation positively affects SO₂ emission reduction based on the System Generalized Method of Moment (SYS-GMM) estimation. Both static and dynamic panel threshold regression results reveal that the positive effects of different innovations will become larger when human capital exceeds the corresponding threshold values. Hence, it is important to enhance green human capital.     

The role of returnee executives in improving green innovation performance of Chinese manufacturing enterprises: Implications for sustainable development strategy

Environmental problems in China have attracted global attention. Grafting returnee executives' green resources to Chinese manufacturing enterprises is an effective way to solve China's sustainable development problems. This paper focuses on the impact of returnee executives and the heterogeneity of returnee and local executives on green innovation performance and the moderating effects of environmental regulation and managerial ties. The paper builds on data from 276 Chinese manufacturing enterprises. The results show that returnee executives tend to achieve sustainable development through green innovation. However, not all kinds of heterogeneity between returnee and local executives can promote green innovation performance. In addition, environmental regulation and managerial ties, as two important external moderation variables, have different impacts and different extents of impact on the relationship between returnee executives and four aspects (R&D, manufacturing, marketing, and management) of green innovation performance, that is, environmental regulation positively moderates the relationship between returnee executives and green manufacturing and management innovation performance but negatively moderates the relationship between returnee executives and green R&D and marketing innovation performance. These findings have clear management implications for Chinese manufacturing enterprises.     

Examining the effect of managing GHG emissions on business performance

Unprecedented climate changes menace not only the planetary ecosystem, but also the stability of the global economy. The European Union has for years promoted the transition of the economy towards a model of sustainable development, stimulating companies to adopt a strategic approach based on quality and environmental efficiency, rather than on quantity and reduction of costs. The aim of this study is to analyze how greater attention to the environmental effects of a company's activities (environmental management) and monitoring and reduction of CO₂ emissions (emission management) can improve the company's economic performance. We analyze the financial data and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission figures for a sample of large Italian companies, searching for potential relations between increasing returns on capital invested and the reduction of pollutants. The results show that the companies examined are ever more attentive to environmental policies, and that those with a green vision achieve better operating performance. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Industrial structure distortion and urban ecological efficiency from the perspective of green entrepreneurial ecosystems

Improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem plays an important role in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and achieving the coordinated development of economy and environment among cities is important for improving the quality and efficiency of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Using the panel data of 286 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2016, this study adopts the global reference super efficiency slack-based measure model considering undesirable output to measure China's urban ecological efficiency. In addition, the spatial lag model is used to investigate the impacts of industrial structure advancement and rationalization on ecological efficiency, and the impacts of the heterogeneity of industrial structure and economic development under the distortion of resource dependence on ecological efficiency. The results show that: every one-unit increase in the advancement of industrial structure will lead to a 0.0741 unit increase in ecological efficiency, but the high dependence on natural resources will inhibit the promoting effect of industrial structure advancement on ecological efficiency, and such an inhibiting effect will weaken with the improvement of economic development level; moreover, the influence coefficient of industrial structure rationalization on ecological efficiency is not significant, nor is it affected by the natural resource dependence and the level of economic development. This paper hereby proposes that in the process of promoting green entrepreneurial activity at present, the Chinese government should give full play to the role of industrial structure advancement on improving ecological efficiency, actively break through the constraints restricting the impact of industrial structure rationalization, reduce excessive dependence on resource industries, improve the level of regional economic development, and strive to transform resource-intensive industries to technology-intensive industries to support the sustainable development of a green entrepreneurship ecosystem.     

Environmental regulations in private and mixed duopolies: Taxes on emissions versus green R&D subsidies

In this article, we compare two kinds of environmental regulations—emissions taxes and green R&D subsidies—in private and mixed-duopoly markets in the presence of R&D spillovers. We show that a green R&D subsidy is better (worse) than an emissions tax when the green R&D is efficient (inefficient), irrespective of R&D spillovers, whereas the existence of a publicly owned firm encourages the government to adopt a subsidy policy. We also show that the optimal policy choice depends on R&D efficiency and spillovers. In particular, when green R&D is inefficient and the spillover rate is low (high), the government should choose an emissions tax and (not) privatize the state-owned firm. When green R&D is efficient, however, an R&D subsidy is better, but a privatization policy is not desirable for society, irrespective of spillovers.     

