Voluntary Environmental Regulation Research Articles

Impact of voluntary environmental regulation on green innovation from the perspective of enterprise life cycle: evidence from China

From the perspective of enterprise life cycle, the impact of voluntary environmental regulation on enterprise green innovation was examined in this study based on the data of manufacturing enterprises listed on China’s A-share market from 2012 to 2021. The results indicate that: (1) voluntary environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on enterprise green innovation as a whole. (2) Among all stages of enterprise life cycle, voluntary environmental regulation has a significant impact on enterprise green innovation in the growth and maturity stages, but has a relatively small impact on enterprise green innovation in the formation and decline stages. (3) The results of a segmented sample study on this basis show that voluntary environmental regulation has heterogeneity in property rights and factor density in promoting enterprise green innovation. It significantly promotes green innovation by state-owned enterprises in the maturity stage, green innovation by non-state-owned enterprises in the maturity and decline stages, and green innovation by capital and technology intensive manufacturing enterprises, but have no significant impact on other types of enterprises. These research conclusions are expected to provide decision-making reference for improving the voluntary environmental regulation system and promoting the level of enterprise green innovation.

How does environmental performance feedback affect corporate environmental investment? The moderating role of environmental regulation

The research on how environmental performance feedback (EPF) affect corporate environmental investment (EI) is in infancy. We divide EPF into positive and negative EPF and examine the effects on EI. We further study the moderating roles of environmental regulation. By using panel data of listed manufacturing companies in China, we find positive EPF negatively affects EI, whereas negative EPF positively affects EI. Mandatory environmental regulation strengthens the relationship between negative EPF and EI, while voluntary environmental regulation weakens the relationship between negative EPF and EI. Furthermore, we find the impact of EPF on EI is heterogeneous.

How Environmental Regulation Affects Pollution Reduction and Carbon Reduction Synergies—An Empirical Analysis Based on Chinese Provincial Data

Faced with the dual challenges of environmental pollution and climate change, it is of great significance to study the impact of relevant environmental regulations on the synergistic effect of pollution reduction and carbon emission reduction and their influence mechanisms. Based on a theoretical analysis using the panel data of 30 provinces in China, a spatial econometric model and an intermediary effect model are used to investigate the impact of environmental regulations on the synergistic effect of pollution reduction and carbon reduction and the transmission mechanisms potentially responsible for these effects. The empirical results show the following: (1) The three kinds of environmental regulation effectively facilitate the synergistic effect of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, taking the following order when ranked according to the intensity of their effects: command-type environmental regulation (ER1) > market-based environmental regulation (ER2) > voluntary environmental regulation (ER3). (2) Environmental regulation effectively promotes the synergistic effect of pollution and carbon reduction through the three transmission mechanisms of stimulating technological innovation (TI), industrial structure upgrading (ISU), and restricting foreign direct investment (FDI), which take the following effectiveness order: TI > FDI > ISU. Based on the results of the study, policy suggestions to facilitate pollution reduction and carbon synergies are proposed to help China’s green and low-carbon development.

Does voluntary environmental regulation stimulate corporate green innovation efficiency? An empirical study from China’s A-share listed companies

Voluntary environmental regulation has attracted much attention due to the autonomy associated with its implementation. Taking the low-carbon pilot cities (LCPC) program in China as an example, this article evaluates the role of voluntary environmental regulation on the efficiency of corporate green innovation (GIE) based on the listed Chinese A-share companies for the period 2008–2016. In particular, we employ heterogeneity analysis to assess the characteristics of enterprises and local officials (including official source, tenure, age, and education). The results demonstrate that the LCPC program has restrained the development of GIE by increasing enterprise costs, inducing financing difficulties, and enhancing corporate social responsibility. Enterprises led by CEOs with a high education level and located in cities run by external promotion and younger, and long-term officials are linked with weaker inhibitive policy impacts.

Environmental regulations, GHRM and green innovation of manufacturing enterprises: evidence from China

The contradiction between the economy and the environment is becoming more and more prominent. Green innovation is significant for Chinese manufacturing enterprises considering environmental and economic performance. Based on motivation theory and motivation crowding theory, this study aims to explore the impact of environmental regulations on green innovation of Chinese manufacturing enterprises and the mediating role of green human resource management between environmental regulations and green innovation of enterprises. Using structural equation modeling and SPSS macro, the results of the empirical analysis of 127 manufacturing enterprises in Guangdong Province, China, show that command-controlled regulation, market-incentivized regulation, and voluntary regulation positively impact enterprises’ green innovation, and green human resource management positively affects enterprises’ green innovation. Green human resource management only mediates the relationship between voluntary environmental regulation and green innovation. The study systematically reveals the driving mechanism of green innovation in Chinese manufacturing enterprises and enriches the relevant research on green innovation in manufacturing enterprises.

