Citation: Yang, J.; Wang, S.; Sun, S.;
Zhu, J. Influence Mechanism of
High-Tech Industrial Agglomeration
on Green Innovation Performance:
Evidence from China. Sustainability
2022, 14, 3187. https://doi.org/
10.3390/su14063187
Academic Editor: Luigi Aldieri
Received: 16 January 2022
Accepted: 7 March 2022
Published: 8 March 2022
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Article
Influence Mechanism of High-Tech Industrial Agglomeration
on Green Innovation Performance: Evidence from China
Jiaoping Yang, Shujun Wang, Shan Sun and Jianhua Zhu *
School of Economics and Management, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266000, China;
yjp03421@qust.edu.cn (J.Y.); wangsj9704@126.com (S.W.); yjptry@126.com (S.S.)
* Correspondence: mejhzhu@qust.edu.cn
Abstract:
This paper uses panel data from 30 provinces and cities in China between 2008 and 2017.
It calculates the green innovation performance of each province and city based on the super-efficiency
SBM model of unexpected output and measures the high-tech industrial agglomeration degree of
each province and city by using the location entropy method. The influence of high-tech industrial
agglomeration on green innovation is also empirically tested. It is found that the agglomeration
level of high-tech industry and green innovation performance in Eastern China are much higher
than those in Central and Western regions. There is a significant positive relationship between high-
tech industrial agglomeration and green innovation performance. Human capital has a mediating
effect in the positive impact of high-tech industry agglomeration on green innovation performance.
The moderating effect of environmental regulation is markedly established. The higher the level
of environmental regulation, the stronger the mediating effect of human capital. Based on the
above conclusions, this paper puts forward relevant policy suggestions for promoting the organic
combination of green and innovation-driven development and for promoting green transformation
in China.
Keywords:
high-tech industry agglomeration; green innovation performance; human capital;
environmental regulation
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of science and technology, China‘s economy has achieved
a qualitative leap and become the world‘s second largest economy. However, it also brings
social problems such as excessive resource consumption, ecological imbalance and serious
environmental pollution. To achieve the sustainable development, green innovation has
become the inevitable choice to break through the bottleneck constraints of resources and
environment [
1
]. Different from traditional innovation, green innovation reflects the in-
tegration of green development and innovation-driven development [
2
], which reduces
resource consumption and environmental pollution with the assistance of new technologies
and concepts, and realizes the coordinated development of economy, resources and envi-
ronment [
3
]. It can not only provide value for enterprises and consumers, but also reduce
the impact on the environment and play an important role in economic development and
environmental protection [
4
]. Therefore, many countries are developing the green economy
and taking it as a new engine to activate the economy [
5
,
6
]. Increasing green innovation
will also help enterprises to improve their image and develop new markets [
7
]. Practice has
proved that the development of high-tech industries is an important choice to achieve green
economic growth. High-tech industries have the characteristics of high technology content,
low energy consumption, low pollution and strong innovation, which also determine
that they can break through the pollution dilemma of traditional industries [
8
]. It is the
supporting industry for countries to achieve green innovation [
9
]. From the perspective
of industrial development, moderate agglomeration is conducive to large-scale, intensive
Sustainability 2022, 14, 3187. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14063187 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
