IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v97y2025ics1057521924007294.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic policy uncertainty and corporate green innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Liyuan
  • Luo, Zhenqing
  • Yu, Xiaoyuan
  • Yang, Qiming
  • Wang, Jiancong

Abstract

Economic policy uncertainty significantly influences corporate strategy, yet its varied effects on environmental innovation remain insufficiently explored. While existing research examines general innovation responses to uncertainty, limited attention has addressed how policy volatility distinctly affects the quality versus quantity of green innovation initiatives, and the role of organizational resilience in buffering these effects represents a critical gap in current understanding. This study investigates these relationships using a comprehensive dataset of Chinese A-share listed companies (2010−2022), employing novel metrics for policy uncertainty and organizational resilience. Through panel analysis and rigorous robustness testing, we uncover differential effects of policy uncertainty on environmental innovation dimensions, revealing an inverted U-shaped relationship between uncertainty and innovation quantity, while demonstrating a positive linear impact on innovation quality. Organizational resilience positively moderates these relationships, although its buffering effect diminishes under extreme uncertainty, with stronger effects observed among non-state enterprises and firms outside heavily polluting sectors. These insights advance understanding of how policy uncertainty shapes corporate environmental initiatives while highlighting organizational resilience as a crucial moderating factor, offering practical guidance for business leaders navigating environmental innovation amid uncertainty and informing policy design to support sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Liyuan & Luo, Zhenqing & Yu, Xiaoyuan & Yang, Qiming & Wang, Jiancong, 2025. "Economic policy uncertainty and corporate green innovation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:97:y:2025:i:c:s1057521924007294
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103797
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521924007294
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103797?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Li, Haoran & Wan, Xibo & Zhang, Wendong, 2020. "How do Firms Respond to Political Tensions? Evidence from Chinese Food Importers," ISU General Staff Papers 202011250800001118, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    2. Philippe Aghion & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & David Hémous & Ralf Martin & John Van Reenen, 2016. "Carbon Taxes, Path Dependency, and Directed Technical Change: Evidence from the Auto Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(1), pages 1-51.
    3. Smriti Mallapaty, 2020. "How China could be carbon neutral by mid-century," Nature, Nature, vol. 586(7830), pages 482-483, October.
    4. Yu, Wanqing & Gan, Yufei & Zhou, Bingjun & Dai, Jiapeng, 2024. "Revisiting the economic policy uncertainty and resource rents nexus: Moderating impact of financial sector development in BRICS," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    5. Vasia Panousi & Dimitris Papanikolaou, 2012. "Investment, Idiosyncratic Risk, and Ownership," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 1113-1148, June.
    6. Wang, Juxian & Ma, Mengdi & Dong, Tianyi & Zhang, Zheyuan, 2023. "Do ESG ratings promote corporate green innovation? A quasi-natural experiment based on SynTao Green Finance's ESG ratings," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Scott R. Baker & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2016. "Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1593-1636.
    8. Jian Chen & Fuwei Jiang & Guoshi Tong, 2017. "Economic policy uncertainty in China and stock market expected returns," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(5), pages 1265-1286, December.
    9. Bhattacharya, Utpal & Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Tian, Xuan & Xu, Yan, 2017. "What Affects Innovation More: Policy or Policy Uncertainty?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(5), pages 1869-1901, October.
    10. Nick Bloom & Stephen Bond & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Uncertainty and Investment Dynamics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(2), pages 391-415.
    11. Zhou, Xiaoxiao & Dai, Mengsi & Ma, Xiaowei & Charles, Vincent & Shahzad, Umer & Zhao, Xin, 2024. "Economic policy uncertainty and the inhibitory effect of firms' green technology innovation," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    12. Xin Gu & Shan Ying & Weiqiang Zhang & Yewei Tao, 2020. "How Do Firms Respond to COVID-19? First Evidence from Suzhou, China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2181-2197, August.
    13. Liu, Taixing & Yin, Zhichao & Fan, Miaomiao & Korkmaz, Aslihan Gizem & Yue, Pengpeng, 2024. "Green Credit Policy and asset-debt maturity mismatch in highly polluting enterprises: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 946-965.
    14. Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Bouri, Elie & Azam, Muhammad & Azam, Rauf I & Dai, Jiapeng, 2024. "Economic growth and environmental sustainability in developing economies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PA).
    15. Chien, FengSheng & Paramaiah, Ch & joseph, Robinson & Pham, Hong Chuong & Phan, Thi Thu Hien & Ngo, Thanh Quang, 2023. "The impact of eco-innovation, trade openness, financial development, green energy and government governance on sustainable development in ASEAN countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 259-268.
