Promotion pressure, environmental regulation intensity, and corporate green technological innovation

Green technological innovation is central to corporate low-carbon transition. Understanding how political incentives interact with environmental governance is essential for explaining firms’ green technological innovation behavior. Using a panel dataset of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2013 to 2019, this study examines how local officials’ promotion pressure affects corporate green technological innovation and whether environmental regulation functions as a nonlinear transmission channel. The results show that promotion pressure significantly suppresses both the quantity and quality of green technological innovation. Environmental regulation exhibits a U-shaped relationship with green technological innovation. Furthermore, it mediates the promotion pressure effect in a regime-dependent and nonlinear manner. Moderation analyses reveal that fiscal decentralization, resource-based city conditions, corporate–political connections, and exposure to heavily polluting industries systematically reshape the regulatory regime through which promotion pressure influences firms’ green technological innovation outcomes. This study highlights the hidden innovation costs of promotion-based governance and underscores the importance of credibility-oriented environmental regulation for inducing substantive green transformation.