Managing the Indirect Effects of Environmental Regulation and Performance Measurement

Abstract

Sustainable development has always been the top agenda of many governments. Especially, the concept of ‘Ecological Civilisation (EC)’ is gaining substantial attention from China’s new leaders. However, regional government officers may manipulate or change top level policy in order to suit their own interests or if they are unable to meet the varied pressures of achieving the set measures. Thus, policy makers can unwittingly cause a negative or positive impact on the firms or regional development through the implementation of EC regulations and the requirement to measure, monitor and report performance measurement (PM) information. This can potentially have significant consequences for the firms, the industry sector, and China as a whole. The aim of this research is to explore and evaluate previous work focusing on the relationship and links between regulation and PM. This research will make a significant knowledge contribution to the emerging and yet important area in EC related research. A good understanding of the linkages between PM and EC will assist policy makers to better formulate suitable regulatory control mechanisms at the field level. Moreover, they may take the PM and EC linkages into consideration when setting policy frameworks by minimizing the negative effects and take advantages of the positive consequences.