Can entrepreneurship in the new era promote green innovation efficiency? evidence from manufacturing enterprises in China

ABSTRACT

Based on panel data of 398 listed manufacturing companies in China's Shenzhen – Shanghai A-shares from 2012 to 2022, this study uses the double fixed effect model to explore the direct impact and heterogeneity of entrepreneurship in the new era on the green innovation efficiency of manufacturing enterprises and utilises the intermediary effect model to investigate the indirect mechanism of entrepreneurship in the new era on the green innovation efficiency of manufacturing enterprises. Research has shown that entrepreneurship in the new era can significantly improve the efficiency of green innovation in manufacturing enterprises, especially for state-owned, technology-intensive, labour-intensive, and non-heavy polluters. The mechanism test results show that entrepreneurship in the new era increases enterprise performance, promotes the driving effect of digital transformation on manufacturing enterprises’ green innovation efficiency, and is an important channel for improving this efficiency. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the driving effect of entrepreneurship in China's new era, provides a reference for the innovation practice of promoting green transformation in the manufacturing industry, and provides important theoretical and empirical evidence for expanding the research frontier of green innovation efficiency.

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneurship
• green innovation efficiency
• impact mechanism
• heterogeneity analysis
• manufacturing enterprises

Acknowledgement

All authors thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which improved the quality of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data presented in this study are available on request from the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledges the financial support of National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant Number 72304141], National Social Science Fund of China [Grant Number 23FJLB008], Jiangsu Social Science Fund [Grant Number 23EYB002], Major Program of National Social Science Fund of China, [Grant Number 23&ZD103].

Notes on contributors

Mei Ling Wang

Mei Ling Wang is an associate professor and the director of the Department of Applied Economics at the College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Forestry University, China. Her research primarily focuses on environmental economics, industrial economics and innovation management. She has published over 20 high–level articles and leads two national projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Social Science Fund of China.

Yi Xue

Yi Xue is a master of accounting student at the College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Forestry University, China. Her research focuses on entrepreneurship, corporate innovation performance and corporate green transformation. She won the third prize at the 2022 Jiangsu Province Graduate Management Forum on Carbon Neutrality and Carbon Peaking.

Zichen Liu

Zichen Liu is a master of applied economics student at the College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Forestry University, China. Her research interests focus on industrial economics and innovation management. She leads the Jiangsu Graduate Research Innovation Practice Project (KYCX24_1319) and has published 1 high–level article.

Yu Si Wang

Yu Si Wang's research areas are industrial economics and innovation management with a special interest in market performance, such as resource allocation efficiency, level of technological progress and product innovation capability under different market structures.

Yu Han Chen

Yu Han Chen's research areas are industrial economics, innovation management and technological innovation, focusing on innovation performance and green innovation efficiency. She is proficient in using a variety of mathematical and econometric research tools.