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Can China’s national Five-Year Plan for environmental protection induce corporate green innovations?

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Abstract

This study investigates the effect of China’s national Five-Year Plan for environmental protection (FYPEP) on corporate green innovations based on the two-way fixed effect model and panel data about the green patents of China’s publicly listed corporations during 1990–2020. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of these green innovations is further discussed with reference to the types of innovation, enterprise ownership, and the location of the corporations. It is found that FYPEP significantly induced corporation green innovations at regional and industrial levels. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the inductive effect of FYPEP is stronger on green utility model patents than on green invention patents. State-owned enterprises react to green innovation policies more significantly than do private businesses. The inductive effect of FYPEP is stronger in Eastern China than in mid- and Western China. From the perspective of government intervention, this research renders a new framework for the formulation of policies of national environmental protection and corporate green innovation.

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Data availability

Original data of this manuscript comes from China National Intellectual Property Administration and CSMAR data center.

Notes

  1. Data source: Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, the website is https://www.mee.gov.cn.

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Funding

This work was supported by Key Project of National Social Science Foundation of China (19AJY001), Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China (20XJC790007), Soft Science Research Program Funded by Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Department (2020KRM051), Social Science Fund Project of Shaanxi Province (2021D065), Scientific Research Program Funded by Shaanxi Provincial Education Department (19JK0701), and Research Fund of Xi’an International Studies University (19XWD14).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Finance, Xi’an Jiaotong University, No.74, Yanta West Road, Xi’an 710061, China

    Huixin Lu

  2. Institute of Area Studies, Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an 710128, China

    Shi Wang

  3. “One Belt One Road” Economic and Trade Cooperation Innovation Team, Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an 710128, China

    Shi Wang

  4. School of Economics and Finance, Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an 710128, China

    Shi Wang

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  1. Huixin Lu
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  2. Shi Wang
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Huixin Lu and Shi Wang; Methodology: Huixin Lu; Software: Huixin Lu; Validation: Shi Wang; Formal analysis: Huixin Lu and Shi Wang; Data curation: Huixin Lu; Writing—original draft preparation: Huixin Lu; Writing—review and editing: Shi Wang; Supervision: Shi Wang; Funding acquisition: Huixin Lu and Shi Wang. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shi Wang.

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Lu, H., Wang, S. Can China’s national Five-Year Plan for environmental protection induce corporate green innovations?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 34437–34451 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18662-9

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