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External driver of corporate green innovation: Does customer environmental concern matter?

Zhiqiang Jia (Business School, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China)
Weian Li (Business School, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China) (China Academy of Corporate Governance, Nankai University, Tianjin, China)
Jian Xu (Business School, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China)

International Journal of Emerging Markets

ISSN: 1746-8809

Article publication date: 31 January 2025

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of customers' environmental concern on corporate green innovation and its underlying mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

This study empirically examines the impact of customer environmental concern on corporate green innovation using 967 company-customer-year observations of Chinese A-share listed companies over the period 2012–2022.

Findings

The empirical results show that customer environmental concern significantly enhances corporate green innovation. Furthermore, executive environmental awareness and research and development (R&D) investment play a partial mediating role in this relationship. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that state-owned customers, customers located in the same province with the corporate and the intellectual property model cities contribute to strengthening this relationship. Moreover, corporate performance analysis shows that customer environmental concern can significantly increase corporate financial performance and sustainable performance.

Originality/value

This study innovatively proposes a measure of customer environmental concern and examines its impact on corporate green innovation and its underlying mechanisms. In addition, this study also proposes some insights for policymakers.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Funding: This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China “Research on the Theory and Practice of Modern Corporate Governance in State-Owned Enterprises Under the New Company Law” (Grant Number: 24&ZD084), National Natural Science Foundation of China “Research on Collaborative Mechanism of Emergency Social Governance” (Grant Number: 72174096) and National Natural Science Foundation of China “Governmental Environmental Behavior, Government-Corporation Nexus and Corporate Green Governance: From the Perspective of Decentralization between Central and Local Governments” (Grant Number: 71902133).

Citation

Jia, Z., Li, W. and Xu, J. (2025), "External driver of corporate green innovation: Does customer environmental concern matter?", International Journal of Emerging Markets, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOEM-06-2024-1057

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2025, Emerald Publishing Limited

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