“能耗双控”目标下高耗能企业创新策略选择——自主研发抑或技术引进

Innovation Strategy Selection of High Energy-consuming Enterprises Under the“Dual Control”Policy—Independent R&D or Technology Introduction

本文选取2010—2021年中国A股上市公司为样本,研究落实“能耗双控”目标对高耗能企业创新策略的影响及其后果。研究结果显示,为应对“能耗双控”目标下的环境规制要求,高耗能企业仍然主要采用技术引进的方式实现技术创新。整体上,高耗能企业会缩减自主研发投资,并加大技术引进力度,且后者是前者的格兰杰原因,技术引进对自主研发存在挤出效应。同时,坚持自主研发的企业,其经济和环境效益均显著优于依赖技术引进的企业。这说明自主研发可以在经济发展与环境保护间取得更好的平衡。进一步的研究结果显示,相较于非国有企业,国有企业受双控政策的影响程度更小;相较于经济欠发达地区,位于经济较发达地区的高耗能企业会较小程度地减少自主研发投入,技术引进投入的增加程度较大。

Promoting energy conservation and emission reduction in enterprises is an essential choice to alleviate the contradiction between industrial development and environmental protection.This paper investigates the impact of the“dual control”policy—controlling energy consumption and energy intensity—on the innovation strategies of high energy-consuming enterprises in China,using a sample of A-share listed enterprises from 2010 to 2021.The main findings are as follows.First,for high energy-consuming enterprises,implementing the“dual control”policy significantly inhibits their independent research and development(R&D)investment and facilitates technology introduction.The empirical results remain valid after parallel trend tests and placebo tests.Second,the increase in technology introduction is the Granger cause for the decrease in independent R&D investment,indicating a crowding-out effect of technology introduction investment on independent R&D investment.Moreover,technology introduction reduces the motivation for independent R&D in high energy-consuming enterprises.Third,under the“dual control”policy,selecting innovation strategies for high energy-consuming enterprises has a significant impact on economic and environmental benefits.Enterprises prioritizing independent R&D witness a significant improvement in their economic and environmental benefits,indicating their ability to achieve a better equilibrium between economic growth and environmental protection.Further research shows that both state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises decrease their independent R&D,which exerts varied influences on enterprises.Compared to non-state-owned enterprises,state-owned enterprises have better access to innovation resources and are subject to stronger government regulation.Therefore,due to the“dual control”policy,state-owned enterprises will not significantly increase technology introduction or reduce investment in independent R&D,making them less affected by relevant policies.However,policy impact will be more severe for state-owned enterprises with large fixed asset sizes.In addition,this paper examines the impact of the difficulty in achieving policy goals in different regions on the selection of innovation strategies for enterprises.Specifically,due to resource constraints and the independent innovation ability,the“dual control”policy significantly reduces the independent R&D of enterprises in economically underdeveloped regions.Meanwhile,there is no significant change in technology introduction investment.However,high energy-consuming enterprises in economically developed regions slightly reduce their independent R&D investment but significantly increase technology introduction investment.