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Concerted effort to reduce ecological damages requires that the role of enterprises should be extended to incorporate environmental issues into their core business objectives. Despite huge developments in sustainable entrepreneurship research, outcomes of sustainable entrepreneurship uptake remain largely unclear. Drawing on data of Chinese firms, and utilizing fixed effects regression, our paper evaluates the conditions under which compliance with environmental regulation may enable or constrain corporate performance. We find that environmental compliance lowers corporate market performance and improves financial performance at the same time. We also find that the decline in market performance is reversed for large and privately owned enterprises, highlighting the role of firm size and ownership in corporate performance. When distinguishing between market‐ and financial performance, our evidence shows that environmental compliance will most likely improve market performance when enterprise carbon intensity level is low and improve financial performance when enterprise carbon intensity level is high. As we have discussed in our paper, these results have several implications from the point of view of managers, firm stakeholders, and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The platform economy is growing fast in the world. Its expansion, exemplified by industry giants like Amazon, Airbnb, and Uber, is reshaping societal lifestyles and commercial businesses. However, its environmental impacts are uncertain. Currently, the relationship between electronic commerce (e‐commerce) activities and environmental pollution has attracted a lot of attention. This paper attempts to construct a comprehensive theoretical model to investigate the nexus between e‐commerce and regional environmental pollution, with a particular focus on the effects of air pollution and waste pollution. Fixed effect models and China's provincial data during the period from 2008 to 2018 are employed to examine the roles of energy efficiency and resource consumption in such a nexus. The findings suggest that the development of e‐commerce is linked to a reduction in regional air pollution through the channel of improving transportation energy efficiency. The results also show that e‐commerce is associated with an increase in regional waste pollution due to the mechanism of resource consumption in the express packaging industry. As a result, the relationship between e‐commerce and environmental pollution is quite complex at the regional level, transcending a binary distinction of solely positive or negative impacts. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the complex environmental impacts of e‐commerce and helps governments design more efficient and targeted policies to reduce regional pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research posits that there are tensions in addressing divergent sustainability issues which need to be managed and embraced by firms. However, if these tensions cannot be addressed adequately, it will not only have negative impacts on individuals' interests but also on the development of organisations and ultimately the prosperity of the society, ultimately resulting in unethical consequences. Hence, this paper empirically examines tensions in addressing divergent sustainability issues and how to manage them between Chinese and New Zealand firms in business partnerships. Guided by an interpretivist philosophy, this research adopts a qualitative and abductive approach as the preferred research method. In doing so, 33 in‐depth individual interviews alongside one informal group discussion were carried out at 16 relatively large Chinese and New Zealand firms known for their commitment to sustainability that are in business partnerships. Interestingly, we find that these companies are faced with complex and multiple sustainability tensions. In order to better manage these tensions, we found that these firms adopt integrative approaches with opening, surfacing, collaborative and synergistic strategies which can help these companies to enhance their organisational ambidexterity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments and enterprises are two important actors in China's environmental governance system. A better understanding of the interaction between corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and governmental environmental responsibility (GER) will help to enhance the collaboration between corporations and the government, craft a good environmental governance system, and achieve coordinated development of economic development and environmental protection. This paper divides GER into three types: policymaking responsibility, implementation responsibility, and supervisory responsibility. Based on panel data on Chinese manufacturing companies listed during the period 2012–2017, this paper analyzes the relationship between GER and CER and explores the impact of the collaboration between the two on regional environmental pollution. The research results show the following: (1) in China, policymaking responsibility significantly promotes CER, whereas implementation responsibility has a significant negative impact on CER, and supervisory responsibility has no significant influence. (2) The collaboration between GER and CER effectively reduces solid waste discharge in a region but does not significantly reduce SO2 emissions or wastewater discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of CEO foreign experience on corporate sustainable development from the angle of firm green innovation. Using manually collected data of CEOs' foreign experience, we find that CEO foreign experience is positively associated with firm green innovation in China. The positive relationship