The performance of green innovation: From an efficiency perspective

In this new stage of global economic development, we hope to achieve both economic development and environmental improvements via innovation. Green innovation aims to meet the dual goals of economic development and ecological protection. The scientific evaluation of the performance of China's green innovation appears to be quite meaningful. Some studies have evaluated the performance of green innovation, but are limited by the use of a single efficiency measurement method. To fill this research gap, this article uses a combination of two methods to evaluate green innovation efficiency, which provides a more precise evaluation of efficiency. Specifically, this article uses the vertical-and-horizontal scatter degree method to construct a pollutant index and then sets that index as the undesirable output in a slacks-based measure (SBM) model to evaluate efficiency. To further study the regional differences in green innovation efficiency, this article uses a convergence model. Most existing convergence analyses ignore spatial elements. Focusing on the influence of spatial factors, this article introduces a spatial econometric model into the convergence analyses. This article draws the following main conclusions. (i) The efficiency of green innovation in the country as a whole has been increasing each year, and green innovation efficiency in the central and western regions has increased significantly. (ii) Regional differences have narrowed each year. (iii) Green innovation efficiency is significantly positively spatially correlated, which is reflected in the spatial agglomeration of regions with the same efficiency level. (iv) Green innovation efficiency exhibits σ-convergence and spatial conditional β-convergence. (iv) Spatial factors accelerate the convergence of green innovation efficiency.     

创新驱动与绿色发展的理论思考

当今世界正处在从经济复苏迈向新的发展阶段的关键时期,绿色发展是保护环境与发展经济的重要结合点。以能源与环境技术、绿色低碳技术为代表的绿色技术创新和以绿色经济制度体系构建为代表的制度创新,将为我国经济社会与资源环境可持续发展提供新引擎。本文通过分析绿色创新的特点与正反馈机制,找出创新与绿色发展的关系,并剖析了创新驱动与绿色发展的相互促进机制。最后从实践角度探讨了世界各国的绿色技术创新政策。     

Dynamically evaluating the comprehensive efficiency of technological innovation and low-carbon economy in China's industrial sectors

Technological innovation and low-carbon economy are significant for the high-quality development of China's industrial sectors. However, few scholars combine the two stages closely and discuss their coordinated development. This paper establishes an evaluation index system of technological innovation and low-carbon economy in China's industrial sectors. The technological innovation efficiency, low-carbon economy efficiency, and comprehensive efficiency of technological innovation and low-carbon economy are dynamically investigated by the two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and the DEA window analysis with 35 subsectors panel data during 1996–2018. The inter-industrial differences in the technological innovation efficiency and low-carbon economy efficiency are considered, and the influencing factors of the comprehensive efficiency of technological innovation and low-carbon economy are studied by the bootstrap truncation regression. The results show that: (1) The development of the technological innovation and low-carbon economy is uncoordinated, and the low-carbon economy efficiency needs improvement; (2) There is heterogeneous of the technological innovation efficiency and low-carbon economy efficiency in the 35 subsectors; (3) The density of science and technology institutions, and the average enterprises scale are positive to the comprehensive efficiency of technological innovation and low-carbon economy, while excessive reliance on technology introduction has a negative impaction. The corresponding suggestions are provided for promoting technological innovation efficiency and low-carbon economy efficiency of industrial sectors.     

加快推进产业体系绿色现代化:模式与路径

加快推进产业体系绿色现代化既符合党的十九届五中全会提出的加快发展现代产业体系的要求,又能促进经济社会全面绿色转型。结合理论分析与实践考察,本文提出了三种产业体系绿色现代化模式,即绿色经济主导型、低碳经济主导型、循环经济主导型模式。不过,当前产业体系绿色现代化还面临一系列问题与挑战,包括绿色转型原动力不足、产业结构优化升级乏力、政策体系不完善、体制机制不健全、生态环保欠账严重等。最后,本文认为加快产业结构绿色转型、不断增强绿色技术创新能力、大力发展绿色金融、积极创建绿色低碳循环生活体系、大力推进生态环境治理、持续完善体制机制引导社会力量参与,是加快推进产业体系绿色现代化的重要途径。     

低碳经济与我国产业结构调整研究

我国经济发展所面临的环境与资源的双重约束,使得转变经济发展方式、调整经济结构已经成为经济持续发展的关键。低碳经济所倡导的低碳发展模式是我国未来经济持续发展的最佳途径。但是,在向低碳发展转型中,存在着产业层次低、工业结构重型化等结构方面的障碍。培育技术创新能力、发展新兴产业、以及建立碳交易机制与征收碳税等措施是推动我国低碳经济的发展,进而加速推进我国产业结构的升级和转型的有力措施。     

Do major customers encourage innovative sustainable development? Empirical evidence from corporate green innovation in China

This paper examines the impact of customer concentration on green innovation in Chinese listed firms between 2006 and 2018 through the dynamic panel generalized method of moments regressions. It is reported that major customers positively impact corporate green innovation, indicating that firms have more incentives to engage in innovative green practices to maintain stable relationships with major customers. In addition, the positive relationship between customer concentration and green innovation is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises, firms located in the provinces with a high level of marketization, and after China's new Environmental Protection Law implementation. Moreover, we observe that the positive impact of customer concentration on corporate green innovation is more significant among industrial firms and firms operating in heavily polluting industries. Furthermore, industrial competition is an essential channel for major customers to affect corporate green innovation.     

