“低碳”目标下的企业创新行为:实质还是策略?

Study on Firm Innovation Behavior under the“Low-carbon”Goals:Substantive Innovation or Strategic Innovation?

创新对于促进企业减污降碳、实现绿色发展转型的重要性日益凸显。区别于已有研究侧重分析低碳城市试点政策对绿色技术创新的影响,本文利用工业企业数据库和专利数据库的微观数据,探讨低碳城市试点政策对企业策略性创新行为的影响及其作用机制。实证结果显示,低碳城市试点显著促进企业创新,其影响源于诱发企业策略性创新行为,但无法激励企业实质性创新行为。在经过一系列识别检验、稳健性检验、不同的估计方法后,上述结论依然成立。异质性分析发现,低碳城市试点对非国有企业、污染行业企业的策略性创新的影响更为显著。基于传递效应模型的机制分析表明低碳城市试点政策扶持下,企业为寻求政府补贴而进行策略性创新。研究结论对于探索“双碳”引领、创新驱动的发展之路具有一定的参考价值。

The importance of innovation in promoting firm pollution reduction and carbon reduction,and achieving green development transformation is increasingly prominent.Unlike previous studies that focus on analyzing the impact of low-carbon city pilot policies on green technology innovation,this paper employs the difference-in-difference econometric model to empirically analyze the impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on firm innovation behavior and its mechanism by using the micro-data of industrial enterprise database and patent application database from 2006 to 2013.Regression results show that the implementation of low-carbon city pilot policy significantly improves firm strategic innovation but has no significant impact on substantial innovation.After a series of identification tests,robustness checks,and different estimation methods,the above conclusion still holds.Heterogeneity analyses show that the implementation of low-carbon city pilot policy has a more significant impact on the strategic innovation of non-SOEs and firms in polluting industries.The mechanism analyses based on the transmission effect model indicate that under the support of low-carbon city pilot policy,firms engage in strategic innovation to seek government subsidies.The research findings have certain reference value for exploring the development path led by"dual carbon"and driven by innovation.