Regional green technological progress is an important driver of regional green technology innovations. To explore in depth the impact of green finance and international technology spillover on regional green technology innovation, this study incorporates green finance, international technology spillover, and green technology innovation into the same analytical framework. In addition, based on a new perspective of regional innovation capabilities, this study analyzes the impact of green finance and international green technology spillovers on green technology innovation. The data were collected in 30 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2019 and analyzed by a panel fixed-effects model. The interaction between green finance, international technology spillover, and regional innovation capability was investigated to understand the impact of each interaction on green technology innovation. Second, regional innovation capability was used as an intermediary variable to identify its underlying mechanism. Finally, the spatial spillover effect of green technology innovation was analyzed using the spatial Durbin model. We found that: (1) green finance, import trade, outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), and regional innovation capability can promote regional green technology innovation, while inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) has an inhibitory effect on the innovation; (2) the interaction of green finance, international technology spillovers, and regional innovation capacity positively impacts green technology innovation; (3) green finance and international technology spillovers can promote green technology innovation by promoting regional innovation capabilities; (4) and green technology innovations have spatial spillover effects, and innovations in one region can promote the growth of green technologies in adjacent regions. This study provides a reference not only for China but also for other developing countries to promote green technology advancement and achieve sustainable development goals.

This study investigates the impact of geopolitical risk (GPR) on green international technology spillovers through foreign direct investment (FDI) and import channels. The research aims to understand how GPR influences the transfer of green technologies, which are crucial for sustainable development, particularly in developing countries. Utilizing data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2019, our findings indicate that increased GPR significantly hinders green technology spillovers through both FDI and imports. Additionally, the research demonstrates that advancements in local green technology levels (GTL), marketization (Mark), and intellectual property rights protection (IPRP) can mitigate the adverse effects of GPR. These results underscore the critical importance of political stability and robust internal mechanisms in promoting international technological exchanges. This study contributes to the literature on the intersection of political risks and technological advancement and provides actionable insights for policymakers to enhance resilience against geopolitical uncertainties, thereby fostering sustainable economic development.

This study leverages China’s staggered implementation of the intellectual property pilot and demonstration city (IPPDC) policy as a quasi-natural experiment to evaluate the impact of intellectual property protection (IPP) on enterprise supply chain resilience (SCR). The empirical analysis reveals that the establishment of the IPPDC significantly enhances SCR by promoting innovation, improving technology diffusion capabilities, and fostering a cooperative culture within enterprises. Additionally, when enterprise innovation and technology diffusion are treated as threshold variables, the positive effects of IPP on SCR intensify, exhibiting a nonlinear and progressively increasing spillover effect. In contrast, the influence of IPP on SCR through enterprise cooperation follows a U-shaped trajectory, with an initial decline followed by a subsequent rise. These findings emphasize the importance of interactions between policy-makers and enterprises in strengthening supply chain responsibility. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that IPPDC policies have a stronger effect on enterprises with robust SCR, with more significant improvements in the creation of SCR than in resistance and recovery abilities. This effect is consistently observed across primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, with particularly substantial impacts in western China. Moreover, private enterprises benefit more from IPP policies than do state-owned enterprises. These findings provide valuable insights for policy-makers by demonstrating the practical implications of IPP policies beyond their theoretical constructs. This study underscores the critical role of IPP in fortifying SCR, ultimately strengthening firms’ global competitiveness and resilience amid rising geopolitical risk and global uncertainty.

Corporations face multifaceted environmental uncertainties (EU) in today’s dynamic global economic environment. Such uncertainties profoundly affect corporate operations and pose significant challenges to their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Therefore, using data from Chinese A-share listed corporations from 2009 to 2021, we empirically analyze the impact of the EU on ESG performance. The results demonstrate that the EU significantly negatively impacts ESG performance, indicating that corporations frequently find it difficult to implement and maintain high-standard ESG policies and practices effectively. Additionally, they reveal that the EU inhibits the improvement of ESG performance by increasing corporate financing constraints (KZ). Lastly, this study explores the role of government subsidies (GOV), investor attention (IA), and geopolitical risks (GPR) as moderating variables. We discover that GOV can mitigate the negative impact of the EU on KZ because they provide additional resources that help corporations maintain their ESG in uncertain environments. Furthermore, IA can reduce the adverse impact of KZ on ESG. Positive moderating effects result from ESG issues; the capital they provide effectively reduces corporate KZ, thus enabling corporations to maintain good ESG performance despite operating in highly uncertain environments. However, due to the increased asymmetry of information in economic markets caused by geopolitical tensions, GPR exacerbates the negative impact of the EU on ESG performance, thus leading to an increase in KZ. These findings offer new perspectives on understanding how these moderating effects affect corporate ESG strategies.

The development of rural e-commerce in China is viewed as an opportunity to increase rural income. Using panel data from 592 national-level key poverty-stricken (NLKPS) counties from 2014 to 2020, we confirm that the National Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration Project (NRECDP), launched by the Chinese government, delivers significant rural income growth for selected counties by providing financial support. Digital inclusive finance has facilitated rural e-commerce development, thereby promoting rural income. Our study uses the endogeneity switching regression (ESR) model to address self-selection bias and finds that NRECDP participation increases rural income by ~12.97%. The determinants of participation in the NRECDP include levels of economic development, e-commerce development, infrastructure development, industry structure, and digital inclusive finance. Additionally, the determinants of rural income include education levels and population density. Moreover, our heterogeneity analysis reveals that the rural income growth effect of NRECDP involvement is more significant for NLKPS counties in non-ethnic regions, central regions, higher industry structures, and the three regions and three prefectures. Additionally, entrepreneurship serves as a potential channel linking NRECDP implementation and rural income growth.