between CEO foreign experience and green innovation (including green invention patents and green utility model patents) is more significant when the firm is state owned, when the firm has better corporate governance, and when the firm is subject to a better institutional environment. Further analyses indicate that both foreign work and foreign educational experiences matter; relative to experiences gained in underdeveloped countries, those related to developed economies tend to be more influential in facilitating green innovation. Finally, the documented association is robust to a series of robustness checks, including propensity score matching, instrumental variable approach, Heckman two‐stage model, and the inclusion of firm fixed effects. Overall, this paper contributes to the upper echelons perspective, and it also offers clear practical implications through showing that hiring returnee CEOs can enhance firms' sustainable development, which could be of interest to policy makers in other emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from 3212 enterprises in China's A‐share market during the 2007–2018 period, this paper investigates the relationship between green innovation (GI) and enterprise value by using ordinary least squares (OLS) and two‐stage least squares (2SLS) regression. We find that for every 1% increase in the proportion of the number of the enterprise's green patent applications, the enterprise value (Tobin's Q) will increase by 0.023. Moreover, GI still has a positive lag effect on enterprise value after 2 to 6 years. However, the positive effect of GI on enterprise value may only exist in young non‐state‐owned enterprises. At the same time, GI has better performance in heavy pollution industries and non‐high‐tech industries. Moreover, we prove that the improvement of profitability may be a mechanism for GI to affect enterprise value, with a mediating effect accounting for 26.1% of the total effect. The finding on the causal relationship between GI and enterprise value in this study is of great significance for further understanding of the practical value of GI and has certain reference value for the formulation of incentive policies for different industries and enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is not intended as an empirical assessment of the benefits of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). It is, rather, an evaluation of the theoretical presumptions that underpin the discussion about its benefits for Asian economies in general, and China in particular. The paper finds that, despite its well meaning objectives, the EITI might be of limited value for China and its Asian peers, not only because it faces general problems about legitimacy in non-Western circles, as do most Western-led multi-stakeholder partnerships, but also because the principles or values that it promotes are not aligned with China's culture, philosophy and business interests. The paper concludes with suggestions on how a stronger ‘business case’ for China's participation can be made. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach that could potentially have a positive impact on different determinants of the business environment, including scientific production. Despite that, direct and indirect impacts on those national research environments where EPR is not directly implemented are under-represented in the current literature. Based on a dataset of 411 papers related to e-waste published in the period between 2001 and 2011, our study explores the research dynamics of the e-waste literature and presents a map of the main areas of interest. Two representations of the geographical time frames of research depict the on-going reshaping of worldwide technical specializations and inform policy makers on the evolution of regional needs and competences. The conclusions highlight the importance of worldwide impact assessments of EPR in order to achieve both industrial and environmental goals. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms implement proactive environmental practices (PEPs), and governments in developing countries such as China implement environmental policies such as pilot and demonstration programs to promote these PEPs. However, it remains unclear whether and when firms recognized by such governmental programs improve financial performance. Using a sample of 233 firms recognized by a national Chinese government environmental program, event study is employed to estimate stock market reaction of recognized firms. The Heckman two‐stage procedure is followed to examine the moderating effects. We find that the average stock market reaction is not significant. Cross‐sectional analyses indicate that firms with earlier recognitions, recognized for demonstration projects (compared with pilot ones), and operating in more‐polluting industries have greater market reactions, while types of PEPs (internal versus external), export intensity and government ownership (state‐owned or not) do not moderate the market reaction. This paper provides implications for firms about whether and when they should participate in a government environmental program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the serious increase of environmental pollution in China, environmental regulations have become significantly stringent. Such regulations are playing an increasingly important role in the development of small enterprises (SEs) in China, especially in SEs' market entry. However, existing studies pay little attention to this issue. This paper investigates for the first time the effect of environmental regulations on SEs' market entry and the mechanism of environmental regulation effects in China. We consider two sets of panel data for the periods 2003–2010 and 2012–2015 in China. We also use the fixed effect model and the