Research on the Influence of Manufacturing Firms' Internal Capabilities on Their Green Innovation Cooperation Under Institutional Pressure

As the government calls for low-carbon economy and green innovation cooperation, more and more manufactures have to implement green management to response it. However, due to high uncertainty and complexity in the process of green innovation cooperation, manufacturing enterprises could be inclined to "decoupling" behaviors in green innovation. This study takes 114 automobile manufacturing enterprises as subjects to examine whether there is decoupling behavior in them under the institutional pressure and how to cope it by using their internal capabilities, thereby helping the government and manufacturing enterprises achieve the green goal. The findings indicate that the institutional pressure from the government will cause the decoupling behavior of manufacturing firms in the process of green innovation cooperation, and weaken the impact of green innovation cooperation on firms' innovation performance. Managers' support for green innovation cooperation can reduce the occurrence of decoupling behavior and effectively alleviate the negative effect of policy pressure on green innovation cooperation and its performance. The relationship with partners positively moderates the negative impact of policy pressure on green innovation cooperation and performance, and alleviates the decoupling phenomenon of manufacturing firms. However, the digitization level has no significant effect on decoupling behavior of manufacturing firms under policy pressure. The research of this paper enriches the literature for decoupling behavior of the institutional theory and provides some theoretical support and guidance for the manufacturing enterprises to implement their green strategies, and provides suggestions for the government to promote the realization of "dual carbon" goal with no decoupling.