IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v45y2024i4p2304-2320.html

Substantial innovation or strategic innovation: An evolutionary game analysis of companies' green technology innovation strategies under carbon emission trading market

Author

Listed:
  • Beiqing Cui
  • Weide Chun
  • Zhonghao Shui
  • Tianyi Lei
  • Zhihui Li

Abstract

Although both the carbon emission trading market (CETM) and government regulatory actions promote companies' green technology innovation (GTI), little research has considered whether such innovation is substantial. In this paper, we categorize companies' GTI strategies into substantial innovation and strategic innovation. Considering market powers, the heterogeneity of companies, and the mutual influence of governments and companies, we construct a tripartite evolutionary game model that involves large and small companies and the government and conduct a simulation utilizing data on China's CETM. Our findings reveal that carbon trading prices, innovation subsidies, and the government's verification mechanism are the main factors that affect companies' choices regarding substantial innovation. However, the current carbon trading prices in China are relatively low, and companies are still likely to choose strategic innovation. Moreover, we find that when the substantial innovation of large companies exerts a greater impact on the product revenues of small companies, small companies are more inclined to choose substantial innovation. Therefore, in an effort to induce companies to choose substantial innovation, the CETM should play the leading role in this situation, and the government should implement different innovation subsidies and improve the verification mechanism.

Suggested Citation

  • Beiqing Cui & Weide Chun & Zhonghao Shui & Tianyi Lei & Zhihui Li, 2024. "Substantial innovation or strategic innovation: An evolutionary game analysis of companies' green technology innovation strategies under carbon emission trading market," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(4), pages 2304-2320, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:45:y:2024:i:4:p:2304-2320
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.4134
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.4134
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.4134?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhang, Gupeng & Lv, Xiaofeng & Zhou, Jianghua, 2014. "Private value of patent right and patent infringement: An empirical study based on patent renewal data of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 37-54.
    2. Weiming Liu & Yating Qiu & Lijiang Jia & Hang Zhou, 2022. "Carbon Emissions Trading and Green Technology Innovation—A Quasi-natural Experiment Based on a Carbon Trading Market Pilot," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Raffaello Bronzini & Eleonora Iachini, 2014. "Are Incentives for R&D Effective? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Approach," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 100-134, November.
    4. Xiaoqi Li & Dingfei Guo & Chao Feng, 2022. "The Carbon Emissions Trading Policy of China: Does It Really Promote the Enterprises’ Green Technology Innovations?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-15, November.
    5. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Peng, Yu-Lu & Ma, Chao-Qun & Shen, Bo, 2017. "Can environmental innovation facilitate carbon emissions reduction? Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 18-28.
    6. Bronwyn H. Hall & Dietmar Harhoff, 2012. "Recent Research on the Economics of Patents," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 541-565, July.
    7. Nesta, Lionel & Vona, Francesco & Nicolli, Francesco, 2014. "Environmental policies, competition and innovation in renewable energy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 396-411.
    8. Xu, Xiaofeng & Wei, Zhifei & Ji, Qiang & Wang, Chenglong & Gao, Guowei, 2019. "Global renewable energy development: Influencing factors, trend predictions and countermeasures," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-1.
    9. 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).
    10. Kneller, Richard & Manderson, Edward, 2012. "Environmental regulations and innovation activity in UK manufacturing industries," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 211-235.
    11. Friedman, Daniel, 1991. "Evolutionary Games in Economics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 637-666, May.
    12. Tuomas Takalo & Tanja Tanayama, 2010. "Adverse selection and financing of innovation: is there a need for R&D subsidies?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 16-41, February.
    13. Rogge, Karoline S. & Schneider, Malte & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2011. "The innovation impact of the EU Emission Trading System -- Findings of company case studies in the German power sector," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 513-523, January.
    14. Xintong Wu & Zhendong Li & Fangcheng Tang, 2022. "The Effect of Carbon Price Volatility on Firm Green Transitions: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Listed Firms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-11, October.
    15. Zhang, Wei & Li, Guoxiang & Guo, Fanyong, 2022. "Does carbon emissions trading promote green technology innovation in China?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    16. Zhao, Lili & Wen, Fenghua & Wang, Xiong, 2020. "Interaction among China carbon emission trading markets: Nonlinear Granger causality and time-varying effect," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    17. Noailly, Joëlle & Smeets, Roger, 2015. "Directing technical change from fossil-fuel to renewable energy innovation: An application using firm-level patent data," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 15-37.
    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. Dongri Han & Yue Zhu & Yanxia Diao & Min Liu & Ziyi Shi, 2024. "The impact of new digital infrastructure construction on substantive green innovation," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(6), pages 4072-4083, September.

