Author Identifier
Zhaoyong Zhang: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9596-2648
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Eurasian Business Review
Publisher
Springer
School
School of Business and Law
Funders
National Social Science Fund of China (23BGL057) / National Natural Science Foundation of China (72474060) / Heilongjiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Research Planning Project (22JYB230) / Research on the Key Research Topic of Economic and Social Development in Heilongjiang Province (23347)
Abstract
Environmental regulation can possibly enhance firm productivity through its competitiveness effects that can induce regulated firms to improve cost-cutting efficiency and to develop or adopt new technologies, known as the Porter Hypothesis, though there is still conflicting evidence reported. This paper examines the impacts of environmental regulation on firm productivity in China’s new energy industry by incorporating the mediating effect and boundary mechanism of green technological innovation and innovation openness within an innovation ecosystem. We find robust evidence that environmental regulation can enhance firms’total factor productivity (TFP) in the new energy industry with green technological innovation being the important mediator and innovation openness as the effective moderator. Our results also suggest that such positive impact of environmental regulation on productivity is region sensitive, with the eastern region being the most significant. These findings have important implications for China’s environmental regulations and policy, especially for its industrial strategy and policy on the development of new energy industry.
DOI
10.1007/s40821-025-00310-0
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Shan, Z., Han, X., & Zhang, Z. (2025). Environmental regulation and firm productivity: Evidence from China’s new energy industry. Eurasian Business Review. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40821-025-00310-0