The Impact of Enterprise Technological Innovation on Environmental Performance—An Industry Perspective

With the ongoing advancements in the modern industrial economy, the global ecological environment is encountering a multitude of challenges, prompting the increasing dissemination and global acknowledgment of the concept of sustainable development. Governments have formulated green development strategies aimed at incentivizing enterprises to enhance their environmental performance and mitigate environmental risks. This study utilizes a research sample comprising 3313 firm-level environmental performance scores and primary business data for 276 Chinese enterprises from 2007 to 2017. Based on the empirical evidence from the fixed-effects model, it is evident that technological innovation overall enhances the environmental performance and reduces the environmental risks of Chinese enterprises. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that internal innovation within Chinese enterprises exhibits heterogeneous impacts on environmental performance. The study shows that, compared to enterprises in the primary and tertiary industries, technological innovation in the enterprises of China’s secondary industry has a greater impact on enhancing environmental performance. Furthermore, within the secondary industry, the positive impact of technological innovation on environmental performance is more pronounced for the traditional sectors. Based on these findings, government authorities should actively encourage technological innovation among enterprises and formulate differentiated environmental policies tailored to different enterprises and industries. This research holds significant implications for the implementation of green strategies, enhancement of enterprise competitiveness, achievement of long-term sustainability, and improvement of global ecological environmental quality.