<p>According to the Porter hypothesis, implementation and enforcement of environmental regulations can increase levels of industrial innovation and efficiencies of production, thereby conferring competitive advantage in addition to reducing environmental impacts. Tests of the Porter hypothesis have, however, proved inconclusive. Such tests have primarily focused on the quantity of innovation inputs and outputs, with relatively little attention paid to the performance of the entire manufacturing innovation ecosystem that affects its ability to innovate and create value in line with market demands. This paper addresses this gap by examining the influence of ex-post environmental regulations, more commonly known as end-of-pipe responses, on the manufacturing innovation ecosystem based on the application of panel econometric models to data from 30 Chinese provinces for the period 2006–2022. Results suggest that the introduction of environmental taxes and investments in pollution control may not necessarily lead to an optimal performance of innovation ecosystems. Ex-post environmental regulations exerted varying effects across innovation stages, and the performance of regional research and development (R&amp;D) was more constrained by regulations compared to commercialization outcomes. The influence of ex-post environmental regulations on innovation ecosystem performance varies over time and spatially, highlighting the importance of temporal and geographic factors to the applicability of the Porter hypothesis.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>