Customer contagion effects of voluntary environmental regulation: A supplier green innovation perspective

Prior studies primarily focused on internal green innovation and environmental performance concerning voluntary environmental regulations. Little attention has been given to the impact of partner-imposed regulations, such as those by customers, on green innovation in supplier firms. This research explores the influence of customer-driven voluntary environmental regulation on supplier green innovation and its mechanisms. The findings indicate that customer-driven voluntary environmental regulation leads to a positive contagion effect, significantly fostering supplier green innovation. Robustness is maintained through tests, including trend analysis, placebo tests, propensity score matching (PSM), and controls for spillover mechanisms and external influences. Demand feedback and knowledge spillover are identified as mediating mechanisms. Additionally, equity linkage and state ownership in suppliers facilitate customer-driven voluntary environmental regulation, further promoting green innovation. This study advances understanding in the context of supply chain green innovation.

How Does Environmental Regulation Affect Corporate Green Innovation: A Comparative Study between Voluntary and Mandatory Environmental Regulations

Environmental governance in China is a hybrid of mandatory and voluntary regulations in both implementation and enforcement. This paper aims to explore how voluntary environmental regulations (VERs) affect corporate green innovation (CGI) and the role of mandatory environmental regulations (MERs). The study uses panel data of 1,232 Chinese-listed manufacturing firms from 2004 to 2016 and the main findings are: first, VERs have a significant positive effect on CGI. Second, no significant effect has been found of MERs on firms’ CGI. Third, in areas where mandatory environmental regulations are weak, voluntary environmental regulation can better serve as a supplement to promote firms’ green innovation. The results are robust to a series of sensitivity checks. This study provides evidence that voluntary environmental regulation is more effective in encouraging enterprises to engage in green innovation activities, and it is an important supplement to mandatory environmental regulation.

Can innovation factor agglomeration enhance the government’s environmental governance capacity?

Innovative manpower agglomeration and innovative capital agglomeration provide vitality and guarantees for a country to achieve high-quality development, and the improvement of the government's environmental governance capacity can guarantee the smooth advancement of the country's ecological civilization construction work; thus, it is very important to study the impact of innovation factor agglomeration on the government's environmental governance capacity. Based on this, this article establishes a mediated moderating effect model and a spatial econometric model, adopts the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2020 as an example, and divides innovation factor agglomeration into innovation manpower agglomeration and innovation capital agglomeration to study the relationship between them and the government's environmental governance capacity. The results of the empirical analysis show that (1) both innovation manpower agglomeration and innovation capital agglomeration can significantly promote the improvement of the government's environmental governance capacity. (2) Technological innovation plays a mediating role in promoting the government's environmental governance capacity through innovation factor agglomeration. Voluntary environmental regulation can promote the government's environmental governance capacity, but it attenuates the role of innovation capital agglomeration in promoting the government's environmental governance capacity. (3) Local innovative manpower agglomeration has a significant spillover effect, and innovative manpower agglomeration in neighboring places inhibits the enhancement of local governments’ environmental governance capacity. (4) Innovation capital agglomeration in neighboring places will inhibit the local government's environmental governance capacity, but its effect is much smaller than the promotion effect of local innovation capital agglomeration on the government's environmental governance capacity.

Environmental regulation effect on the different technology innovation-based the empirical analysis.

This article explores the impact mechanism of different types of environmental regulations on corporate green technology innovation (GTI). The research focuses on analyzing three types of environmental regulations: command based environmental regulation (ER1), market-oriented environmental regulation (ER2), and voluntary environmental regulation (ER3), and how they affect corporate GTI. This study selected enterprise GTI as the dependent variable and measured it by the number of applications for green invention patents and green utility model patents. The independent variables are the three types of environmental regulations mentioned above. According to data from Chinese A-share listed companies. Using benchmark regression models to analyze the impact of different environmental regulations on GTI, and constructing a moderating effect model to study the role of corporate R&D investment and government support in the process of environmental regulations affecting GTI. The results indicate that (1) ER1, ER2, and ER3 can all promote enterprise GTI, and the three environmental regulatory methods have a better synergistic effect. (2) R&D investment has a positive correlation with the relationship between ER2 and GTI, and a negative correlation with ER 3 and ER 1. (3) There are differences in the GTI performance of enterprises in different regions, ownership nature, factor density, and industry types under the influence of environmental regulations. (4) The impact of environmental regulatory policies on corporate GTI is mainly short-term. This study provides a new perspective on how environmental regulations affect corporate GTI, especially in the context of developing countries like China. The research findings emphasize the role of different types of environmental regulations in incentivizing corporate GTI, while also pointing out factors that governments need to consider when formulating environmental policies, such as regional differences and corporate characteristics, which are of great significance for promoting green development of enterprises and achieving broader sustainable development goals.

