Measurement of green innovation efficiency in Chinese listed energy-intensive enterprises based on the three stage Super-SBM model

As China strives to reach its carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, green innovation is critical to achieving high-quality and sustainable development for energy-intensive enterprises. Based on this, studying the green innovation efficiency of energy-intensive enterprises can provide a theoretical basis and empirical support for enterprises to develop a low-carbon economy, increase green innovation investment, and accelerate green transformation. This article samples energy-intensive industries listed companies from 2011 to 2022 as a sample, introduce CO2 and three other types of waste emissions as undesirable outputs for utilization. The three stage Super-SBM model distinguishes the listed companies among six energy-intensive industries. Green innovation efficiency (GIE) of energy-intensive enterprises is examined in three stages and LSTM-SVM models are used to predict efficiency in the next three years. The results show that the GIE from the third stage (0.153) is lower than the first stage (0.291) which indicates that the GIE measurements of six energy intensive industries are overestimated without taking external environmental and random interference factors into account. Moreover, Significant efficiency gaps are observed among six industries, showcasing superior performance in the Smelting and Pressing of Non-ferrous Metals and Production and Supply of Electric Power and Heat Power industries at both the first and third stages. Finally, the LSTM-SVM combined prediction model shows that GIE among the six energy-intensive industries is close to the real values and consistent with the overall trend of change. Therefore, for the GIE improvement in Chinese energy-intensive enterprises, the effects of economic level, industrial level, and government regulations must be considered.