Abstract:    Performance feedback serves as an important reference point for organizations in making decisions regarding innovation and change. Ambiguous feedback, arising from heterogeneous performance, is a common scenario that management faces when formulating strategic decisions, and its impact on corporate innovation strategies warrants in-depth study. Based on the context of green development in Chinese enterprises, this paper utilized the green patent data from publicly listed companies to construct a dual performance feedback scenario formed by financial performance and R&D performance. It explored the reference effect of performance feedback ambiguity on corporate green innovation. The analysis also incorporated the nature of corporate ownership to examine how property rights systems influence green innovation decisions under conditions of ambiguity. The research findings showed that performance feedback ambiguity has a significant negative effect on green innovation performance in the following period, indicating that ambiguous feedback conditions are detrimental to green innovation. In contrast, when the feedback from financial and R&D performance shows consistency in either surpassing or falling short of expectations, corporate green innovation in the subsequent period experiences a significant boost. Additionally, influenced by property rights systems, state-owned enterprises exhibit weaker sensitivity to performance feedback ambiguity, whereas private enterprises tend to experience a significant decline in green innovation performance under ambiguous conditions. This study will enhance the application scope of corporate behavior theory from the perspective of ambiguity, contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the decision-making conditions and logic behind corporate green innovation, and expand the relevant research on the drivers of corporate green innovation.

Key words: performance feedback ambiguity, green innovation, ownership nature