Narrow Results

Using a unique panel dataset consisting of 2997 Chinese manufacturing firms publicly listed in the A-share market between 2003 and 2020, we examine whether and to what extent a firm’s perception of uncertainty affects green innovation. After integrating textual analysis with a machine learning approach to measure perception of uncertainty, we find that a firm’s perception of environmental uncertainty negatively affects the number of green patents submitted or approved. The negative effect is weaker for firms followed by more professional analysts, operating in more competitive markets, or located in regions with better institutional settings. In addition, there is significant heterogeneity in the negative effect between non-state-owned versus state-owned firms as well as polluting versus non-polluting firms. The results are robust to different measures of green innovation and perception of uncertainty, and after addressing for potential endogeneity problem. Our study contributes to the literature on behavioral environmental economics by demonstrating that it is not only the environment uncertainty but also how firms perceive the uncertainty matters for green innovation and corporate social responsibility.

The impact of booming China’s green finance on the quality of enterprises’ green innovation is still unexplored. Taking the 2017 pilot zones for green finance reform and innovation (PZGFRI) as a quasi-natural experiment, a triple difference model (DDD) is applied to examine the effect of green finance policy on heavy-polluting enterprises’ green innovation quality. Our empirical analysis indicates that PZGFRI plays a negative role in the quality of heavy-polluting enterprises’ green innovation, and the results remain robust when subjected to various robustness tests. Further examination of the mechanism reveals that the breeding of rent-seeking behavior and the crowding-out effect of research and development (R&D) are transmission channels for the inhibiting effect of PZGFRI on heavy-polluting enterprises’ green innovation quality. Finally, the heterogeneity analysis indicates that the negative effect of PZGFRI on heavy-polluting enterprises’ green innovation quality is more pronounced for private enterprises than for state-owned enterprises, and for green invention patents relative to utility models. This study sheds light on the promotion path of China’s green finance policy and enriches the research on green finance and green innovation.

The issues of global climate warming and waste product recycling are increasingly severe, highlighting the need for solutions in closed-loop supply chain green innovation and the choice of recycling and sales modes on online platforms. This paper considers the dynamic impact of green innovation and advertising investment on goodwill, using a dynamic game model to explore equilibrium solutions under different modes. Numerical simulations analyze the optimal goodwill trajectory and the impact of commission rates on profits. The motivation of this paper is to provide decision-making support for the selection of closed-loop supply chain business operation modes, to reveal the relationship between green innovation and changes in goodwill, and thus to promote sustainable green closed-loop development. The study finds that the goodwill evolution paths in four decision modes initially decline and then stabilize. As sales commission rates increase, system profits in agency selling and platform agency recycling model (Model AP) and the agency selling and commissioned recycling model (Model AC) gradually decrease. As recycling commission rates rise, profits in model AP and reselling and platform agency recycling model (Model RP) gradually decrease. Under mode AC, manufacturers and network platforms achieve a “Pareto improvement”.

The rapid development of chemical enterprises has not only improved the material foundation of society, but also brought serious environmental and pollution problems. In order to provide decision-making basis for basic chemical enterprises to achieve green Supply Chain Management (SCM) and green innovation, the study proposes a hypothesis and conceptual model on the impact of green SCM on enterprise performance under the influence of green innovation. Measurement scales for each dimension are designed and a questionnaire survey is conducted. The reliability and validity of the sample data are examined in turn, the consistency of each dimension is determined through correlation analysis. Finally, a regression model is used to examine the correlation of the three variables. The results indicated that the cumulative total deviation variance explained by the dimensions of green supply chain innovation, business performance and green innovation in basic chemical enterprises were 80.101%, 77.425% and 74.526%, respectively. Green procurement had a significant negative impact on the performance of basic chemical enterprises. Green recycling and internal environmental management had a negative influence on enterprise performance. The research results contribute to promoting the sustainable development of chemical enterprises, providing new perspectives and methods for the practice of knowledge management, and offering guidance for chemical enterprises on how to better manage and apply knowledge, which is beneficial for the research and practice of knowledge management.

This study examines the influence of green creativity to the green new product performances. Creativity is a key source of organization’s competitive advantage (Barney, 1991) and increases the likelihood of new product success by providing effective product differentiation (Song, 2018). Building on the thesis of Natural Resource-based view (Hart, 1995), we study the impact of green creativity on the performances of green new products. This study also shows that family involvement plays a role in the green performances of family businesses. We pay particular attention to family firms because of two reasons. First, family businesses represent a significant proportion of the corporate sector in both developed and developing countries (Faccio and Lang 2002). Second, family firms have different behavioral patterns when reacting to stakeholders’ pressures (Huaang, Ding, and Kao, 2009; Sharma and Sharma, 2011) for better environmental management practices. This study surveyed 134 family-owned, high-tech manufacturers in Taiwan. The findings show that the green creativity is positively and significantly related to green new product performances. Our analytical results also show that family involvement moderates the relationship between green creativity and green new product performances.

