Abstract: Green innovation is an important driving force for the high-quality transformation and development of the economy. But can corporate strategic differences promote corporate green innovation? Using sample data from A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2023, this paper empirically examines the impact of corporate strategic differences on corporate green innovation and its mechanism, the results show that：(1) Corporate strategic differentiation has a significant negative impact on green innovation, and the greater the strategic differentiation, the lower the green innovation；(2) Intermediary mechanism test finds that the higher the strategic differentiation, the higher the first agency cost and external financing constraints. At the same time, it will lead to an increase in the risk of debt default, thereby suppressing the green innovation capability of enterprises；(3) Heterogeneity tests show that, the negative impact of strategic differentiation on green innovation mainly exists in non-state-owned enterprises, low growth enterprises, strategic conservative enterprises, and non high pollution industries. The conclusions of the above research enrich the literature on the driving factors of corporate green innovation and the economic consequences of strategic differences, and provide important insights for local governments in implementing targeted green innovation incentive and guidance policies, and for enterprises to seize market opportunities and enhance their green innovation capabilities based on their own characteristics and strategic positioning.

Key words: strategic differentiation, green innovation, agency cost, financing constraint, default risk