Can environmental information disclosure spur corporate green innovation?

How can the disclosure of environmental information (EID) stimulate corporate green innovation (CGI)? This research challenges the prevailing assumption that environmental regulations impact CGI by influencing corporate compliance costs. Instead, it offers a fresh theoretical framework to explain how EID affects CGI. This study combines signal theory and resource dependence theory to develop a moderated mediation model, illustrating how EID reduces information asymmetry and alleviates corporate financial constraints (CFC). To test these hypotheses, this study utilized data from A-share listed companies spanning the period 2004 to 2017. This study considered the year 2009 as a crucial point of analysis, marking the period before and after the implementation of China's first EID policy in 2008. This study employed a Difference-in-Differences (DID) model. The results reveal that EID has a positive impact on CGI by mitigating CFC, with non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) exhibiting a more pronounced mediating effect. These findings remain robust even when the parallel trend assumption was tested to eliminate interference from other factors. This study unveils the mechanism through which voluntary environmental regulation, represented by EID, influences CGI by mitigating information asymmetry and alleviating CFC. These results deviate from the predictions of compliance cost theory and Porter's hypothesis regarding the impact of traditional environmental regulations on CGI, providing a fresh perspective on the role of voluntary environmental regulation in driving CGI.

The econometric analysis of voluntary environmental regulations and total factor productivity in agribusiness under digitization.

Under the new development pattern, both "digital" and "low-carbon" development have entered the fast track, and digital transformation has become an important path to promote green development and enhance total factor productivity in agriculture. Based on the data of agricultural companies, this paper empirically verifies the impact of voluntary environmental regulations on total factor productivity. The empirical results show that voluntary environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on total factor productivity of agribusiness. In the mechanistic analysis, it is found that voluntary environmental regulations accelerate the digital transformation process of firms, which in turn increases their total factor productivity. In addition, the level of government environmental concern contributes to the increase of voluntary environmental regulations on firms' total factor productivity. The findings have practical implications for the sustainable development of agribusiness, providing empirical evidence for policy formulation and adjustment, and helping the agricultural economy to achieve high-quality development.

How does the target of green innovation for cleaner production change in management process? Quality targeting and link targeting

The global economy has accelerated the transition to a green, low-carbon economy. An enterprise's green innovation (GI) is directly related to its capacity for sustainable production as a micro-subject of economic development. This study examined the impact of managerial capacity on enterprise green innovation and changes of green innovation targeting. We used data collected manually from 423 Chinese A-share companies from 2010 to 2017. The effect of various external impact signals was then investigated. This study's findings are as follows: (1) Managerial ability stimulated green enterprise innovation. The marginal effect was 0.0696. While quality targeting has focused more on green invention innovation, managerial capacity significantly improved the marginal impact of green substantial innovation by 0.0375; (2) The clean production link targeting analysis confirmed that enterprises focused on end-of-pipe governance innovation (0.0466), along with new energy innovation (0.0495) rather than energy-saving innovation (−0.0227); (3) The multi-period DDD (Difference in Difference in Difference) model revealed that low-carbon city policy promoted green innovation with a diminishing trend; (4) The voluntary environmental regulation signals, ISO14001 certification, displayed a substitute effect for managerial capacity on enterprise green innovation. This paper provides recommendations, including that enterprises should improve the utilization of new and renewable energy while improving and optimizing production processes. The government should also improve innovation incentive policies and strengthen environmental information disclosure.

Voluntary environmental regulation and export performance of Chinese solar energy industry

The shortage of traditional fossil energy resources, together with the pressure of environmental pollution, has stimulated the growing trade of solar energy products in China. The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of voluntary environmental regulation on China's solar energy industry trade flows. To this aim, the paper selects panel data of Chinese solar energy industry exports to 46 countries from 2002 to 2020 and uses the fixed effect regression model. The results show that export destination countries' voluntary environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on China's exports, whereas the bilateral gap in voluntary environmental regulation has a negative effect. Further evidence suggests that reducing the bilateral gap in voluntary environmental regulation has more obvious promoting effect of the exports to developed countries than to developing countries, verifying that there is country heterogeneity. Besides, more trade friction weakens the role of the host countries' voluntary environmental regulations in promoting exports. The implication of this paper is that voluntary environmental regulation have economic effects including demand effect, information effect and the common language effect, which is incredibly significant to promoting the sustained and stable development of the solar energy trade.

