The Impact of Undertaking Industrial Relocation on Green Innovation Efficiency in the Yellow River Basin: A Two-Stage Analysis from an Innovation Value Chain Perspective

As an important economic and ecological barrier in China, the Yellow River Basin faces dual challenges of an excessive environmental burden and insufficient innovation efficiency during the process of industrial relocation. This paper divides green innovation into two stages: technological R&D and commercialization, and employs a two-stage data envelopment analysis model to measure the green innovation efficiency of 64 cities in the Yellow River Basin’s urban agglomerations from 2004 to 2021. The results indicate that undertaking regional industrial relocation has a positive impact on green innovation efficiency, but while boosting the efficiency of commercialization, it negatively affects R&D efficiency, leading to an imbalance in green innovation development. Industrial relocation mainly exerts heterogeneous effects on each stage of green innovation efficiency by hindering industrial upgrading, generating dispersive effects, and creating technological spillover effects. Meanwhile, infrastructure development and intellectual property protection play a moderating role. This study provides valuable insights for promoting high-quality development and sustainable green innovation in the Yellow River Basin.