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| Does the New Government-business Relationship Promote the Quantity and Quality of Green Innovation?Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms |
| Shi Huaiwang1,Yang Peng2,Xiao Renqiao3,Yang Wei4 |
| (1.School of Accounting, Anhui University of Finance & Economics, Bengbu 233030,China;2.School of Information, Central University of Finance & Economics, Beijing 102206,China;3. School of Business Administration, Anhui University of Finance & Economics, Bengbu 233030,China;4. School of Management Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Finance & Economics, Bengbu 233030,China) |
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Abstract In the past few decades, global environmental pollution continues to worsen and climate-related natural disasters occur frequently, compelling governments around the world to shift their focus from traditional productivity-driven innovations to sustainable growth-oriented green innovations. As the main body of innovation, enterprises are an important force leading green innovation. Enterprises rarely carry out spontaneous green innovation, and prefer to carry out green innovation under the guidance of the government. The institutional theory holds that institutional changes affect the strategic choices of enterprises. As a strategic choice of enterprises, green innovation is inevitably affected by the relationship between government and business. In 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping first proposed a new type of relationship, with the features of being 'close' and 'unsullied'. Being 'close' requires government officials to act, take responsibility, and take the initiative tosolve the difficulties encountered by enterprises in the development process; being 'unsullied' requires the government to adhere to impartiality in law enforcement when dealing with enterprises, and prevent corruption. The new government-business relationship can not only urge the government to be proactive, but also facilitate the healthy development of enterprises under the guidance of the government.#br#Existing studies have explored the impact of the new government-business relationship on firms competitive advantage, performance robustness, investment efficiency and general innovation strategies. However, there is still a lack of systematic theoretical explanation and empirical evidence for the relationship between the new government-business relationship and green innovation of enterprises.Thus this study uses the green patent data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2017 to 2019 to empirically test the impact of the new government-business relationship on the green innovation of enterprises.#br#The findings of this study are as follows. First, the new government-business relationship not only promotes the quantity of the green innovation of enterprises, but also significantly improves the quality. From the economic point of view, every one per cent increase in the new government-business relationship can increase the number of green patents and green invention patents of local enterprises by 0.61 and 0.41 on average, respectively. Moreover, this promoting effect is more obvious in the sample of private enterprises. Second, the mechanism test shows that the new government-business relationship promotes green innovation by helping enterprises obtain government innovation subsidies and reducing the uncertainty faced by enterprises in innovation activities. Third, further research shows that the new government-business relationship can help the government realize the original policy intention of promoting the green innovation of enterprises by using environmental regulation.#br#The following policy recommendations are put forward. On the premise that the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation, the government must clearly define the scope of its power and governance boundaries and be both 'close' and 'unsullied' in its dealings with enterprises, which is conducive to promoting the construction of a new type of government-business relationship. At the same time, the government should actively encourage officials to contact and visit local enterprises on a regular basis to truly understand the difficulties and needs of enterprises in the process of green innovation. This will not only help the government provide more targeted government resources for enterprises, but also improve the motivation of enterprises to take the initiative to carry out green innovation.#br#This research contributes to the literature in three ways. First,the research findings of this paper broaden the application boundary of institutional theory. Most of the existing literature have found that the government-business relationship has a negative effect on corporate innovation from the perspective of political association. This empirical analysis provides empirical evidence for the government to promote green innovation through the construction of the new government-business relationship. Second, this paper reveals the mechanism of the new government-business relationship affecting enterprise green innovation, expands the research on the new government-business relationship, and provides a theoretical explanation for the government-driven corporate green innovation. Third, no unified conclusion has been reached on the impact of existing environmental regulation policies on green innovation of enterprises. This paper finds that the new government-business relationship can help the government achieve its original policy intention of promoting green innovation through environmental regulation, thus providing new empirical evidence for the Porter hypothesis.#br#
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Received: 13 May 2022
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