Liping Hu - 2nd year PhD presentation

Supervisors: Anders Ryom Villadsen & Jakob Arnoldi
Discussants: Ann-Kristina Løkke Møller & Claus Holm

Abstract
While scholars have explored many factors that affect corporate environmental strategy and performance (Bansal & Roth, 2000; Delmas & Toffel, 2004; Horbach, 2008), why some firms engage more and perform better than others in environmental activities remains one of the most challenging questions.

Among the portfolio of corporate environmental strategy and performance, green technology innovation draws special attention because of its potential win-win effect on financial and environmental performance in the long term (Ghisetti & Quatraro, 2017; Klassen & Whybark, 1999; López Pérez et al., 2024). However, as green innovation is often considered a more substantive response to environmental problems than other practices (Cainelli et al., 2015; Rennings, 2000), the factors driving green innovation decisions are more complex. Scholars emphasized the heterogeneous environmental performance led by different types of ownership (Pan et al., 2020; Qu & Pan, 2023). We argue that in the comparison of firms' green technology innovation performance, the heterogeneity of firms’ ownership goes beyond “state-owned firms versus privately owned firms”, and there is a need to explore the effect of dynamics and heterogeneity within state ownership on corporate green innovation (H. Li et al., 2025; K. Wang & Jiang, 2021).

This working paper investigates the relationship between state ownership and corporate green innovation among China’s listed manufacturing firms from 2012 to 2024. Using panel data, we focus on firms with varying degrees of state ownership, analyzing how state-owned shares influence their green technology innovation performance, as measured by green patent applications. The study aims to uncover the heterogeneity in green innovation outcomes among firms with partial or full state ownership, and to explore the mechanisms through which state ownership may shape environmental innovation behavior. Although the analysis is ongoing and empirical results are forthcoming, the research contributes to the broader understanding of how ownership structures intersect with sustainability-driven innovation in a key emerging economy.

Everyone is welcome!