The Environmental Supervision System of “Double Random and One Open” and Corporate Green Innovation

Abstract

Abstract: The environmental supervision system of “double random and one open” is an important innovation measure in regulating the government’s environmental enforcement behavior in China. Based on the green patent data of China’s A-share listed non-financial firms from 2009 to 2022, this paper employs the difference-in-differences approach to investigate the impact of this system on corporate green innovation. The results show that: (1) compared with the enterprises that have not been randomly checked, this system significantly promotes the green innovation level of the enterprises that have been randomly checked by the environmental protection departments; (2) this system mainly promotes the strategic green innovation of enterprises rather than the substantive green innovation, that is, there is a phenomenon of “emphasizing quantity over quality”; (3) the mechanism analysis results show that this system can drive enterprises to strengthen green innovation through enhancing government environmental enforcement and improving corporate environmental information transparency, reflecting the regulatory pressure effect and the information governance effect respectively; (4) the correction discussion finds that repeatedly random checks, environmental protection subsidies and green credit can help to alleviate the distorting impact of this system on corporate green innovation, thereby effectively promoting enterprises to improve the quality of green innovation; and (5) the economic consequence test suggests that in the short term, the promoting effect of this system on green innovation can not improve the economic performance of enterprises, and adopting the substantive green innovation will significantly reduce corporate economic performance. In the long run, this system can significantly improve the economic performance of enterprises by promoting enterprises to strengthen green innovation, but the impact on the adoption of strategic green innovation is not obvious.

Key words: “double random and one open”, environmental regulation, strategic green innovation, substantive green innovation, economic performance

Wang Jianghan, Zhong Haiyan, Lin Feng, Fei Jiabao. The Environmental Supervision System of “Double Random and One Open” and Corporate Green Innovation[J]. Management Review, 2026, 38(2): 121-134.

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