This paper addresses the longstanding debate about whether institutional pressures enhance or suppress corporate green innovation. Grounded in institutional and sustainable development theories, this paper empirically tested the impact of institutional pressures on corporate green innovation by applying a fixed effect negative binomial regression model to a research sample of listed Chinese manufacturing companies from 2012 to 2017. It was found that regulatory, normative, and mimetic pressures had significant positive effects on corporate green innovation, and that under external environmental protection pressure, companies became involved in green innovation activities to maintain their legitimacy and competitive advantage. The moderating effect of the pollution intensity and marketization variables, both of which affect the green innovation resource efficiency, were only found to play a role under regulatory and mimetic pressures. These research findings provide strategic guidance for green innovation development in manufacturing enterprises and provide the basis for future government environmental protection policies.