instrumental variable method to explore the role of environmental regulations in SEs' market entry. The results show that, overall, environmental regulations play a significantly positive and robust role in SEs' market entry. However, the mechanisms associated with the effect of environmental regulations on different innovative types of SEs differ. Environmental regulations promote the market entry of SEs with product innovation, but this impact is not significant for SEs with research and development (R&D) activities and R&D institutions. Our findings indicate that China's SEs prefer product innovation, which is a lower level innovative type, over R&D innovation, as a means to avoid the negative impact of stringent environmental regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to contribute to the existing business strategy and the environment literature by examining the effect of governance structures on environmental performance within a unique context of improving environmental governance, policies, regulations, and management. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which corporate board gender diversity, including the proportion, age, and level of education of female directors, affects environmental performance of Chinese publicly listed corporations. Using one of the largest Chinese data sets to date, consisting of a sample of 383 listed A‐shares from 2011 to 2015 (i.e., observations of 1,674), our findings are threefold. First, we find that the proportion and age of female directors have a positive effect on the overall corporate environmental performance. Second, our findings indicate that the proportion and age of female directors also have a positive effect on the three individual environmental performance components, namely, environmental (a) strategy, (b) implementation, and (c) disclosure. Finally, and by contrast, we do not find any evidence that suggests that the level of education of female directors has any impact on environmental performance, neither the overall environmental performance measure nor its individual components. Our findings have important implication for regulators and policymakers. Our evidence is robust to controlling for alternative measures, other governance and firm‐level control variables, and possible endogeneities. We interpret our findings within a multitheoretical framework that draws insights from agency, legitimacy, neo‐institutional, resource dependence, stakeholder, and tokenism theoretical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, a sizeable body of literature has built up on the concept and characteristics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Western countries, where it has also been referred to as sustainability. More recently, attention has grown for CSR in emerging countries. Remarkably, China has hardly been studied so far. This paper aims to help fill this gap by considering, against this background, the CSR notion in China, through an exploration of a small sample of large retailers in China, both Chinese and non-Chinese companies. The analysis of CSR/sustainability dimensions, as communicated by these large retailers in both the Chinese and the English language, shows substantial differences between the Chinese and international contexts. Interestingly, the largest divergence can be found for international retailers between their Chinese and corporate attention for CSR (so home versus host settings), most notably in the case of Carrefour, and to a lesser extent Wal-Mart. In the Chinese context, there are differences between the Chinese and international retailers as well (so domestic versus foreign firms), with the former reporting more on economic dimensions, including philanthropy, and the latter more on product responsibility – contentious labour issues and the environment receive relatively limited attention in both groups in China. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for research and practice. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Research interest in examining corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing economies is on the rise; however, our knowledge of the role of government in CSR remains limited. The aim of this paper is therefore to bridge this gap with an investigation into the specific CSR strategies that global firms have developed in the world's largest emerging economy and a nominally communist country, namely China. Drawing on institutional theory and a relational governance perspective, we posit that rather than adopting a canonical holistic CSR stakeholder model as typically observed in Western countries, these firms adopt a preferential stakeholder model using government-aimed and consumer-aimed CSR strategically. Our empirical study sampled 17 global retailers operating in China, with a dataset compiled to include their CSR web announcement data and firm performance data. The results of partial least squares modelling suggest that only government-aimed CSR plays a salient role in enhancing retailers' performance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper explores the green supply chain management (GSCM) of companies based in the Yangtze River Delta, China. The companies' overall GSCM practice level (LGSCM) is measured by using the data from 165 valid respondents in a questionnaire survey conducted during April and May 2009. The relationships between LGSCM and the classified determinant factors are analyzed. It is indicated that Chinese companies are still at a preliminary stage of GSCM practices. Their environmental management in cooperation with external members of the supply chain is very marginal. A company's LGSCM is significantly and positively associated with the external pressures from regulatory, domestic clients and business competitors. As an internal factor, a company's learning capacity greatly determines LGSCM. We also confirm that the internal factors function as intermediate variables of external pressures in influencing a company's GSCM. A company's environmental management capacities will be strongly enhanced by frequent internal training of employees to increase its involvement in GSCM practices. