Environmental Justice and Corporate Green Innovation: The Role of Legitimacy Pressures

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This study discussed the environmental regulation on green innovation. The researchis interesting and may contribute to the scientific knowledge of green innovation. I have the following comments for improvement:

1. It is important to discuss the research problem, research objective and key contribution of the research in introduction section. 

2. Authors have missed several relevant studies on green innnovationn and environmental sustainability, which published in 2024. Also, it would be important to consider previously published papers in sustainability journal.

3. Research methodology is not properly explained. Why not authors include a step by step procedure of conducting this study. It can be included as flow chart.

4. Key findings need to be supported.

5. Theoretical contribution are not sufficiently included.

6. Practical implications, limitations and future research work. These should be included as a subsections in conclusionn

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors, I find the chosen topic very interesting and appreciate the quality of the research, please consider the following.

I believe that the presentation of the sample (number of observations) should include a clarification of the confidence interval and the margin of error.

I also recommend extending the discussion before the conclusions or even inserting a dedicated section.

Otherwise, I believe that the paper has a high level of rigour and clarity, required by the magnitude of the journal, and following these changes I believe that the paper can continue on its way to publication.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper examines the impact of environmental regulations on green technology innovation in China using a difference-in-differences model with panel data between 2006 and 2019. The results of the study show that these regulations stimulate green innovation, and various robustness tests are used to demonstrate this, including Poisson model regressions and fixed effects. The main effect identified is that regulatory pressure on firms with high pollution levels leads to increased green innovation output. The effect is stronger in industries with high water pollution and in areas with high public participation and media attention. The results verify the Porter hypothesis and provide guidance for the development of environmental regulation in China and other regions.

When analysing the article in detail, I did not find the aspects of originality. Even if the hypotheses formulated require a sophisticated research methodology, the period examined, 2006-2019, does not, in our opinion, provide relevant data for the objective of the article. The fact that the last four years are not taken into account does not lend robustness to the study nor sustainability to the results obtained.

In our opinion, the authors should revise the article, keeping the rationale but using much more recent data.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Accepted

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Good luck in your future research!