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Given the importance of green technologies for businesses and the environment, we have little understanding of how and through what theoretical mechanisms firms' R&D organisational structure uses the knowledge at its disposal to promote green innovation. Therefore, based on the knowledge management perspective, this study investigates the relationship between firms' R&D decentralisation and their green innovation performance and the moderating roles of differentiated technological diversification patterns in this process. Using panel data of 2,333 Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2010 to 2020, our empirical results show that R&D decentralisation has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the firms' green technological innovation. Moreover, related technological diversification would steepen the curvilinear relationship between R&D decentralisation and green innovation, while unrelated technological diversification can flatten the U-shaped relationship with a higher optimal level of R&D decentralisation. Our study recommends policymakers and managers should consider the characteristics of firms' internal R&D structure and knowledge repositories to effectively facilitate firms to develop green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation literature emphasises that technological collaboration can help firms to absorb the extensive knowledge required to develop green innovations. However, we know little about the potential drawbacks of technological collaboration on green innovation and the specific role of firms' R&D structure and managerial orientation in this process. Drawing upon the knowledge- and attention-based views, this study investigates the effect of technological collaboration on green innovation performance with the moderating roles of R&D decentralisation and the managerial short-term orientation. Using panel data of 2,333 Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2010 to 2020, our results reveal that the technological collaboration has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the firms' green technological innovation. High-level technological collaboration could hinder firms' green innovation performance by diverting attention away from valuable knowledge recombination. Moreover, R&D decentralisation and short-term orientation can flatten the curvilinear relationship and mitigate the drawbacks of high-level technological collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]