The impact of technology transfer on the green innovation efficiency of Chinese high-tech industry

Promoting technology transfer is an important strategic measure for China to promote industrial innovation. However, there is little research exploring the influence of technology transfer on the green innovation efficiency (GIE) of China's high-tech industry (HTI). From the perspective of process, green innovation in HTI is a continuous three-stage system including research and development (R&D), commercialization, and diffusion. Therefore, we measure the GIE of China's HTI by using a three-stage network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) model considering environmental pollution and establish a series of regression models to investigate the role of the two main ways of technology transfer, domestic technology acquisition (DTA) and foreign technology introduction (FTI), in improving the GIE of HTI. The results show that the average GIE of China's HTI is 0.7727 from 2011 to 2020. Except for Jiangsu, Guangdong, Qinghai, and Xinjiang, green innovation in HTI in other provinces in China is inefficient. DTA has significantly promoted GIE in HTI. FTI has a positive impact on the GIE of HTI but is not statistically significant. The robustness test confirmed these results. This study is helpful to understand the differences between the effects of DTA and FTI on the GIE of China's HTI, to provide a basis for adjusting technology transfer policies.