    16. Han, Yingwei & Li, Jie, 2022. "Should investors include green bonds in their portfolios? Evidence for the USA and Europe," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    17. Yan Zhang & Weihua Yu & Yifan Yu & Shiyu Han, 2023. "The Impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty on the Performance of New Energy Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-14, November.
    18. He, Feng & Ma, Yaming & Zhang, Xiaojie, 2020. "How does economic policy uncertainty affect corporate Innovation?–Evidence from China listed companies," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 225-239.
    19. Sun, Ying & Leng, Ke & Xiong, Haitao, 2022. "Research on the influencing factors of consumers’ green purchase behavior in the post-pandemic era," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    20. Mingzhe Yu & Qiang Zhou & Mui Yee Cheok & Jakub Kubiczek & Nadeem Iqbal, 2022. "Does green finance improve energy efficiency? New evidence from developing and developed economies," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 485-509, February.
    21. Natalia Ortiz-de-Mandojana & Pratima Bansal, 2016. "The long-term benefits of organizational resilience through sustainable business practices," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(8), pages 1615-1631, August.
    22. Zhuo Wang & Muhammad Sadiq Shahid & Nguyen Binh An & Mohsin Shahzad & Zulkiflee Abdul-Samad, 2022. "Does green finance facilitate firms in achieving corporate social responsibility goals?," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 5400-5419, December.
    23. Xin Chen & Jiannan Li & Decai Tang & Li Shang & Valentina Boamah & Jiayi Xu & Zixuan Deng, 2023. "The impacts of economic policy uncertainty on firm cash holding in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(11), pages 1-18, November.
    24. Xu, Dandan & Guo, Dongli & Yue, Pengpeng & Li, Mengshi, 2024. "Household green consumption: Does digital inclusion matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    25. Yu, Jian & Shi, Xunpeng & Guo, Dongmei & Yang, Longjian, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and firm carbon emissions: Evidence using a China provincial EPU index," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    26. Jiapeng Dai & Zahoor Ahmed & Ugur Korkut Pata & Mahmood Ahmad, 2023. "Achieving SDG-13 in the Era of Conflicts: The Roles of Economic Growth and Government Stability," Evaluation Review, , vol. 47(6), pages 1168-1192, December.
    27. Tran, Dung Viet & Hoang, Khanh & Nguyen, Cuong, 2021. "How does economic policy uncertainty affect bank business models?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    28. Jin Sheng & Yubin Gao, 2023. "Combining the financial development and stock market return for green economic recovery in selected developing economies," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 3885-3908, December.
    29. Xin Gu & Shan Ying & Weiqiang Zhang & Yewei Tao, 2020. "How Do Firms Respond to COVID-19? First Evidence from Suzhou, China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2181-2197, August.
    30. Hong, Ying & Hu, Jiangting & Chen, Mengyu & Tang, Shoulian, 2023. "Motives and antecedents affecting green purchase intention: Implications for green economic recovery," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 523-538.
    31. Zhang, Lixia & Sun, Huaping & Pu, Tianlong & Sun, Hui & Chen, Zhenling, 2024. "Do green finance and hi-tech innovation facilitate sustainable development? Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1430-1442.
    32. Cui, Xin & Wang, Chunfeng & Sensoy, Ahmet & Liao, Jing & Xie, Xiaochen, 2023. "Economic policy uncertainty and green innovation: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    33. Ren, Xiaohang & Xia, Xixia & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2023. "Uncertainty of uncertainty and corporate green innovation—Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 634-647.
    34. Ying Sun & Biao Luo & Shanyong Wang & Wenpei Fang, 2021. "What you see is meaningful: Does green advertising change the intentions of consumers to purchase eco‐labeled products?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 694-704, January.
    35. Liu, Xiaoxi & Yuan, Xiaoling & Ge, Xing & Jin, Zhongguo, 2024. "Adaptation and innovation: How does climate vulnerability shapes corporate green innovation in BRICS," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    36. Yongxiang Jiao & Fen Xu & Hongen Yang, 2023. "Does Urban Greening Construction Promote Technological Innovation of Enterprises? Evidence from China," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2023(6), pages 628-658.
    37. Bai, Dongbei & Hu, Jin & Irfan, Muhammad & Hu, Mingjun, 2023. "Unleashing the impact of ecological civilization pilot policies on green technology innovation: Evidence from a novel SC-DID model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    38. Hoang, Khanh & Nguyen, Cuong & Zhang, Hailiang, 2021. "How does economic policy uncertainty affect corporate diversification?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 254-269.
    39. Jean O. Lanjouw & Mark Schankerman, 2004. "Patent Quality and Research Productivity: Measuring Innovation with Multiple Indicators," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(495), pages 441-465, April.
