Does green technology innovation contribute to logistics companies’ market value? The effects of stakeholder engagement and public attention

Although logistics companies are encouraged to carry out green technology innovation (GTI) to mitigate their carbon footprint and negative environmental impact, the performance effect of GTI still needs more conclusive evidence. Building on the resource-based view and stakeholder theory, we investigate the impact of logistics companies’ GTI on their market value and further explore the moderating effects of stakeholder engagement and public attention. We use panel data from 53 publicly listed Chinese logistics companies between 2011 and 2021 to test our hypothesized model. We find an inverted U-shaped relationship between GTI and market value. Interestingly, supply chain partner engagement steepens the inverted U-shaped GTI–market value linkage, whereas scientific institution engagement flattens this curvilinear linkage. In addition, public attention weakens this inverted U-shaped GTI–market value relationship. Our study extends the logistics literature by untangling the curvilinear GTI–market value relationship and the distinct moderating effects of stakeholder engagement and public attention on this relationship. It also provides managerial advice for managers in the Chinese logistics industry.