    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. Hu, Jiangfeng & Pan, Xinxin & Huang, Qinghua, 2020. "Quantity or quality? The impacts of environmental regulation on firms’ innovation–Quasi-natural experiment based on China's carbon emissions trading pilot," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    2. Wang, Dan & Sun, Mili & Meng, Bo & An, Yunbi & Cheng, Wenyin & Ye, Bin, 2024. "Can carbon market efficiency promote green technology innovation for Chinese companies?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    3. Lixin Qiu & Yanan Zhao & Beibei Yuan & Yinuo Wang & Lingjie Meng, 2025. "Spatial spillover effect and mediation paths of carbon emission trading policy on green innovation efficiency of industrial enterprises," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 74(4), pages 1-31, December.
    4. Liu, Baoliu & Cifuentes-Faura, Javier & Ding, Chante Jian & Liu, Xiaoqian, 2023. "Toward carbon neutrality: How will environmental regulatory policies affect corporate green innovation?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1006-1020.
    5. Li, Wei & Man, Yuanyuan & Liu, Jianing & He, Yongda & Hu, Yang, 2025. "Emission trading policy and firm-level carbon disclosure in China: Unveiling the potential of market-based environmental regulation," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Rong, Jing & Guo, Quan & Chen, Shikun & Hao, Jinghui, 2025. "Does carbon emission trading policy improve agricultural energy transition? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1670-1689.
    7. Zhang, Gupeng & Duan, Hongbo & Wang, Shouyang & Zhang, Qianlong, 2018. "Comparative technological advantages between China and developed areas in respect of energy production: Quantitative and qualitative measurements based on patents," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1223-1233.
    8. Gu, Tianqi & Xu, Weiping & Liang, Hua & He, Qing & Zheng, Nan, 2024. "School bus transport service strategies’ policy-making mechanism – An evolutionary game approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    9. Takalo, Tuomas & Tanayama, Tanja & Toivanen, Otto, 2017. "Welfare effects of R&D support policies," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 30/2017, Bank of Finland.
    10. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/2qaasbmk6u8cj8maoa30ls1roi is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Liu, Shimeng & Xiong, Xiong & Gao, Ya, 2025. "Market-based environmental regulations and green innovation: Evidence from the pilot carbon markets in China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(PA).
    12. aus dem Moore, Nils & Brehm, Johannes & Gruhl, Henri, 2025. "Driving innovation? Carbon tax effects in the Swedish transport sector," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    13. Xiaoqi Li & Dingfei Guo & Chao Feng, 2022. "The Carbon Emissions Trading Policy of China: Does It Really Promote the Enterprises’ Green Technology Innovations?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-15, November.
    14. Shanshan Liu & Yugang Li, 2024. "Exploration or Exploitation? Corporate Green Innovation Strategy for Carbon Emission Reduction-Evidence from Pilot Enterprises in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-21, May.
    15. He, Yiqing & Ding, Xin & Yang, Chuchu, 2021. "Do environmental regulations and financial constraints stimulate corporate technological innovation? Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    16. Andrea Bellucci & Luca Pennacchio & Alberto Zazzaro, 2019. "R&D Subsidies and Firms’ Debt Financing," CSEF Working Papers 527, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    17. Nesta, Lionel & Verdolini, Elena & Vona, Francesco, "undated". "Threshold Policy Effects and Directed Technical Change in Energy Innovation," CSI: Climate and Sustainable Innovation 268731, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    18. Xiao Yang & Wen Jia & Kedan Wang & Geng Peng, 2024. "Does the National Carbon Emissions Trading Market Promote Corporate Environmental Protection Investment? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, January.
    19. Barbieri, Nicolò, 2016. "Fuel prices and the invention crowding out effect: Releasing the automotive industry from its dependence on fossil fuel," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 222-234.
    20. Liu, Guanchun & Zhang, Gaorong & Song, Malin & Fu, Shun, 2025. "Carbon emissions trading and corporate energy efficiency: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    21. Licheng Yang & Shijie Song & Chunlin Liu, 2024. "Green signals: The impact of environmental protection support policies on firms' green innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3258-3278, May.

    More about this item

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:45:y:2024:i:4:p:2304-2320. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.