Voluntary Environmental Regulation and Stock Price Crash Risk: Moderating Role of Media Attention

Voluntary Environmental Regulation and Stock Price Crash Risk: Moderating Role of Media Attention

Influence Mechanism of Different Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emission Efficiency.

The rational use of environmental regulation tools has become an important means by which to improve the efficiency of carbon emissions. Different types of environmental regulations and their combinations have different impacts on carbon emission efficiency. In order to determine the environmental regulation configurations that may achieve high carbon emission efficiency or lead to low carbon emission efficiency, we constructed an analytical framework of connections between environmental regulation configurations and carbon emission efficiency. Moreover, 30 Chinese provinces from the period covering 2016 to 2019 were selected as research cases. In addition, the super slacks-based measure of efficiency (SE-SBM) model was applied to evaluate carbon emission efficiency. Finally, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was employed to analyze the impact of different environmental regulation configurations on carbon emission efficiency. The results showed that the carbon emission efficiency of various regions of China is generally low (with most regions not having reached an effective level) and that there are large regional differences. We found that there are four environmental regulation configurations that can achieve high carbon emission efficiency and two environmental regulation configurations that lead to low carbon emission efficiency. Based on these configurations, we draw three conclusions: (1) There are three paths to achieving high carbon emission efficiency: one that values command-and-control environmental regulation but disfavors market-incentive environmental regulation, another that combines command-and-control environmental regulation with market-incentive environmental regulation, and a third that couples command-and-control environmental regulation with voluntary environmental regulation. (2) Two paths that may lead to low carbon emission efficiency were established: excessive penalties and the lack of specific measures. (3) In some conditions, environmental governance investment and fiscal expenditure could be substituted for each other; environmental protection administrative penalties and pollution charges are synchronized; environmental governance investment in the promotion of carbon emission efficiency is indispensable. Policies and suggestions on how the government can use environmental regulation tools to improve carbon emission efficiency are proposed from a general coordinative perspective in the final section of this paper.

Non-linear effects of heterogeneous environmental regulations on industrial relocation: Do compliance costs work?

Reasonably designing environmental regulations for compliance-driven industrial relocation can avoid new pollution havens. The Cournot duopoly model simulates that the necessary condition for industrial relocation is differentiated market costs. Then, based on the province-industrial data of six Chinese pollution-intensive industries during 2005–2019, this study applies spatial Durbin model to explore the non-linear effects of heterogeneous environmental regulations on industrial relocation. Results shown that command-and-control environmental regulation manifests a U-shaped curve with local industrial relocation, with inverted U-shaped spillover effect radiating a road distance of 650 km, and both internal and external costs play the mediating roles; Market incentive environmental regulation has inverted U-shaped curves with industrial relocation in local and neighboring regions, it creates dual costs and works well in both short and long terms, which is the most potential regulatory tool to avoid pollution relocation accompanying industrial relocation; Voluntary environmental regulation exhibits inverted U-shaped relationships with industrial relocation in direct and spillover effects, and works through increased external cost rather than internal cost. Its spatial spillover radiates the longest 1250 km due to rapid spread of public opinions, but this effect takes more than 3 years to be effective.

Research on the impact mechanism of heterogeneous environmental regulation on enterprise green technology innovation

Green technology innovation (GTI) is an effective way to promote the green development of economy, and government environmental regulations are an important means to encourage enterprises to carry out GTI. Taking Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2010 to 2019 as samples, this paper divides environmental regulations into three categories: command-based environmental regulation (ER1), market-based environmental regulation (ER2) and voluntary environmental regulation (ER3), studies their impact on enterprise GTI, and discusses the joint effect of enterprise research and development (R&D) investment and government support from the perspective of internal and external linkage of enterprises. In addition, this paper also analyzes the compound effect and time effect of environmental regulation. The research conclusions are as follows: (1) From the perspective of policy types, both ER1 and ER 2 could stimulate enterprises to carry out GTI, and the promotion effect of green utility model patents is slightly higher than that of green invention patents. ER3 inhibits enterprise GTI. In addition, this paper finds that the effect of three environmental regulations acting at the same time is greater than that of one of them. (2) The mechanism analysis shows that the R&D investment of enterprise positively could moderate the relationship between ER2 and green invention at the significance level of 5%, positively moderate the relationship between ER2 and green utility model patent at the significance level of 1%, and negatively moderate the relationship between ER3 and green utility model patent at the significance level of 5%. The government support could moderate the relationship between environmental regulation and green utility model patents at the significance level of 5% and 10%. (3) The effect analysis shows that the transformation rate of GTI in China needs to be improved. The three environmental regulations could have an effect on enterprise GTI in a short period, and ER1 has the fastest effect. (4) Considering the differences in the level of economic development and resource endowments in various regions of China, this paper classifies the sample enterprises and finds that the impact of environmental regulation on enterprise GTI is heterogeneous in terms of location, ownership nature, factor density and industry type. The research results provide the important reference for the formulation and implementation of environmental regulation policies according to local conditions.

