The Role of Green Patents in Innovation: An fsQCA Study of Chinese Listed Agricultural Enterprises

Yangyang Zhao, Bojun Gu (), Xin Xu and Dingding Yang
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Yangyang Zhao: School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan 316022, China
Bojun Gu: School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan 316022, China
Xin Xu: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada
Dingding Yang: National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Harbor Oil & Gas Storage and Transportation Technology, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Petrochemical Pollution Control, School of Petrochemical Engineering & Environment, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan 316022, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: This study employs a comparative fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the combined effects of traditional factors and green patents on innovation performance in Chinese listed agricultural enterprises, offering insights into sustainability in agriculture through innovation. By analyzing 84 valid cases from 107 agricultural companies, we conduct two fsQCA analyses to compare innovation pathways with and without green patents as a conditional factor. The first analysis investigates the impacts of five factors—firm size, executives’ educational background, return on net assets, ownership concentration, and government subsidies—on non-green innovation performance, identifying four distinct pathways: executive-dispersed, employee-financed, executive-centralized, and executive-profitable. In the second analysis, green patents are introduced as an independent variable. The overall solution coverage remains stable, but the configurational landscape shifts, with two original pathways persisting and two new pathways emerging—both involving green patents. The findings suggest that the impact of green patents on innovation is condition-dependent rather than universally beneficial. Green patents amplify innovation performance only when supported by strong managerial education, financial stability, and policy incentives, particularly in the executive green synergy pathway, where raw coverage reaches 0.41, underscoring their role as a conditional multiplier in sustainable innovation. These results provide theoretical and empirical evidence for balancing economic benefits with environmental responsibility in agricultural enterprises and emphasize the need for targeted policy subsidies, enhanced managerial education, and optimized shareholder structures to drive sustainable innovation.

Keywords: green patents; agricultural enterprises; configurational analysis; fsQCA; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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