How Does Agricultural New Quality Productivity Influence the Sustainable Development of Chinese Agri-Related Enterprises?—A Perspective Based on Breakthrough Innovation

In the strategic context of China’s efforts to promote agricultural power and modernization, the key to achieving sustainable development for agricultural enterprises lies in fostering breakthrough innovations and enhancing their market competitiveness. This paper uses Chinese agricultural enterprises listed on the A-share market from 2009 to 2024 as its research sample. From the perspective of breakthrough innovation in agriculture-related enterprises, it examines the association between agricultural new quality productivity and the sustainable development of agricultural enterprises. The regression results show that, first, agricultural new quality productivity is positively associated with breakthrough innovation in agricultural enterprises. After a series of robustness tests, these findings remain valid. Second, the bootstrap mediation results indicate that this relationship operates mainly through government policy orientation and enterprise knowledge creation capacity, while the indirect effects of government resource support and independent R&D capacity are weaker and not statistically robust. Furthermore, a heterogeneity test revealed that agricultural new quality productivity has a more pronounced positive association with breakthrough innovation in regions with strong intellectual property protection and high environmental regulations, as well as in samples where corporate executives demonstrate greater environmental awareness and companies achieve higher overall ESG scores. Finally, further analysis shows that as the level of corporate green transformation increases, the enabling effect of agricultural new quality productivity on breakthrough innovation in agricultural enterprises becomes more pronounced, providing evidence on how ANQP may support the sustainable development of agricultural enterprises.