The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Agricultural Productivity: From the Perspective of Digital Transformation.

China’s goal of becoming a strong agricultural country cannot be achieved without the modernization and digital transformation of the agricultural sector. Presently, China’s agriculture has ushered in the era of digital economy transformation. The digital transformation of agriculture has played a huge role in improving agricultural productivity, promoting sustainable development of China’s agricultural economy, and achieving sustainable development goals. The deep integration of digital economy and agricultural economy has become an important issue of The Times. This study uses a two-way fixed-effects model and an instrumental variable method to examine the impact of environmental regulation on agricultural total factor productivity. Using the method of mechanism analysis, the conduction path of improving agricultural productivity under the means of environmental regulation is discussed. Therefore, the visualization analysis results based on the panel data of Chinese agricultural enterprises from 2011 to 2019 show that the distribution of digital transformation and productivity level of enterprises is uneven and tends to be stable in space. The empirical analysis results show that there is a direct and significant positive relationship between voluntary environmental regulation and agricultural total factor productivity. The results of mechanism analysis show that, under the means of environmental regulation, digital transformation plays an indirect role in improving agricultural productivity. On the basis of enriching and deepening the theoretical extension of the “Porter Hypothesis”, this study subtly incorporates environmental regulation, digital transformation, and agricultural productivity into a unified framework, expanding existing research.

Research on the cultivation of green competitiveness among chinese heavily polluting enterprises under country/district environmental regulations

The development of the world economy has caused serious environmental pollution, which has resulted in an ecological crisis. With the acceleration of economic development, China’s ecological crisis is becoming more serious. Green technology innovation is an important driving force in realizing green economic development, and heavily polluting enterprises are the key link to cultivating green technology innovation. The Porter hypothesis holds that environmental regulation has a promoting effect on enterprises’ green technology innovation, but this is not reflected in the context of China. As a basic administrative unit, the implementation of environmental regulations in counties and districts determines the effectiveness of environmental policies. Utilizing structural equation modeling, this study analyzes the cultivation of the green technology innovation ability of heavily polluting enterprises under environmental regulations. The results show that command-based environmental regulation can effectively promote enterprises’ green technology innovation ability. Incentive-based environmental regulation needs to be strengthened to drive the development of enterprises’ “three wastes” treatment innovation ability. Voluntary environmental regulation does not effectively promote green process innovation and “three wastes” treatment innovation. In addition, enterprises’ current “three wastes” treatment innovation capacity is not enough to promote the improvement of enterprises’ green competitiveness. The results of this article show that environmental regulation is conducive to the green innovation ability of enterprises, and this promotion effect needs to be further strengthened. Moreover, the highlighted research limitations will contribute to the subsequent research work.

Achieving Carbon Neutrality – The Role of Heterogeneous Environmental Regulations on Urban Green Innovation

This article examines the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on urban green innovation using panel data from 285 prefecture-level cities in mainland China from 2008 to 2019. From the perspective of green patents, this article utilizes a two-way fixed-effect model and the mediation effect model to examine the mechanism of the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on urban green innovation in China. Results show that the urban green innovation development in China is relatively slow and can be easily influenced by national policies. More specifically, the relationship between the command-based environmental regulation and urban green innovation presents an inverted non-linear U-shaped model, whereas the relationship between the market-based and voluntary environmental regulation presents a positive U-shaped model. Further investigation of this mechanism concludes that the progression of regional green innovation is primarily accelerated by technological development, effective energy allocation, and industrial structural upgrading. However, the implementation of relevant environmental regulations varies, resulting in various green innovation progression rates. Therefore, in order to achieve the carbon neutrality goal that China proposes, the effectiveness of environmental regulation implementation should be improved. Moreover, the development of various environmental regulation tools should be better coordinated.