1958 
1849Based on the sample of A-share listed companies in China from 2010 to 2020, this paper uses the method of PSM-DID to examine whether overseas M&A has promoted the green innovation level of enterprises. The study finds that overseas M&A plays a positive role in promoting green innovation, and this conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests. The heterogeneity analysis shows that, compared with state-owned enterprises and enterprises with low equity concentration, non-state-owned enterprises and enterprises with high equity concentration can promote green innovation through overseas M&A. The mechanism analysis believes that overseas M&A can improve green innovation by improving the efficiency of R&D and reducing the level of redundant resources. The expansion analysis finds that the green innovation effect of overseas M&A is more significant in enterprises in low-carbon pilot cities, which means that institutional arrangements can promote overseas M&A to play a green innovation effect. Enterprises with high internal concern to the environment and high R&D investment intensity can improve green innovation through overseas M&A, which means that the self-drive of enterprises plays an important role in the green innovation effect of overseas M&A.
The suggestions are as follows: Relevant incentive policies should be formulated to encourage Chinese enterprises to “go out”, and guide them to actively seek overseas M&A opportunities to promote the acquisition of green technology; differentiated development planning and environmental regulations of overseas M&A should be explored and local environmental regulations should be strengthened to guide enterprises to pay attention to environmental and social responsibilities; enterprises should increase the intensity of green R&D investment, improve the efficiency of internal resource allocation and green technology R&D, and seek the integration and development path of their own technology and foreign technology, so as to promote the continuous improvement of green innovation capacity and accelerate the pace of sustainable development.