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with the impact of listed corporates' environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance (ESG) on financing and market value, considerably less attention is paid to the role of ESG performance in improving environmental quality in China. However, exploring the environmental motivation of listed corporates' ESG engagement is vital for shareholder protection and corporate strategic development under state–business interactions. Thus, we study the relationship between state–business interactions and air pollution from the perspective of ESG using the dataset of Chinese listed corporates. The results demonstrate that the state–business collusion interactions increase air pollution by hindering the fulfillment of ESG. Meanwhile, this impact of heavy pollution corporates is higher than that of industrial corporates. However, the deleterious relationship might be largely improved when state–business interactions are "clean." Finally, we observe that ESG mediates the relationship between state–business interactions and pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the data of Chinese listed enterprises in 2007–2020, we investigate the relationship between green innovation (GI) and enterprise reputation via OLS regression, IV‐Lasso, and random forest. Findings show that GI can improve enterprise reputation, and it has a significant positive lag effect. Additionally, we compare the different effects of green patent applications and approved green patents. A possible mechanism is that GI reduces the pollution emission of enterprises. GI also performs better in improving the reputation of coastal enterprises, state‐owned enterprises and large‐scale enterprises, and old enterprises. Our finding on the causal relationship between GI and enterprise reputation is of great significance in further understanding the practical value of GI activities, and it has certain reference value for the policy formulation of governments and decision making of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy sector matters the sustainable development directly and is sensitive to climate change. A few empirical studies concentrate on how climate change influences firm performance. Climate change brings higher production costs and lower efficiency on the supply side and leads to beneficial sale performance and improves profit. However, it is ambiguous to the relationship of supply–demand and revenue‐cost levels, and their change is not consistent. Using panel data of 99 China‐listed firms active in the energy sector over the period 2000–2020, this study aims to identify the causal relation between climate change and the profitability of energy firms while controlling for firm‐specific and energy market‐related factors. The quantile regression results show that temperature deviation (TDEV) positively impacts the profitability of energy firms, and this impact varies at different quantiles of the profitability distribution. These findings remain unchanged by four robustness checks. Moreover, mechanism results indicate that revenue and cost have different interaction effects on the causal relation. The findings of this study can provide forward‐thinking expectations and assess climatic adaptation and risks, particularly inspired stakeholder engagements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research suggests that the effect of greenwashing and corporate financial performance (CFP) is ambiguous. This call for study the contextual factors that create contingencies in the greenwashing–CFP relationship. Using a sample of 2816 observations covering 735 Chinese‐listed firms in 21 different industries from 2013 to 2017, this research examines the effect of greenwashing on CFP and explores the moderating effects of local environmental regulation, media visibility and media favourability. Results show that greenwashing positively affects CFP and effect weakened with stringent environmental regulations and reversed with low media favourability. Our finding implies that stakeholders could hardly identify greenwashing in the context of an emerging economy with high‐level information asymmetry. However, local environmental regulation and negative media coverage could reduce this information asymmetry, making greenwashing easier to be identified. It is the first study to investigate greenwashing–CFP relationship from institutional environment perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the Chinese government has implemented numerous regulations to address environmental deterioration. Several studies have examined the effect of environmental regulation policies on China's economic performance. However, whether environmental regulations can alleviate China's resource misallocation problem—a critical issue in transitional economies—remains unclear. This study fills this gap in the literature by employing the difference‐in‐differences method to examine how environmental regulations affect resource misallocation. We found that stringent environmental regulations have reduced the extent of resource misallocation in China, with resource reallocation being the driving force behind this improvement. The emission reduction mandate reduces investment inflows and hinders firms' entry into regions with low total factor productivity, while directing the flow of resources to highly productive areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive green growth, which considers green