The synergistic effect of corporate environmental responsibility and technological base on firm performance: From the perspective of knowledge recombination

Abstract The research constructs a theoretical framework including the relationship between the interaction of corporate environmental responsibility and technological base and firm performance and the mediating role of knowledge recombination. The research empirically studies the proposed framework by using the data of 258 firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2008 to 2019. The results show that the interaction between corporate environmental responsibility and technological base has a positive effect on firm performance and both the two dimensions of knowledge recombination that are knowledge recombination reuse and knowledge recombination creation could mediate this relationship. These results not only figure out the interaction between corporate environmental responsibility and technological base and its influencing mechanisms on firm performance, which is knowledge recombination and further broaden the application of the knowledge‐based view, but also provide important managerial implications for firms to acquire superior performance through corporate environmental responsibility and technological base.