Can Technological, Organisational and Environmental Factors Reduce Costs Through Green Innovation in the Construction Industry? Comparison of State-Owned and Private Enterprises

Green innovation (GI) plays a pivotal role in advancing sustainable transformation. To implement the concept of green development, China is vigorously advancing green innovation adoption (GIA). Although prior research has largely focused on the manufacturing sector, little is known about how ownership structures shape GIA in the construction industry, nor about its impact on cost. To address this gap, this study, grounded in the Technology–Organisation–Environment (TOE) framework, investigates the extent to which technological, organisational, and environmental factors influence the GIA in the construction sector and how GIA contributes to cost reduction, as well as how these effects differ between state-owned and private firms. Data were collected from 277 construction enterprises, and analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Our findings show that GIA significantly reduces costs in both state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private firms, while market pressure exerts no obvious influence on GIA. Notably, organisational support is found to negatively affect green process innovation in SOEs, suggesting that such initiatives may be more symbolic than substantive. This study could serve as a reference for businesses and governments, and contribute to China’s new development philosophy of “innovative, coordinated, green, open, and shared.”