Green innovation and firm performance: Evidence from listed companies in China

Abstract This paper focuses on how green patenting influences a firm’s subsequent performance. By investigating listed manufacturing firms in China for the 2000–2010 period, we find a positive and significant relationship between green patenting and firm performance. Moreover, our research reveals that green growth is mainly driven by green utility-model patents and that this positive relationship only exists among state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which are more capable of leveraging green innovation through their close relationship with the government. Furthermore, the positive relationship is found to exist primarily after 2006, when the government began to provide formal legislative support to green industry.

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