银行业与制造业协同集聚的创新效应研究——基于中国257地级市数据的实证检验

基于中国工业企业数据和金融活动普查数据库,构建了银行业和制造业协同集聚指数,研究了银行业与制造业协同集聚对制造业企业新产品创新的影响效果,并对其中的影响机制进行了深入探究。实证研究结果表明：银行业与制造业协同集聚水平的提升有效地促进了制造业企业的创新行为;进一步研究发现,协同集聚水平的提升主要通过改善企业融资约束的水平和长期债务融资的获得,从而促进企业的创新。协同集聚对不同类型的企业创新具有异质性影响,其作用会因企业规模、所有制以及所在地区等因素存在差异。通过采用不同方法及样本的检验后,上述结论依然成立。研究结论为优化产业集聚演进、推动创新驱动战略的实施提供了新的依据。     

Assessing the technological innovation efficiency of China's high-tech industries with a two-stage network DEA approach

As significant strategic players in China's economy, high-tech industries need to evaluate and analyze the technological innovation activities from a system point of view to understand and improve their technological innovation efficiency and, thereby, promote their development. Different high-tech industries have different characteristics and thus benefit from different industrial development policies. However, few studies to date have discussed this issue from a systematic perspective. In this study, technological innovation activities are divided into a research and development (R&D) stage and a commercialization stage. A high-tech industrial evaluation framework of technological innovation efficiency based on two-stage network data envelopment analysis (DEA) is constructed with shared inputs, additional intermediate inputs, and free intermediate outputs. Our empirical results indicate that the overall efficiency of most industries is relatively low and the differences between the five high-tech industries (i.e., sub-sectors) we examined are large. The Spearman correlation shows that overall efficiency and R&D efficiency are more correlated than overall efficiency and commercialization efficiency. Additionally, R&D has better average efficiency. The sub-sector with the highest average efficiency is computers and office equipment, and the one with the lowest average efficiency is medicines. These findings indicate the inadequacy but potential for breakthroughs in the evolution of high-tech industries in China. The analysis proves that it is necessary to create different industrial policies to encourage effective progress in certain high-tech industries, and some guidelines for doing so are provided.     

Institutional investors' attention to environmental information,trading strategies,and market impacts: Evidence from China

Using a large proprietary database of intraday high‐frequency trading, we investigate the trading strategies of institutional investors in dealing with the negative environmental event disclosure of listed companies and their impact on markets, aiming to reveal the mechanism of the lack of “green efficiency” in China's capital market from the perspective of institutional investors. The results show that institutional investors react to negative environmental events prior to the announcements, indicating premature information leakage in the market; in addition, their trading behaviors mitigate the immediate effect of negative environmental event announcements on stock price. After the event is disclosed, institutional investors engage in short‐term selling and long‐term buy and hold. This trading strategy undermines the irrational selling of individual investors in the event of disclosure, short‐term decline in stock price, and long‐term reversal of market overreaction. In a China context, institutional investors generally take environmental information into consideration. However, they fail to recognize the long‐term value effect of negative environmental events and instead cater to trading strategies towards market volatility.     

Does corporate environmental responsibility engagement affect firm value? The mediating role of corporate innovation

This paper aims to construct a comprehensive corporate environmental responsibility (CER) engagement measurement to examine the relationship between CER engagement and firm value as well as explore the mediating effect of corporate innovation on this relationship based on a sample of 496 China's A‐share listed companies from 2008 to 2016. The results show that when firms start to adopt environmental regulations, CER would have a negative effect on firm value; however, at a specific level, CER would start to enhance firm value positively. In addition to this, corporate innovation plays a mediating role in the relationship between CER and firm value. Corporate innovation promotes firm value of firms with CER more than firms without CER. Overall, the findings of this paper are extremely relevant for the government, investors, and firm's managers and can be utilized for policy and investment decision making. Also, the findings encourage firms to enhance their sense of environmental responsibility in order to enhance their competitive advantages, enhance corporate innovation capabilities, and thus enhance firm value.