In this paper, I analyse the impact that a perceived lack of an installed base has on the adoption of technological products. I use the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which considers perceived usefulness and ease-of-use as the central drivers of adoption and propose that the perceived lack of an installed base influences these two drivers. Based on cue utilisation theory, I further suggest that a perceived lack of an installed base can serve as an extrinsic cue of product quality deficiencies and difficulties with obtaining help and advice. In order to verify the supposed effect of a perceived lack of an installed base, I survey 162 households. The data shows that a perceived lack of an installed base of thermal solar systems (1) decreases their perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use and (2) acts as a mediator of the perceived risk. The study implies that managers launching technical innovations should develop strategies to influence consumers' perceptions of the current and the future installed base and communicate the development of the installed base to trigger adoption.

The synonymic use of sustainable innovation types obstructs the impact of increasingly disperse research on sustainable innovation, environmental innovation, eco-innovation, and green innovation. To identify the meaning and contributions of each innovation type over time, we apply co-word analysis as a bibliometric technique to 1,985 papers, analysing the evolution of motor, emergent and basic themes for each type. For environmental innovation, the focus has shifted from environmental regulations and policies to patents and inventions with an environmental impact, while in sustainable innovations the societal impact of technology adoption has become a driver. Green innovation increasingly concerns environmental technology and its management, whereas eco-innovation studies aspects related to efficiency and decision making. Clear distinctions among sustainable innovation types will increase the impact of this expanding body of research and make it more available to managers and policymakers.

Green innovation is garnering increasing attention in business, academic and policy circles as a route to sustainable growth and development. Governments have introduced a range of policies to encourage and enable firms to introduce and expand their offerings of environmental friendly goods and services. While environmental regulation has been shown to be an important driver of green innovation, little is known about whether other types of polices, such as financial incentives, technical and marketing supports, and assistance with identifying potential markets, are important to firms of all sizes at different stages of the green innovation process (i.e., at product/service launch vs. product/service expansion). Using data from the European Commission, the results show that policy support to identify markets or customers is deemed important by firms of all sizes to introduce green goods and services. However, this support is no longer perceived as important to expand firms’ green portfolio. This suggests firms capitalise by using their existing markets or customers. The results do not lend support to the view of small firms as the most resource constrained and hence needing the greatest policy supports. Overall, the results point to the need for a variety of policy supports targeted at (1) firms of different sizes and (2) by stage of the green innovation process.

Green innovation is an essential support to realise sustainable development, while environmental regulation is an influential factor affecting green innovation, and different types of environmental regulation will have differentiated impacts on corporate green innovation. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the relationship between environmental regulation and green innovation and to explore mechanisms based on the institutional theory. Chinese manufacturing enterprises were selected as the study sample and empirically analysed using a multilayer linear regression model. The results show that command-and-control, market-incentive and voluntary environmental regulations all significantly and positively affect firms’ green innovation, but voluntary environmental regulations are more effective; the level of digitalisation technology and the scope of digitalisation application are both conducive to firms’ green innovation and play a partially mediating role between environmental regulations and green innovation. Based on these findings, this paper discusses the implications of regulation and provides an outlook for future research directions.

The critical role of green creativity in small firms’ financial and environmental performance has attracted scholarly interest in recent times. Prior studies have reported inconsistent findings on this relationship, prompting the need for further investigations. This study investigates the effect of green creativity on performance through green innovation at different levels of green dynamic capability. This study collected data on 246 small firms in a developing nation, Ghana. Adopting structural equation modelling (SEM) in LISREL 8.8 to test our hypothesized relationships, this study reveals that green creativity significantly affects both financial and environmental performance. We further find that green innovation does not significantly mediate the relationship between green creativity and performance (environmental and financial). Additionally, this study reports that at high levels of green dynamic capability, the positive relationship between green creativity and environmental performance through green innovation is strengthened.

As consensus grows for low-carbon development, innovation becomes vital for green growth, given the substantial technology adoption needed for long-term environmental targets. This paper explores market-driven incentives for green product innovation in an asymmetric duopoly using a game theory approach without relying on direct government intervention. The roles that market dynamics and rivalry have on the supply of green or brown products are explored in simultaneous and sequential scenarios, considering technology costs, demand-creating effects, rivalry gains, and information availability. Results reveal that a fully green market is contingent on low innovation costs, depending especially on the magnitude of demand creation effects. Notably, product differentiation occurs only under extreme cost asymmetry. Recommendations underscore the importance of incentivising low-cost innovations, assessing the impact of product differentiation and diversity, especially concerning lower-income consumers, and proposing measures to improve the transparency of firms’ strategic choices.

