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The road to green innovation in agriculture: the impact of green agriculture demonstration zone on corporate green innovation

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Abstract

Agricultural green transformation is crucial for addressing environmental issues like pollution and soil degradation. However, limited attention has been given to its determinants in the existing literature. This study extends the “Porter hypothesis” in agricultural economics and discusses the institutional factors influencing green transformation in Chinese agricultural enterprises from the perspective of environmental regulations. Using data from 2007 to 2020, we examine the impact of the green agriculture demonstration zone (GADZ) policy on green innovation in Chinese A-share listed agribusinesses. The results show that the policy significantly improves green innovation, leading to a 9.9% increase in patent applications. We also find that the GADZ promotes green innovation in agricultural businesses through two economic mechanisms, reducing financial risks and enhancing media attention. In addition, the policy’s effect is influenced by property rights, information disclosure quality, and financial resources. Our findings offer valuable insights for promoting green innovation and high-quality agricultural development in emerging economies.

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Data availability

The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Notes

  1. These data are derived from the Green Patent Research Database, which is developed by combining Chinese patent data with the green patent classification codes published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

  2. First, we defined GTI-invention as Ln (1 + number of green invention patent applications); second, the GTI-utility indicator is defined as Ln (1 + number of green utility model patent applications); third, the variable of GTI-dummy is defined as 1 when the company has a green patent, and 0 otherwise.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Heng Sun & Jiancheng Chen

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  1. Heng Sun
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Heng Sun, conceptualization, methodology, data curation, writing-original draft; Jiancheng Chen, data curation, validation, writing-review and editing.

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Sun, H., Chen, J. The road to green innovation in agriculture: the impact of green agriculture demonstration zone on corporate green innovation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 120340–120354 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-30707-1

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