    40. Dai, Jiapeng & Ahmed, Zahoor & Sinha, Avik & Pata, Ugur Korkut & Alvarado, Rafael, 2023. "Sustainable green electricity, technological innovation, and ecological footprint: Does democratic accountability moderate the nexus?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    41. Stephanie Duchek, 2020. "Organizational resilience: a capability-based conceptualization," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 13(1), pages 215-246, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Youxuan Wang & Zhuohang Li, 2025. "How Do Core Management Team Network Ties Affect Green Innovation? Evidence from the Chinese ICT Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-40, April.
    2. Xiaoqing Dong & Guangshun Cheng & Yuan Ren, 2025. "Going Green on the Government’s Dime: Unpacking the Subsidy Boost in Family Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-25, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cai, Xiaotong & Lin, Peiyang & Wang, Rui, 2025. "Intelligent manufacturing and corporate green transformation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    2. Hu, Haichuan & Jia, Zhenting & Yang, Siyao, 2025. "Exploring FinTech, green finance, and ESG performance across corporate life-cycles," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    3. Peng, Changhong & Chen, Dongjing & Jia, Daizheng & Liu, Qiao & Xu, Xin, 2025. "Can green credit policies reduce enterprise risk? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    4. Ma, Li & Li, Danna, 2024. "Would macro policy promote green and low-carbon transformation of energy companies?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    5. Wu, Jiaxi & Wang, Shali & Zhang, Rui & Zhao, Meilin & Sun, Xialing & Qie, Xiaotong & Wang, Yue, 2025. "Measurement of green innovation efficiency in Chinese listed energy-intensive enterprises based on the three stage Super-SBM model," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    6. Wang, Pei & Xue, Weixian & Wang, Zhuan, 2024. "Fog and haze control and enterprise green total factor productivity - evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Mo Chen & Xuhua Hu & Jijian Zhang & Zhe Xu & Guang Yang & Zenan Sun, 2023. "Are Firms More Willing to Seek Green Technology Innovation in the Context of Economic Policy Uncertainty? —Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-24, September.
    8. Zhao, Ruihan & Mou, Yunting & Yu, Xiaxia, 2025. "Analysis of the moderating effects of environmental regulations on green accounting information disclosure and financial performance of heavily polluting enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    9. Liu, Yanqiong & Li, Xiaoling, 2025. "Green finance policies, resource allocation, and corporate social responsibility," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    10. Umar Farooq & Mohammad Mahtab Alam & Bilal Haider Subhani & Mosab I. Tabash & Zilola Shamansurova, 2024. "Non-Linear Effects of Economic Policy Uncertainty on Green Innovation: Evidence from BRICS Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-21, November.
    11. Yu, Zhen & Xiao, Yao & Li, Jinpo, 2021. "Firm-level perception of uncertainty and innovation activity: Textual evidence from China's A-share market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Liu, Siyuan & Zhang, Hanwen, 2024. "Governance quality and green growth: New empirical evidence from BRICS," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    13. Li, Zetong & Cao, Jingjie, 2025. "Enhancing green total factor productivity through corporate social responsibility: The moderating effect of environmental regulations," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    14. Qi, Xiangqin & Wu, Xia & Li, Ziwei & Cai, Yinyin, 2025. "Atmospheric environmental resources and corporate green innovation: Blessing or curse of the weather?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    15. Guan, Jialin & Xu, Huijuan & Huo, Da & Hua, Yechun & Wang, Yunfeng, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    16. Lou, Zhukun & Chen, Siyu & Yin, Wenwei & Zhang, Chuan & Yu, Xiaoyu, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and firm innovation: Evidence from a risk-taking perspective," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 78-96.
    17. Hau, Liya & Yang, Xiaomei & Zhang, Yongmin, 2024. "Multiscale quantile dependence between China's green bond and green equity: Fresh evidence from higher-order moment perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    18. Wang, Huizong & Hao, Yulong & Fu, Qiang, 2024. "Data factor agglomeration and urban green finance: A quasi-natural experiment based on the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    19. Cui, Xin & Wang, Chunfeng & Sensoy, Ahmet & Liao, Jing & Xie, Xiaochen, 2023. "Economic policy uncertainty and green innovation: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    20. Wang, Weilong & Xiao, Deheng & Wang, Jianlong & Wu, Haitao, 2024. "The cost of pollution in the digital era: Impediments of air pollution on enterprise digital transformation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic policy uncertainty; Green innovation; Organizational resilience; Sustainable innovation; Environmental strategy; Corporate adaptation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:97:y:2025:i:c:s1057521924007294. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620166 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.