The idea of a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) has aroused fervent discussion recently. It is proposed as an effective tool to address the competitiveness loss and carbon leakage induced by unilateral carbon policies. Yet on the brink of this policy being rolled out, its ethical justification seems insufficiently clarified. CBAM implementation would provoke a huge fairness controversy. This paper illustrates the main ethical challenges impeding CBAM’s fairness perception. Two stand out in particular: The first is the lack of a global consensus on appropriate climate equity principles. This means that there is no basis for determining the fairness of CBAM’s burden shifting impact. The second is that CBAM is likely to undermine the procedural justice of the current quantity-oriented responsibility distribution regime under the Paris Agreement. We conclude that CBAM is not well-suited for solving the free-rider problem of the current climate change mitigation policies and emphasize that incentivizing innovation is key for an ambitious mitigation strategy.

This article utilizes panel data from 31 Chinese provinces during the time span from 2011 to 2020 to evaluate the effect of digital finance on the real economy from the perspective of green innovation. Empirical models show that digital finance can accelerate growth in the real economy. Specifically, the influence of digital finance on the real economy is more pronounced in areas with high financial development. Further analysis shows that green innovation plays the role of the mechanism through which digital finance promotes real economic growth. This article’s findings demonstrate that the government can foster the profound incorporation of digital finance into the real economy.

Utilizing prefecture-level data from China covering the period from 2003 to 2019, this study examines the effect of the “Two Integrations” policy, which aims to promote the integration of informatization and industrialization in pilot cities, on green innovation. By employing a multi-period difference-in-differences approach, the findings indicate that this policy has a significantly positive impact on green innovation. This effect is primarily driven by enhanced economic agglomeration and improved productive services. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis reveals that the policy’s influence is more pronounced in cities characterized by low energy-dependency, robust information infrastructure, and an advanced industrial structure. These findings provide insights into the practical implications of this specific experimental zone policy in China.

Recent studies in literature on eco-innovation have adopted a systematic approach, rather than taking advantage of what the iMetrics method — different types of information studies such as bibliometrics, scientometrics, and informetrics — can contribute to the understanding of how knowledge increases and develops in a particular field. This chapter contributes to filling this gap by completing what other studies have already revealed. Our contribution adds information about the evolution in research on eco-innovation and the distinct nature of the knowledge generated by most important countries in the field. In this chapter, through the examination of scientific papers indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, an analysis of co-keywords was undertaken through the use of Social Network Analysis. These results indicated that: (a) eco-innovation was related to environment, management, and engineering; (b) evolution in the field moved toward a practitioner context, a factor which is shown in the changes of the most important keywords; and (c) mapping the science in this field is contextual, depicting the structural characteristics of different countries. These results may be of interest to researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. In particular, researchers can make interesting contacts and detect gaps for future research; practitioners can find institutions and researchers to work with; and policy makers can use the differences between knowledge patterns in the different countries for decision-making.

The synonymic use of sustainable innovation types obstructs the impact of increasingly disperse research on sustainable innovation, environmental innovation, eco-innovation, and green innovation. To identify the meaning and contributions of each innovation type over time, we apply co-word analysis as a bibliometric technique to 1,985 papers, analysing the evolution of motor, emergent and basic themes for each type. For environmental innovation, the focus has shifted from environmental regulations and policies to patents and inventions with an environmental impact, while in sustainable innovations the societal impact of technology adoption has become a driver. Green innovation increasingly concerns environmental technology and its management, whereas eco-innovation studies aspects related to efficiency and decision making. Clear distinctions among sustainable innovation types will increase the impact of this expanding body of research and make it more available to managers and policymakers.

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are a significant part of Vietnam’s national economy, contributing up to 40% of GDP. However, in today’s globalized world, competition in the marketplace is increasingly complex. Besides, the state is more concerned with environmental sustainability. Thus, Vietnamese enterprises, especially MSMEs or small-medium enterprises (SMEs) that want to stand up and develop, should pay attention to innovation by not only considering business opportunities but also the benefits of being environmentally friendly businesses. The goals of this study are to investigate the impact of green innovation (GI) on SME development (SMED) in turbulent market conditions with the mediation effect of green entrepreneurship (GE). Based on the research results, the study provides useful solutions to help SMEs develop and policymakers adjust their policies. The activating of SMEs’ activities in Ho Chi Minh City business corresponds to the demographic census of this study. A sample comprising 280 senior managers of SMEs is surveyed for the study. The questionnaire tool is used to measure the research variables. A 5-point Likert scale is used to measure the questionnaire. To test the hypotheses, the study uses the SEM method with the support of Amos software.

This paper selects the panel data of listed companies in China’s coal mining industry from 2015-2021 as the research sample and constructs a theoretical relationship model to empirically analyze the impact of corporate green innovation on financial performance based on the perspective of corporate policy sensitivity. The study shows that: the green innovation of coal enterprises has a significant contribution to financial performance and corporate policy sensitivity; corporate policy sensitivity has a positive relationship with financial performance and a significant moderating effect between green innovation and financial performance. Based on the above findings, relevant suggestions such as increasing the intensity of R&D investment, enhancing policy sensitivity, and increasing environmental protection investment are proposed.