Research On The Peer Effect Of Green Technology Innovation Based On The Multi-level Reference Points Context

Green technological innovation,as a value-creative activity based on the production,design,use,and other aspects of energy conservation and emission reduction,has become an irreplaceable element in the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing enterprises.However,existing research considers the firms‘ green technology innovation decisions as the passive choices driven by shareholders.Spontaneous attention to key stakeholder behaviors based on sustainable growth pressure and economic rationality goals makes it difficult to find out the true appeal of firms to green innovation and the potential green innovation driving mechanism.Enterprises in the same industry have the dual identities of "competitor" and "symbiote",and the extreme interaction makes the green innovation behavior of a firm be affected by other firms in the same industry.Therefore,this article selected listed firms in the manufacturing industry as the research samples,and texted the existence of peer effect from the perspective of green innovation.First,based on Dynamic Competition Theory,Theory of Planned Behavior,and Organizational Legitimacy Theory,this paper analyzed the existence of green innovation in manufacture industry.Then,based on Corporate Behavior Theory and Institutional Theory,this paper studied the reference point effect of performance gap,intellectual property protection,and environmental regulation to clarify the reference role of multi-level contexts in green technology innovation peer behavior and the decision-making reference priorities.It has been found out that the peer effect exists in green technology innovation,namely,peer firms‘ green innovation performance can facilitate the focus firm‘s innovation performance.Furthermore,firm‘s peer behavior is affected by the internal and external environment of the organization.Among them,when the industry’s relative performance is good,the corporate social status,resource capacity,and benefits expected from this will enhance the company’s implementation of green technology innovation.Intellectual property protection can alleviate the problem of revenue spillover caused by the dual externalities of green technology innovation and eventually promotes the peer effect of green technology innovation;environmental regulation shows an "innovation offset" effect when it is below the threshold,while it will show an "innovation compensation" effect when the threshold is exceeded,so it would weaken the peer effect of green technology innovation first,and then strengthen the effect.Finally,compared with the internal condition,the influence of the external environments upon peer effect of green innovation are more significate.Therefore,the reference role of intellectual property protection and environmental regulation can replace the reference role of the relative performance.The research contributions of this paper lie in: First,this paper extends the research framework of peer effect to the field of green technology innovation driving.By verifying the existence and trigger mechanism of peer effect of green technology innovation,it can guide the industry and enterprises to work together to produce "social multiplier effect" of green technology innovation.Second,based on the Reference Point Theory,this paper examines the reference effect of multi-level contexts on the peer effect of green technology innovation,which can further enrich related research on corporate green technology innovation decisions and provide guidance for corporate green innovation decisions to maintain firms‘ competitive advantage and legal status.