Research On The Impact Of Environmental Labeling Certification On Firm Green Innovation And Performance

Economic development has entered a new normal.China’s environmental problems are still serious,and it is urgent to promote highquality economic development.Since the transformation of development mode,optimization of economic structure and transformation of development power are inseparable from the role of firms,high-quality economic development ultimately needs to be achieved through highquality development of firms.On the one hand,promoting high-quality development of firms requires firms to achieve green innovation transformation;on the other hand,promoting high-quality development of firms requires firms to pursue a win-win situation in environmental performance and financial performance in production and operation.Therefore,in this study,firm performance is divided into environmental and financial performance.Under the new normal,firms’ realization of green innovation transformation and the win-win situation between environmental and financial performance are the internal requirements for high-quality development of firms,and also an important symbol of highquality economic development.Therefore,it is more important and urgent to promote the green innovation transformation and the win-win situation between environmental and financial performance of firms.As a new type of environmental management tool,environmental labeling certification is unique in terms of its objects,methods,standards,and goals.With the rapid promotion and application of environmental labeling programs around the world,it will play a pivotal role in the green production and environmental governance of firms in developing and developed countries both now and in the future.However,it is not clear whether environmental labeling certification is conducive to promoting the green innovation transformation and achieving a win-win situation between environmental and financial performance of firms,which urgently needs to be solved theoretically and empirically.Accordingly,this study focuses on three key questions,namely,how environmental labeling certification affects firm green innovation,environmental performance,and financial performance.On this basis,this study proposes targeted policy recommendations to promote the green innovation transformation and a win-win situation between environmental and financial performance of firms.In order to answer these important questions,based on the theoretical framework of legitimacy theory and the resource management perspective that has not been widely used before,this study builds a mechanism model of the impact of environmental labeling certification on green innovation,environmental performance and financial performance of firms which reveals the influence mechanism of environmental labeling certification on green innovation,environmental performance and financial performance of firms from the external and internal perspectives,and further explores the moderating roles of firm ownership and the competitive position of firms.Based on the sample of China’s A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2011 to 2020,this study constructs the two-way fixed-effect model of panel data for empirical analysis,and mainly forms the following research conclusions.Firstly,environmental labeling certification can promote firm green innovation,thereby promoting the transformation of firm’s green innovation.Secondly,environmental labeling certification can significantly improve firm environmental performance and operating income,but it does not significantly promote corporate profitability.Therefore,environmental labeling certification cannot fully and effectively promote firms to achieve a win-win situation between environmental and financial performance.Thirdly,compared with state-owned enterprises,environmental labeling certification in non-state-owned enterprises has a stronger positive impact on firm green innovation and operating income.Fourthly,the higher the competitive position of the firm,the stronger the positive impact of environmental labeling certification on firm green innovation and environmental performance.In addition,further discussion finds that the “green innovation offsets” triggered by environmental labeling certification partially mediates its impact on firm environmental performance and operating income.According to the conclusions,based on the environmental labeling programs to promote the high-quality development of firms,this study puts forward targeted policy suggestions to improve the environmental labeling system and supporting policy system,so as to help environmental labeling certification to promote the green innovation transformation and a win-win situation between environmental and financial performance of firms.The main innovations of this study are as follows.Firstly,based on the theoretical framework of legitimacy theory and the resource management perspective,this study is the first to reveal the impact mechanism of environmental labeling certification on firm green innovation,environmental and financial performance from both external and internal perspectives.Secondly,this study reveals the boundary conditions for the impact of environmental labeling certification on firm green innovation,environmental and financial performance by exploring the moderating roles of firm ownership and competitive position.Thirdly,the number of environmental labeling product certification certificates owned by a listed firm in a given year is used to measure environmental labeling certification,which improves the existing measurement method for environmental labeling certification.