Visible hand: Do government subsidies promote green innovation performance – moderating effect of ownership concentration

Abstract

Enterprise green innovation is an important way to promote sustainable development of the environment. This paper focuses on the impact of government subsidies on enterprise green innovation, as well as the moderating role of ownership concentration on the relationship. Using China’s data on high-tech enterprises listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2011 to 2016, the hypotheses are tested. The results suggest that: government subsidies effectively improve the enterprises green innovation performance; ownership concentration displays a positively U-shaped effect in relation to green innovation; equity concentration has an inverted U-shaped moderating effect on the relationship between government subsidies and green innovation performance. Moreover, the baseline conclusions applied to SOEs do not apply to non-SOEs. Thus, an integrated framework of public supported resources and internal governance is built to improve the efficiency of government subsidies to develop green new technologies and ultimately promote the sustainability of the environment.