国际化扩张促进跨国企业绿色创新了吗——环境规制与行业规范的调节作用

Does Internationalization Expansion Promote Green Innovation of Multinational Enterprises?The Moderating Effect of Environmental Regulations and Industry Normalization

国际化扩张对企业创新转型具有重要影响,聚焦跨国企业绿色创新,基于组织学习理论与制度理论,考察国际化扩张对跨国企业绿色创新的影响机制。结果发现,国际化扩张能够为跨国企业带来创新红利,有效促进跨国企业绿色创新;环境规制强化两者间的正向关系,行业规范则在两者间起替代作用。进一步研究表明,重污染行业企业和国有跨国企业绿色创新效果更加显著,绿色环保政策对跨国企业绿色创新具有激励作用,能够引导跨国企业开展绿色创新活动。

Since the green innovation has become the top priority of sustainable development of enterprises in China,the coordinated development of economy and environment has become a new proposition for the development of enterprises.However,limited by domestic technology level and green knowledge,enterprises are confronted with various obstacles in the process of green transformation.In the process of international expansion,those multinational enterprises will inevitably continue to be exposed to advanced and innovative knowledge from abroad,especially green technology and knowledge.However,most of the existing studies mainly analyze the impact of foreign investment on the green innovation of domestic enterprises,and few scholars pay attention to the impact of international expansion on the green innovation.In fact,there are big differences in the impacts of the"bringing in"strategy and the"going out"strategy on enterprises.In particular,internationalization activities have always been regarded as a key path for multinational enterprises to improve their domestic innovation level by introducing cutting-edge technologies and scarce resources from overseas.Therefore,the study of the impact mechanism of international expansion on green innovation has great significance for Chinese multinational enterprises to realize green transformation and sustainable development.In addition,economic behaviors of enterprises are restricted by local institutions,therefore the role of local institutional environment cannot be ignored,and particularly the current institutional environment in China shows complexity and diversity.Wherefore,from the perspective of organizational learning theory,this paper focuses on the influence mechanism of international expansion on green innovation of multinational enterprises.Moreover,it introduces two dimensions of the institutional environment,environmental regulation and industry normalization respectively,and deeply analyzes the moderating role of the two institutions between the relationship of international expansion and green innovation.This study has crucial practical significance for multinational enterprises to make full use of the green innovation dividend brought by international expansion,grasp the favorable domestic policy environment,and build a green innovation organism.This paper selects A-share listed multinational enterprises from 2010 to 2020 as the research sample which includes 2482 observations.Given the validity of the study sample,the candidate sample is treated as follows:removing companies that have been public for less than two years;excluding financial and insurance industries whose assets,capital structure and operating characteristics;eliminating ST companies with poor financial status or other abnormal conditions;finally,eliminating incompletely exact data from a database or search engine sample information of enterprise.The hypothesis is verified by defining variables and constructing the multiple liner regression model,where green innovation is measured by a textual content approach.Further,the mediation effect test model is used to test the mediation path of environmental awareness and environmental practice of multinational enterprises.The results show that international expansion has a significant positive impact on green innovation,and it can bring green innovation dividend for multinational enterprises.Environmental regulation strengthens the positive relationship between international expansion and green innovation,which reflects the compulsion of environmental regulation and the action power of multinational enterprises to actively respond to relevant environmental policies.While industry normalization plays a substitution role in the relationship between international expansion and green innovation,revealing the dual effects of industry normalization;industry normalization not only regulates but also provides services for green innovation of multinational enterprises,thus enhancing the green innovation ability.Combined with organizational learning theory,institutional theory and green innovation research results,this study provides theoretical support and certain guiding significance for promoting green innovation and realizing sustainable development of Chinese multinational enterprises.The empirical results of the study confirm the impact of international expansion on green innovation.Thence,multinational enterprises should develop effective international learning models and actively cultivate and transform the advantages brought by international expansion.In the process of international expansion,enterprises should actively establish a green image,broaden the acquisition channels of green knowledge and innovation resources,and truly play the value-added role of green innovation in the process of international expansion.Finally,local governments and relevant departments should accelerate the building of a diversified policy pattern and operating mechanism for green innovation,create matching support for green innovation of enterprises according to local development characteristics and growth stages,and promote long-term green development.