Patient Capital and Corporate Green Technological Innovation: The Roles of Capital Sources and Corporate Governance

Green technological innovation requires capital that can tolerate delayed returns and long development cycles, yet the sustainability implications of capital horizon remain underexplored. Using panel data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2024, this study examines the association between patient capital and corporate green technological innovation. Patient capital is operationalized as a multidimensional composite of ownership-based and financing-based dimensions. Firm and year fixed-effects estimates show a positive association between patient capital and green technological innovation. Source decomposition indicates that the financing-based component is positive and statistically significant, whereas the ownership-based component is positive but statistically insignificant; a formal test shows that the financing-based coefficient is significantly larger. Corporate governance strengthens the association. Distributional tests indicate some upper-tail heterogeneity but do not support a uniformly increasing association across quantiles. Threshold analysis suggests that the positive association becomes statistically indistinguishable from zero at high levels of patient capital. These findings highlight the importance of aligning capital horizon, financing structure, and governance with the long-cycle requirements of corporate low-carbon innovation.