New media environment, green technological innovation and corporate productivity: Evidence from listed companies in China

Amid new media growth in China, the environment of media information becomes an emerging factor in corporate production, while corporate green technological innovation has both signal and substance attributes in production decisions. However, few studies discuss this phenomenon, and clarifying the mechanisms between the new media environment (NME), green technological innovation (GTI), and corporate productivity is essential to enhance enterprise competitiveness. To investigate the new media environment, green technological innovation, and their synergy effect on corporate production performance, this paper employs a semi-parametric method to measure corporate total factor productivity. Then, we employ the online news data to measure the new media environment with different types of attitudes, and the green innovation authorization, application, and citation data to substitute for the quantity and quality of green technology. We employ the listed companies in China from 2010 to 2021 as our study subjects. The results demonstrate that (i) the NME and GTI have significant and positive effects on corporate productivity; (ii) the synergy effect of NME and GTl has a significant and positive effect on corporate productivity. After endogeneity and robustness tests, the conclusions of (i) and (ii) are still valid. (iii) Heterogeneity exists in (i) - (ii) due to the NME and GTl aspects, corporate factor intensive, and locations. Based on these findings, we propose implications for business and government administration.