Green Innovation and Supply Chain Financing–Evidence from China

Abstract

Based on the stakeholder theory, this study investigates the relationship between green innovation and supply chain financing using the data of 3490 Chinese listed firms from 2012 to 2019. The results show that green innovation of firms could promote their supply chain financing. And the channel mechanism test indicates that green innovation could improve the peer recognition gained by firms from the industry, thus it would be more convenient for green-oriented firms to obtain financing along the supply chain, especially SOEs. Moreover, after launch of the Green Credit Guideline, the positive relationship between green innovation and supply chain financing became more significant. These findings remain consistent after robustness tests including instrumental variables (IV), propensity score matching (PSM) and replacing variable metrics. Further results present that green innovation in non-heavy pollution firms and firms with high-level environmental disclosure can significantly benefit supply chain financing. Our findings have important implications on how firms’ green efforts affect their short-time financing ability through the supply chain.