Does environmental innovation have peer effects? The moderating role of slack resources and avoidance goal orientation.

Exploring the interactive patterns of environmental innovation behavior among firms is of great significance for improving the level of environmental innovation in the whole industry and achieving sustainable development. Based on social interaction theory, this study examines the peer effect of a firm's environmental innovation and the moderating effects of slack resources and avoidance goal orientation. A total of 1210 listed companies in China's manufacturing industry from 2015 to 2020 comprised the research sample, and the researchers used multiple regression analysis to analyze the data. The results indicate a peer effect of environmental innovation among firms; that is, firms' environmental innovation will positively impact the environmental innovation of other firms in the industry. Slack resources positively moderate the peer effect of environmental innovation among firms, and firms' avoidance goal orientation weakens that moderating effect. This study reveals the internal mechanism of the peer effect of environmental innovation and provides new management implications for managers' environmental-innovation decision-making.

Does the patent value of green technology affect its transfer? The moderating role of industry competition.

Green technology transfer can improve the economic benefits accrued by firms and promote regional green development. Patent value can comprehensively reflect the development prospects of green patents and is an important indicator for predicting green technology transfer. In order to explore the impact of patent value on green technology transfer, this study used a sample of 16,169 green technology patents from Chinese manufacturing industry, which were analyzed using the binary logistic regression model. The results suggest that the technical and economic value of green technology patent positively impact green technology transfer, while the effect of legal value is opposite. Industry competition strengthens the negative impact of the legal value of green technology patents on green technology transfer and weakens the positive impact of green technology patent's economic value. This study explores the factors impacting firms' green technology transfer from a value perspective and proposes suggestions for the transformation of green technology in firms.

Do female officials promote local eco-innovation? The moderating role of public pressure.

Based on upper echelons theory, feminist caring theory, and social role theory, we analyzed the intrinsic relationship between female officials and local eco-innovation and the moderating role of public pressure. A panel data set of 281 cities in China from 2003 to 2017 was selected as the research sample. The results showed that female municipal secretaries had a positive effect on incremental eco-innovation; female mayors had a positive effect on both radical and incremental eco-innovation; and the impact of female officials on eco-innovation varied across regions. Based on these findings, we propose that local governments should strengthen the evaluation system for officials, increase the participation rate of female officials in politics, and broaden the path of environmental monitoring for the general public.

Would consumers pay for environmental innovation? The moderating role of corporate environmental violations.

To examine whether firms' environmental innovation can improve consumers' purchasing tendencies, we constructed a mediation model with moderation based on attribution theory. We used the altruistic attribution of firms' environmental innovation as the intermediation role and corporate environmental violations as the moderator, and we experimentally verified the model. The empirical results suggest that firms' environmental innovation positively affects consumers' purchase intention and that the positive effect of eco-product innovation is greater than that of eco-process innovation. Consumers' altruistic attribution of firms' environmental innovation behavior is decreased when an enterprise has environmental violations, which in turn weakens consumers' purchase intention.