As the most interactive social media platform between investors and listed companies, investor interaction platforms are one of the most important carriers for minority investors to exercise activism. This paper constructs investor green interaction indicators based on data from investor interaction platforms from 2010 to 2021. According to the content of green questions, it describes investor green interaction “portraits” by distinguishing three types of interaction methods: emotional venting, information questioning, and positive suggesting, so as to examine the impact, path, and economic consequences of different types of investor green interaction on corporate green innovation.

The study shows that investor green interaction enhances the level of green innovation in enterprises. The more green questions investors ask and the higher the proportion of green questions in all questions, the more green patent applications an enterprise has. Mechanism testing finds that investor green interaction affects the green innovation decision-making of enterprises by increasing their tolerance for green innovation risks, suppressing management myopia, and alleviating green financing constraints, with the impact paths of different green interaction methods differing. Heterogeneity analysis shows that investor green interaction simultaneously enhances the output of green invention and non-invention patents, bringing an innovation incentive effect of quality-quantity improvement to enterprises. Moreover, investor green interaction has a stronger innovation incentive effect on industries with higher energy consumption, and on enterprises with higher external uncertainty and high-valued investor relations. Economic consequences show that market-oriented forces represented by minority investors have outstanding advantages in overcoming corporate innovation dilemma. In terms of environmental and social performance of enterprises, green innovation triggered by investor green interaction also reduces environmental governance costs, promotes ESG performance, and promotes sustainable development of enterprises.

This paper for the first time portrays the heterogeneous roles of minority investors in green governance, clarifies the paths and economic consequences that affect corporate green innovation, expands the research on green innovation drivers from the perspective of minority investor activism, and provides practical inspiration for strengthening investor relationship management, improving market incentives for green development, and achieving high-quality development.