growth, inclusive growth and growth, is a sustainable development model that aims to pursue the comprehensive and harmonious growth of humans, the economy, society, and the environment. Against the backdrop of the pandemic as well as sluggish economic development, the global economy is endowed with a driving mission that may affect inclusive green growth. This research primarily discusses the influence of digital economy agglomeration on inclusive green growth and its transmission mechanism in China. Specifically, the slacks‐based measure of directional distance functions (SBM‐DDF) model was integrated with the global Malmquist–Luenberger index (GML) to calculate inclusive green growth at the city level for 282 cities in China during 2004–2019. A measurement system for the digital economy level was constructed, and the degree of digital economy agglomeration in each region was further measured through geographic concentration. Based on these analyses, this research points out that digital economy agglomeration exerts a positive influence on inclusive green growth. The transmission mechanism analysis indicates that inclusive green growth is influenced by digital economy agglomeration through energy consumption, environmental pollution, economic growth, human capital, industrial structure, and technological progress. Moreover, taking the "Broadband China" pilot policy as the starting point, a spatial difference‐in‐differences (SDID) model was used to analyze the policy effect. The results suggest that the "Broadband China" policy is conducive to enhancing local inclusive green growth, while it inhibits inclusive green growth in neighboring cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether bond markets reflect firms' exposure to air pollution through an increased cost of debt financing; and, if so, whether firms can mitigate this air pollution penalty via effective governance and active monitoring. Using 1067 bonds issued by Chinese firms, we document a positive association between air pollution and the cost of debt financing, and this association is robust and economically meaningful. Specifically, with a one standard deviation increase in air pollution severity, a firm's bond yield spread increases approximately 16% relative to an average bond. Additional analysis suggests that credit risk and financial uncertainty are the transmission channels. Our results also confirm that strengthened corporate governance, active board and external monitoring, and a stabilized economic environment further enhance the impact of air pollution on a firm's cost of debt. Overall, air pollution has a material change in a firm's business strategy in using debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land access is central to natural resource development projects. Business strategy for securing continuing tenure to support operational activities is therefore a key factor in determining the overall success of resource projects. A major shortcoming in resettlement planning has been the failure to address basic inequities stemming from the transfer of land assets. Compensation for land in conventional models neglects to account for the potential or intended use of the developer, meaning that affected people (APs) assets are grossly undervalued in the environment in which they acquired. Not only do resource projects under‐compensate APs for their losses, but programming for livelihood restoration and the enjoyment of project benefits more generally has proven to be almost universally poor. Performance outcomes reflect short‐term project milestones but lack a strategic dimension regarding how the company will maintain land access and the continuing support of its nearest stakeholders. Innovations are needed on at least two fronts: (i) the recognition of AP land values in mining project developments and (ii) enterprise financing to avoid the issue of companies driving incurred compensation costs downward. This article outlines the conceptual basis of a land pooling model as the means for securing financial equity for people displaced by mining projects. The authors conclude that the land pooling model of resettlement (LPMR) can improve the short‐ to medium‐term economic conditions of APs and advances suggestions to further promote a balance of interests in mining‐induced displacement and resettlement cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of supply chain collaboration on eco‐innovations in the context of 220 Chinese manufacturing supplier firms involved in global supply chain networks. It investigates how supplier and customer collaborations help firms to enhance product eco‐innovations, and/or process eco‐innovations, and how the institutional context (i.e., regulatory, market, and community pressures) influences these relationships. The structural equation modeling approach is used to analyze the data captured from medium and large manufacturing enterprises in three major sectors: automotive, electronics, and textiles. The results show that community pressure has a positive effect on supplier collaboration, which further leads to enhanced process eco‐innovation. On the other hand, the findings indicate that while market pressure enhances customer collaboration, this does not reinforce product eco‐innovation. Contrary to our expectation, regulatory pressures do not impact supplier or customer collaboration for innovation. Overall, different institutional factors indicate divergent effects on supply chain collaboration and product/process eco‐innovation. The importance of normative pressures, such as those applied through the local community and interest groups, for eco‐innovations in production processes is further discussed as a typical feature of the institutional environment of Chinese supplier firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulation has been confirmed to have an important impact on enterprise productivity, which is regarded as a crucial factor of enterprise duration. However, existing studies have paid little attention to how environmental regulation affects enterprise duration. Using firm‐level data from the Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database (2003–2007) and the stochastic frontier analysis method, we estimate enterprise total factor productivity (TFP) and its four decomposed components (scale efficiency change, technological change, factor allocation efficiency change, and technical efficiency change). Meanwhile, we adopt a comprehensive index to measure the environmental regulation intensity. Furthermore, we use the linear probability model and the proportional hazards model to investigate the effect of environmental regulation on enterprise duration through the mediating role of enterprise TFP. The results show that although environmental regulation per se negatively impacts on enterprise duration, environmental regulation can present a synthetic positive effect on enterprise duration due to its positive effect on enterprise TFP. Specifically, environmental regulation significantly mitigates the scale efficiency and technical efficiency of regulated enterprises. It also stimulates regulated enterprises' technological innovation and improves their factor allocation efficiency. In addition, state‐owned and large‐scale enterprises are more malleable when facing environmental regulations. We propose that the government should encourage enterprises to innovate and improve the allocation efficiency of production factors, so as to achieve the purpose of controlling environmental pollution in stages while extending enterprise duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate sustainability (CS) is receiving considerable attention from emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs), playing an important role in the globalized market. However, theoretical and empirical knowledge about how EMNEs address CS is still scant, and the relationship between internationalization and CS has not been widely explored. This study aims to fill this gap, evaluating the relationship between an international ambidexterity strategy and CS in EMNEs, which highlighted the paradox perspective. Then we develop three hypotheses in which we argue how the dynamic capabilities underpinning international ambidexterity could be considered a driver of CS in EMNEs. We test the developed hypotheses against data from 300 Chinese EMNEs obtained by a survey. Our results contribute to shape ambidextrous international strategies and to consider CS as a springboard for the strategic intent to systematically and recursively outperform global competition. Testing a measurement scale of international ambidexterity, we suggest structural ambidexterity as a strategic option of internationalization that allows the achievement of economic, social, and environmental sustainability objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulation may lead to undesired economic consequences. China has tightened its environmental policies to deal with severe environmental pollution in recent years, but existing studies pay little attention to the economic consequences of China's environmental policies. Using the panel data of 211 prefecture‐level and above cities in China from 2003 to 2016, we for the first time estimate the economic impact of the environmental protection admonishing talk (EPAT) policy, a newly implemented environmental regulation policy in China. We use the difference‐in‐differences strategy to identify the economic effects of the EPAT policy combined with the propensity score matching method to control a potential selection problem. The results show that a relative decline occurs in gross domestic product per capita in target cities after the implementation of the EPAT, and the negative impact is exerted on the secondary industry rather than the tertiary industry. Furthermore, we find that target cities respond to the environmental protection requirements of higher authorities through a one‐size‐fits‐all approach of limiting the production activities of industrial enterprises. Meanwhile, the EPAT policy does not improve environmental efficiency. Such findings are instructive for policymakers who need to trade off economic welfare and environmental quality when formulating and implementing new environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although business strategy plays a fundamental role in firm operations, whether and how business strategy affects firms' environmental protection behaviors remain unclear. On the basis of a typical emerging market, we show that firms following prospector strategies take more environmental protection actions than do those following defender strategies. Our findings are robust to endogeneity checks and alternative measures of business strategy. We further find that prospectors engage in more environmental activities than do defenders when the degree of financial constraint or earning management is high. Our results are particularly pronounced in state‐owned enterprises, heavy‐polluting industries, and firms located in regions with strict environmental regulations. Overall, this study provides clear policy implications for regulators concerned with environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of chief executive officer (CEO) attributes on sustainable performance, environmental performance, and environmental reporting, which are motivated by institutionally driven environmental policies, regulations, and management in the context of Chinese listed firms. With the use of a comprehensive dataset of 2,854 Chinese listed firms over the 2010–2017 period (i.e., making over 16,000 individual firm‐year observations), our findings