The impact of digital infrastructure on provincial green innovation efficiency-empirical evidence from China.

In the epoch of the digital economy, technological innovation and energy conservation are significantly facilitated by digital infrastructure, leading to substantial improvements in green innovation efficiency at the provincial level. This study employed the feasible generalized least square (FGLS) method to examine the effects of digital infrastructure on the green innovation efficiency across 30 provinces in the Chinese mainland, utilizing panel data from 2011 to 2020. Additionally, this investigation delves into the intervening role of industrial structure upgrading and the amplifying effects of environmental regulation and human capital on the process. Findings indicate that, to begin with, digital infrastructure contributes to the meaningful enhancement of green innovation efficiency within provinces. Subsequently, the industrial structure upgrading partially mediates the impact of digital infrastructure on the efficiency of provincial green innovation. Lastly, both human capital and environmental regulations amplify the beneficial influence of digital infrastructure on the effectiveness of green innovation at the provincial level. This study provides valuable insights into the mechanisms through which digital infrastructure boosts green innovation efficiency, aiding policymakers in formulating appropriate policies to augment digital infrastructure, thereby promoting provincial green innovation efficiency.

Self-interest or altruism: Entrepreneurs' military experience and the motivation of corporate philanthropic donations.

This study aims to explore the motivation of corporate philanthropic donations through investigating the impact of entrepreneurs' military experience. Based on the data from the 12th Chinese privately owned enterprises survey, this study finds that entrepreneurs' military experience has a positive impact on corporate philanthropic donations and the result keeps consistent after a series of robustness tests. Further, corporate financing constraints do not significantly influence the relationship between entrepreneurs' military experience and corporate philanthropic donations, while return on equity (ROE) strengthens the relationship. Therefore, entrepreneurs with military experience still donate even if their firms suffer from financial constraints. When firms achieve higher ROE, they will donate more. The findings suggest that the donations of firms with military entrepreneurs are more likely to be altruistic, enriching the understanding of the motivation of corporate philanthropic donations.

Environmental regulation, R&D investment, and green technology innovation in China: Based on the PVAR model.

The unreasonable economic development model of human beings has caused the environmental pollution problem to become increasingly serious. In order to achieve a positive relationship and interaction between environmental regulation, research and development (R&D) investment, and green technology innovation, and effectively solve the "strange circle" problem between high-quality economic development and environmental pollution in China and even the world, this paper takes the panel data of industrial enterprises above designated size in Chinese mainland 31 provinces from 2009 to 2019 as a research sample. The comprehensive index of R&D investment and green technology innovation was established by the entropy method, and the panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model was constructed from the dynamic endogenous perspective, and the dynamic interaction and regional heterogeneity between environmental regulation, R&D investment, and green technology innovation were empirically analyzed by using impulse response function and variance decomposition. We obtain the following findings: (1) Environmental regulation has a two-way interaction relationship with R&D investment and green technology innovation, and R&D investment has a promotion effect on the "green degree" of technological innovation, but its role is still weak and has lagging characteristics. (2) There is significant regional heterogeneity in the dynamic responses of the eastern, central and western parts of China. (3) In the long run, environmental regulation has a "negative crowding out effect" on R&D investment in the central region, and the phenomenon of "central collapse" still exists but will gradually weaken. Environmental regulation has a "positive innovation compensation effect" on green technology innovation. Green technology innovation and R&D investment have an obvious "Pareto improvement" effect on environmental regulation, especially in the eastern region. The conclusions of this study help to clarify the dynamic interaction between environmental regulation, R&D investment, and green technology innovation, further improve environmental regulatory policies and green technology innovation R&D decision-making, and provide an effective way to achieve green and sustainable development in China and other parts of the world.

Regional green innovation efficiency and dynamic evolution of Chinese industrial enterprises: a three-stage super-efficiency DEA method based on cooperative game.

The level of development of industrial enterprises is related to a country's or region's overall competitiveness. It is critical to assess the green innovation efficiency of regional industrial enterprises scientifically and effectively in order to improve a country's overall green innovation capability. The green innovation system is divided into three sub-stages in this paper: technology development, economic transformation, and environmental protection. Based on the theory of innovation value chain, a three-stage super-efficiency DEA model of the cooperative game including shared inputs and undesirable outputs is constructed to calculate the overall efficiency, three sub-stages efficiency, and dynamic evolution of green innovation of industrial enterprises in China's provincial administrative regions and eight economic zones from 2015 to 2019 (divided by the time of ultimate output). The results indicate that (1) in terms of overall efficiency, the efficiency of green innovation is not high, and there are clear regional differences, as evidenced by the following states: the middle reaches of the Yangtze River economic zone > the eastern coastal economic zone > the southern coastal economic zone > the northern coastal economic zone > the northeastern economic zone > the northwestern economic zone > the middle reaches of the Yellow River economic zone, and the overall efficiency of the southwestern economic zone fluctuates around the average level of China; (2) from the standpoint of various stages, economic transformation stage efficiency > overall efficiency > technology development stage efficiency > environmental protection stage efficiency. The improvement of overall efficiency is largely dependent on the high efficiency of the economic transformation stage, but low efficiency in the environmental protection stage results in overall low efficiency; (3) from the perspective of the dynamic evolution trend, the overall efficiency and three sub-stages have been improved to varying degrees. However, due to the low efficiency of the environmental protection stage, there is still a long way to go to achieve the goal of innovation-driven development; (4) based on the classification analysis, it was determined that the green innovation efficiency of industrial enterprises in only a few regions belongs to the "three high innovation type," which must take targeted measures to improve the inefficient innovation process links.

The impact of digital inclusive finance on provincial green development efficiency: empirical evidence from China.

Green development is inseparable from financial support. The impact of digital inclusive finance (DIF), an emerging financial format, on the green development efficiency (GDE) needs to be studied. Using the panel data of the Provincial Digital Financial Inclusion Index from 2011 to 2019, this paper examines the impact of DIF and its coverage breadth (CB), usage depth (UD), and digitalization level (DL) on GDE, and analyzes the regional heterogeneity of the impact of DIF on GDE. The research also explores the mechanism by which DIF affects the efficiency of provincial green development, including the moderating role of environmental regulation (ER) and the mediating role of industrial structure upgrade (ISU). The results show that DIF, UD, and DL can significantly improve provincial GDE, and the effect of coverage breadth is not obvious. From a regional perspective, DIF can promote GDE in the eastern and central regions, whereas it has no obvious effect on the western region. Moreover, ER has played a moderation role in the process of DIF affecting GDE. ISU has played a partial mediation role in the process of DIF affecting GDE. The research conclusions can provide relevant suggestions for the green development of China's provinces.