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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Sustain.
Sec. Sustainable Organizations
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsus.2025.1573214
How does the sustainability transformation affect green innovation in enterprises? Evidence from China
Provisionally accepted- Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
This paper delves into the impact of sustainable development transformation policies on corporate green innovation, especially in resource -based cities. With the global increase in greenhouse gas emissions and the consequent worsening of climate change, sustainable development has become a global focus. The Chinese government's National Sustainable Development Plan for Resourcebased Cities (2013 -2020) aimed to guide these cities towards a more sustainable path. Using enterprise micro -data from 2008 to 2022 and the Difference -in -difference (DID) model, the research finds that sustainable transformation policies significantly promote corporate green innovation, as evidenced by the increase in green patents. This conclusion withstands parallel trends test, placebo test, and endogenous propensity score allocation method. The mechanism tests show that the policies boost green innovation through two channels: increasing the number and amount of environmental pollution penalty incidents, and promoting the total output of enterprises. Moreover, the promotion effect is more significant for mining enterprises and non -small and medium -sized enterprises (SMEs). The study not only enriches the understanding of the factors driving corporate green innovation but also provides valuable insights for policymakers, researchers, and enterprises in promoting sustainable development in resource -based cities. Chinese government took the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource -based Cities (2013 -2020) to enhance the sustainability of resource -based cities. This plan clearly defines the specific goals and development mechanisms for the transformation of these cities. These cities regard energy -intensive industries as the backbone of their economies and the plan aims to guide them towards a more sustainable development path.Businesses are facing mounting pressure to address environmental issues in the business sector. This pressure stems from stakeholders' and customers' increased knowledge of environmental issues as well as
Keywords: Sustainable development transformation policies, Corporate green innovation, Resource -based cities, Difference -in -difference model, Policy mechanism
Received: 13 Feb 2025; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Shuo Wang, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
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