环境规制下企业绿色技术创新行为研究：实质性抑或策略性？

周云波¹　段懿恒¹　黄杏子²

（1.南开大学；2.中共江苏省委党校）

内容提要：本文采用2011—2022年沪深A股上市公司数据，结合企业绿色专利研究数据库的绿色专利申请数量，将新修订的《中华人民共和国环境保护法》作为环境规制的典型代表，构建双重差分模型，检验该法对企业绿色技术创新的影响。研究结果显示，新环境保护法的实施提高了企业的总体绿色技术创新水平，这一效果主要通过促进策略性绿色技术创新实现，而实质性绿色技术创新则受到抑制。通过稳健性检验，研究结论得到了验证。作用机制分析结果显示，新环境保护法通过加大环保处罚力度、严格环境信息披露要求和提高管理者环境关注度三个机制促进了企业总体绿色技术创新。交互效应分析结果显示，融资约束增强了新环境保护法对实质性绿色技术创新的抑制作用，而财务风险则增强了该法对策略性绿色技术创新的促进作用。异质性分析结果表明，新环境保护法对高治理水平企业和大型企业的策略性绿色技术创新的促进作用较强，对实质性绿色技术创新的负面影响较弱。本文的研究为中国推进生态文明建设和实现“双碳”目标提供了企业绿色创新的实践参考。

关键词：新环境保护法；绿色技术创新；环保处罚约束；环境信息披露；环境关注度

作者简介：周云波，南开大学经济学院教授，天津，300071；段懿恒，南开大学经济学院博士研究生，通信作者；黄杏子，中共江苏省委党校经济学教研部讲师，南京，210009。

基金项目：教育部哲学社会科学实验室专项资金项目“环境规制与企业绿色创新行为研究：影响效应、微观机制与政策选择”（H0123704）

引用格式：周云波,段懿恒,黄杏子.环境规制下企业绿色技术创新行为研究:实质性抑或策略性?[J].经济与管理研究,2025,46(1):124-144.

Corporate Green Technology Innovation Under Environmental Regulation: Substantive or Strategic?

ZHOU Yunbo¹, DUAN Yiheng¹, HUANG Xingzi²

(1. Nankai University, Tianjin 300071;

2. Party School of C.P.C. Jiangsu Committee, Nanjing 210009)

Abstract: The new environmental protection law (EPL), officially implemented on January 1, 2015, aims to strengthen environmental protection efforts, enhance regulatory oversight, and enforce accountability, reflecting the government’s commitment to promoting ecological civilization in response to increasingly severe environmental challenges. This paper treats the EPL as a quasi-natural experiment in environmental regulation, investigates whether the EPL fosters corporate green technology innovation, and examines its impact on both substantive and strategic green technology innovation. Using data from A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2011 to 2022, this paper adopts a difference-in-differences (DID) model to explore the effect and underlying mechanisms.

The findings are as follows. First, the implementation of the EPL can elevate the overall level of corporate green technology innovation, primarily by promoting strategic green technology innovation. This conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests. Second, the EPL promotes overall corporate green technology innovation through three mechanisms: increasing environmental penalties for companies, mandating strict environmental information disclosure, and enhancing the environmental awareness of corporate managers. Third, financial constraints enhance the inhibitory effect of the EPL on substantive green technology innovation, whereas financial risks strengthen the promoting effect of the EPL on strategic green technology innovation. Fourth, the EPL has a more substantial promoting effect on strategic green technology innovation in enterprises with higher governance levels and larger enterprises. These findings provide relevant references for corporate green innovation in supporting China’s ecological civilization construction and achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.

This paper makes marginal contributions as follows. First, by focusing on whether the EPL exerts heterogeneous effects on both substantive and strategic green technology innovation of enterprises, this paper presents an innovative research perspective, which facilitates a more accurate assessment of corporate investments and outcomes in the field of green technology. Second, the innovative theoretical framework offers a comprehensive perspective that integrates legal provisions, corporate behavior, and market responses, which helps to systematically analyze the mechanisms through which the EPL influences corporate green technology innovation. The findings can aid companies in effectively addressing challenges in their operations and flexibly adjusting their green technology innovation strategies to achieve sustainable long-term development. Third, this paper provides a robust analysis of the long-term effects of the EPL and addresses the issue of short sample time spans in existing research. Fourth, this paper investigates the heterogeneous impacts of the EPL on different types of enterprises, providing a basis for formulating more targeted environmental policies.

Keywords: new environmental protection law; green technology innovation; environmental penalty; environmental information disclosure; environmental awareness

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