Innovation ecosystem in China and Latin America: Exploring the influence of global value chain participation on carbon neutrality

Purpose: This paper attempts to study the influence of GVC participation on low-carbon economic transformation in China and Latin American from the perspective of innovation ecosystems. Through a new LCIE evaluation system, to accurately estimate the role of GVC participation in the low-carbon economic transformation of developing countries such as China and Latin America. Furthermore, put the LCIE, GVC, and CEI in a single research framework, evaluating the effect of the LCIE on the process of low-carbon transformation in China and Latin America, and enriching academic results in the field of carbon emission reduction. Design/methodology/approach: Based on literature review, this paper develops a LCIE evaluation index system, the coefficient of variation method is used to evaluate the capacity of the LCIE in China and Latin America. Furthermore, to explore the relationship between GVC participation and CEI, and the moderating effect of LCIE between GVC participation and CEI, finally, to explore the direct impact of LCIE on CEI by regression analysis, what's more, this paper conducts a robustness analysis. Findings: this paper identify: 1) The LCIE in China and Latin America is increasing. 2) GVC participation has a 'U-shaped' effect on CEI. With the improvement of GVC participation, especially the improvement of forward GVC participation, it has a positive effect on the improvement of the host country's industrial system. However, when GVC participation reaches a certain level, especially when the backward GVC participation is too high, it has a negative effect on reducing CEI. 3) The LCIE plays a moderating role in the relationship between GVC participation and CEI. The development and application of low-carbon technology are important measures to reduce CEI. LCIE can help host countries further reduce CEI after GVC participation reaches a turning point. 4) From the perspective of the influence mechanism of the LCIE, Innovation and Industry have a significant impact, Intermediary, Infrastructure, and Environment is not significant, but the direction of their influence on CEI is consistent with expectations. Research limitations/implications: 1) In the evaluation system of LCIE, there is no unified method. Therefore, this paper draws on other scholars' methods to calculate the index of LCIE, which possibility of missing indicators. 2) In the mechanism testing, Intermediary, Infrastructure, and Environment factors are not significant, which need to further analysis by more data samples. 3) In estimating the moderating role of the LCIE, the moderating model uses cross-term, which cannot specifically quantify the moderating effect. Practical implications: 1) To advance the research and application of low-carbon technologies while enhancing the country's LCIE construction. 2) To actively participate in GVC, especially to improve forward GVC participation, which can achieve industrial energy structure upgrading, increasing the added value of domestic products. 3) To improve the government guidance, research investment, industry structure, infrastructure construction, and ecological environment protection. Originality/value: 1) Novelty a new LCIE evaluation system, providing empirical reference for others similar research. 2) Novelty a new research framework that put the LCIE, GVC, and carbon emission intensity in a single research framework, evaluating the effect of the LCIE on the process of low-carbon transformation in China and Latin America, and enriching academic results in the field of carbon emission reduction. Key words: LCIE, global value chain, carbon neutrality, carbon emission intensity
Introduction Aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050, which the United Nations Climate Change Conference of 2021 made a proposal, countries created strategies plans for carbon neutrality (Perwez et al., 2023). [...]