are fourfold. First, our overall findings reveal that CEOs with research background tend to engage more in activities that improve sustainable performance, environmental performance, and environmental reporting than do those without research background. Second, CEOs with financial expertise are positively linked with increased sustainable performance and environmental reporting. Third, CEOs with foreign exposure are more eager to engage in activities that enhance sustainable and environmental performance than do those without foreign exposure. Fourth, young CEOs tend to take actions that reduce both sustainable and environmental performance than do their older counterparts. We interpret our results within upper echelons theoretical perspective. The results are robust to alternative measures, potential endogeneities, and sample selection problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the underlying mechanisms through which proactive environmental strategy develops organizational capabilities. The results of a survey of publicly listed companies in China reveal that proactive environmental strategy has a more positive influence on stakeholder integration capability than on innovation capability. Moreover, organizational learning plays a greater role in mediating the effect of proactive environmental strategy on innovation capability than on stakeholder integration capability, whereas cross‐functional coordination plays a greater role in mediating its effect on stakeholder integration capability than on innovation capability. These findings provide important implications on organizational capability building via proactive environmental strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is currently the largest CO2 emitter in the world and demonstrates one of the highest levels of energy consumption. The sustainable consumption behavior has increased in China, especially in urban cities. Some clear evidence of this includes food purchasing behavior. Recent studies have also suggested that considering full product information transparency, consumers are willing to pay premium prices for products. With this in mind, sustainable consumption must still be facilitated by related policies, regulations, and tools. This study focuses on sustainable consumption behavior in China and collects and analyzes the literature from the last decade (2007–2017) on the topic. In so doing, it highlights new trends and research topics against the background of circular economy development. The method of systematic review is applied. The review is categorized into several main groups: national policies and regulations, the green awareness of consumers, the definition of related concepts, the barriers between sustainable consumption and the circular economy, and the indicators for circular economy assessment in China. Future research directions are discussed. Furthermore, future challenges are addressed from three perspectives: sustainable consumption facilitating the circular economy, "cradle‐to‐cradle" practices, and the link between the European Union and China. This is a fundamental study in the research domain of sustainable consumption behavior. It provides added value that benefits both academic researchers and decision makers. It also sheds light on the further study of sustainable consumption behavior in China from a macroeconomic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Environmentally and economically sustainable strategies are predicted to influence the public perception of a firm's green performance in terms of environmental protection as well as corporate social responsibility as a whole. We empirically tested this prediction with the data from 214 Chinese manufacturing firms. Our empirical findings showed that firms' environmentally sustainable strategies are more important compared with the economic ones in shaping firms' green performances. Moreover, we also found a significant moderating effect of employees' education on the relationship between the two sustainable strategies and firms' green performances. We explain the findings and conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for academic researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study set out to evaluate the financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies. Applying a three‐stage data envelopment analysis with the data from 85 listed companies in China's low‐carbon industries over the period 2011 to 2017, this study has found that the overall financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies was relatively high, and the pure technical efficiency was quite steady over the period. The overall financing efficiency of these low‐carbon companies on average tended to change with the scale efficiency. This study has also shown that the scale efficiency was the main constraint influencing the financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies in China over the period. Our results are robust and have significant implications for policy makers and corporate managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effect of environmental performance that is driven by good environmental policies, regulations, and management on firm's financial distress and, consequently, ascertains the extent to which top management teams' (TMTs') characteristics can moderate the environmental performance–financial distress nexus in China using 749 firms over the 2009–2014 period (i.e., generating over 3,000 individual observations). Our findings are twofold. First, our results indicate that increased environmental performance that is driven by good environmental policies tends to strategically reduce the extent of firm financial distress. Second, this nexus is moderated by TMT gender diversity, foreign exposure, and political connection. We interpret