Does Green Finance Contribute to Corporate Technological Innovation? The Moderating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility

Technological innovation fundamentally drives sustainable economic development, and green finance provides an institutional guarantee for technological innovation. In this study, we obtained the data from 31 provinces of China during 2010-2019 to set up a green finance indicator system following the entropy method. The focal points in this paper are investigating the relationship regarding green finance and corporate technological innovation, and whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) strengthens such relationship. To do so, we matched the data of non-financial listed companies. The results are as follows: (1) Green finance can significantly enhance corporate technological innovation, and CSR has a positive moderating effect on this relationship between green finance and corporate technological innovation. (2) Based on the results of heterogeneity analysis, the positive impacts regarding green finance over technological innovation are more significant in larger companies, and companies in more economically developed eastern regions. More notably, green finance played a more significant role before 2016 than after. This study offers insights to future references for analyzing the green finance over economic sustainable development characterized by technological innovation.

Automated summary

This study establishes a green finance indicator system using the entropy method and finds that green finance significantly enhances corporate technological innovation, with corporate social responsibility strengthening this relationship. Results indicate that the positive impact of green finance on technological innovation is more significant in larger companies and economically developed eastern regions.