What drives equipment manufacturing enterprises green technology innovation in the Yangtze River Economic Belt? A configuration analysis based on DEA-fsQCA model

Under the dual backdrop of the "dual-carbon" goal and the strategic goal of "Made in China 2025", the equipment manufacturing industry, as the "industrial mother machine", has to undergo a green, low-carbon transformation. Green technology innovation is an essential component of achieving green transformation. Therefore, their green technology innovation efficiency (GTIE) deserves in-depth examination to achieve the "double carbon" goal. The aim of this study is to reveal the possible paths and models for equipment manufacturing enterprises to obtain high GTIE from a configuration perspective. Based on 94 listed equipment manufacturing companies' green technology innovation data in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2018 to 2021, this paper explores the GTIE and its combination improvement path with a DEA-fsQCA model. The results indicate that: (1) The average efficiency score of the sample was 0.506, only 16 enterprises reached the production frontier, and the overall GTIE in equipment manufacturing industries as a whole showed a "first drop and then a steady upward" trend from 2018 to 2021; (2) The results of heterogeneity analysis revealed that the level of GTIE showed a characteristic of the upstream region > downstream region > midstream region, foreign-invested enterprises > private-owned enterprises> state-owned enterprises, and there is significant industrial heterogeneity, with a GTIE difference of up to 0.478 between the industries with the strongest green technologys innovation ability and those with the weakest. (3) A single conditional variable cannot constitute the necessary condition for high GTIE. There are four combination paths that can produce high GTIE: PCW+ MP-dual driven, PCW+ Fin-dual driven, COCEN-oriented, and COCEN+MP-dual driven. Further analysis shows that there is a substitution effect between the absence of the financing constraint and the existence of market power. This study provides a scientific basis for facilitating the improvement of YREB's equipment manufacturing industry's green technology innovation capabilities.