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Green mergers and acquisitions and green innovation: an empirical study on heavily polluting enterprises

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Abstract

The concept of green development has gradually penetrated into the enterprise. Green mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have gradually become a means for heavily polluting enterprises to achieve the goal of energy conservation and emission reduction and embark on the path of green transformation. Heavily polluting enterprises have acquired clean technology and resources through green M&A, and whether they will promote their green innovations after green M&A has not yet been explored. Based on the data of M&As of China’s heavy polluting enterprises from 2010 to 2018, this study empirically tests whether the M&As of heavy polluting enterprises can promote green innovation. The results show that M&As by heavily polluting enterprises can promote green innovation, and this impact is promoted with the support of government subsidies. In addition, older or higher paid CEOs negatively moderate this effect. Therefore, our study believes that most of the M&As of heavy polluting enterprises are taking the initiative to take environmental protection responsibilities and embarking on the path of green transformation. The government can issue relevant policies to encourage heavily polluting enterprises to conduct green M&A in order to achieve their goal of green transformation. Our study has enriched the relevant literature on green investment and green innovation, and can be used as a reference for the government to introduce policies for the green transformation of heavily polluting enterprises.

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Data Availability

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71902128). The authors thank the editors and referees for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China

    Xuedong Liang, Sipan Li, Peng Luo & Ziyang Li

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  1. Xuedong Liang
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  2. Sipan Li
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  3. Peng Luo
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  4. Ziyang Li
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Contributions

This paper was written and was carried out by Sipan Li in collaboration with all co-authors. Data was collected by Ziyang Li and Sipan Li. The first and final drafts were written by Sipan Li. The defects of draft were critiqued by Xuedong Liang and Peng Luo. The results were analyzed by Ziyang Li and Peng Luo. The research and key elements of models were reviewed by Ziyang Li and Peng Luo. The revised part of the article was all completed by Peng Luo and Xuedong Liang.

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Correspondence to Ziyang Li.

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Liang, X., Li, S., Luo, P. et al. Green mergers and acquisitions and green innovation: an empirical study on heavily polluting enterprises. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 48937–48952 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19270-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19270-3

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