Agglomeration of the new energy industry and green innovation efficiency: Does the spatial mismatch of R&D resources matter?

Based on China's provincial panel data from 2011 to 2019, this paper examines the complex impact of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation efficiency from the perspective of spatial mismatch of research and development (R&D) resources. The super slack-based measured directional distance function (super-SBM-DDF) is applied to measure the green innovation efficiency, while the least square dummy variable model (LSDV) is implemented to evaluate the mismatch of R&D resources in the new energy industry. Based on the generalized method of moment (GMM), the moderating effect model, and the dynamic threshold model are employed to investigate the threshold effect of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation effi-ciency and the moderating effect of spatial mismatch of R&D resources. We come to the following findings. First, the agglomeration of China's new energy industry exhibits a west-east-central gradient distribution. In the meantime, there is a widespread insufficient mismatch of R&D resources in the majority of regions. Second, the agglomeration of the new energy industry can significantly boost the efficiency of green innovation. Moderate agglomeration can have a marginally enhancing effect, whereas excessive agglomeration will obscure the green innovation effect of new energy industry agglomeration. Third, the relationship between the new energy industry agglomeration and green innovation efficiency is negatively moderated by the mismatch of R&D resources, while the moderating effect is amplified by the mismatch of innovation financial resources. Fourth, there are two inflection points in the positive impact of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation efficiency when the innovation resource mismatch is assigned as the threshold variable.

Automated summary

This paper analyzes the impact of new energy industry agglomeration on green innovation efficiency in China from 2011 to 2019, focusing on the spatial mismatch of research and development (R&D) resources. The study finds that new energy industry agglomeration can significantly enhance green innovation efficiency, with moderate agglomeration having a positive effect and excessive agglomeration obscuring the green innovation effect. The relationship between agglomeration and green innovation efficiency is negatively moderated by R&D resource mismatch and amplified by innovation financial resource mismatch. Moreover, the positive impact of agglomeration on green innovation efficiency has two inflection points when innovation resource mismatch is considered as the threshold variable.