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Do the academician independent directors promote green innovation in enterprises?

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Abstract

Using the manually collated data on the employment of academicians as independent directors by Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2020, the role and impact mechanism of academician independent directors on enterprise green innovation were empirically analyzed. The research shows that the academician independent directors promote green innovation of enterprises by alleviating corporate financing constraints, increasing corporate R&D investment, and alleviating managerial myopia, and their role in promoting green invention patents is greater than that of green utility model patents. The academician independent directors will improve the green innovation level of enterprises in non-heavy polluting industries and enterprises in the eastern region, and the nature of property rights and the degree of marketization will strengthen their role in promoting green innovation.

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Funding

(1) This study is financially supported by the China National Social Science Funding Project “Research on the Mechanism of Data Capitalization to Mitigate the Financing Constraints of SRDI SMEs” (22BGL070). 

(2) The Taishan Scholar Project of Shandong Province of China. 

(3) 2021 Shandong Higher Education Youth Innovation Science and Technology Support Program “Research on Digital Credit of Small and Micro Sci-tech Enterprises under the Background of Digital Economy” (2021RW036).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School, University of Jinan, Shandong, 250002, People’s Republic of China

    Luxiu Zhang, Yingjie Zhang & Qianwen Zhang

  2. Financial Management Center, Zhongshan Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd, Guangzhou, China

    Ning Li

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  1. Luxiu Zhang
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  2. Yingjie Zhang
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  4. Qianwen Zhang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Luxiu Zhang, Yingjie Zhang, Ning LI, and Qianwen Zhang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Luxiu Zhang and Ning LI, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Luxiu Zhang.

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Zhang, L., Zhang, Y., Li, N. et al. Do the academician independent directors promote green innovation in enterprises?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 84061–84082 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28006-w

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