our findings within neo‐institutional, upper echelons, and risk management theoretical perspectives. The findings are robust to the use of alternative measures of financial distress, estimation techniques, and endogeneity problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer choice behavior is crucial to supporting cleaner production and plays an essential role in low-carbon development and environmental policy-making. Therefore, combining system dynamics with an agent-based model (SD-AB), the present study explores influencing factors on both providers' and consumers' sides. Using empirical data from selected firms and a questionnaire survey of residents in China, the simulation results revealed that consumers' low-carbon awareness and income have little effect on their willingness to pay for low-carbon products. In contrast, some factors have an obvious effect on consumers' willingness to pay for low-carbon products, including the delivery speed of low-carbon products, consumers' patience and degree of satisfaction. Thus, companies that provide low-carbon products should be more focused on customer expectations and should ensure timely and efficient delivery to consumers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the relationship between organizational visibility and corporate environmental responsiveness in China. It also examines whether this relationship is mediated by stakeholder pressure, and whether the strength of the relationships among organizational visibility, stakeholder pressures and corporate environmental responsiveness is moderated by the type of enterprise ownership. Based on the responses from a survey involving 131 enterprises, this study suggests a potentially positive and significant correlation between organizational visibility and corporate environmental responsiveness in China. However, the study reveals surprisingly that stakeholder pressure for environmental improvements does not seem to account for the above correlation. Organizational visibility is found to be negatively associated with stakeholder pressure in the case of Chinese-owned enterprises, and stakeholder pressure has no significant associations with corporate environmental responsiveness. In addition, the moderating effect of enterprise ownership is strongly evidenced, which provides important policy implications for developing effective mechanisms to stimulate environmental management practices. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leading manufacturers in developed countries generally have high environmental awareness and implement proactive environmental management practices such as green supply chain management (GSCM). However, it is uncertain if smaller manufacturers in developed countries are more proactive than all manufacturers in developing countries. To understand this situation, we carried out surveys among small and medium-sized Japanese manufacturers, leading Chinese manufacturers and traditional Chinese manufacturers. Statistical results show that leading Chinese manufacturers have the highest awareness of both domestic and international environmental regulations/policies, and implement all GSCM practices at the highest level. Leading Chinese manufacturers and Japanese manufacturers are aware of international environmental regulations/policies, but such awareness only motivates them to implement eco-design practices. Traditional Chinese manufacturers have limited awareness of international environmental regulations/policies, but such awareness brings all types of GSCM practice. Such results can be helpful for different manufacturers in both developed and developing countries to develop suitable environmental strategies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article qualitatively identifies and explains the barriers that foreign cleantech start-ups can encounter when attempting to enter the Chinese market, as well as the possible strategies that can help overcome these barriers. We base our analysis on interviews with Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs and facilitators. To structure the analysis of such barriers, we use the components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We then explain the barriers using institutional theory. We demonstrate that they are caused either by the regulations in China or by the difference between Chinese and Western logics. We further recommend that cleantech entrepreneurs come prepared to China, remain flexible, associate themselves with reputable partners and take advice from those familiar with business in China. Cultural-cognitive barriers might be overcome by integrating the communities of foreign and Chinese start-ups. Regulative barriers can be removed by the Chinese Government, but this conflicts with the logic of state control. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, based on attribution theory, provides empirical evidence for how environmental violation events (EVEs) damage corporate reputation, using media reputation as a proxy. Hypotheses are developed to address the influences of violating firms' past environmental behaviors and ownership on the reputational effect of EVEs. The results show that firms with a history of unfavorable behaviors (precedent environmental violation) are deemed by the media to be more culpable for adverse environmental events and consequently suffer more damage to their reputation, while for firms with a favorable environmental record (environmental awards and honors gained) the reputational harm of an EVE is alleviated to some extent. EVEs cause more reputational damage to foreign-owned enterprises than to domestic-owned firms. These findings reveal that certain company behaviors could exert an indirect effect on a firm's reputation by influencing public perception of later relevant behaviors, and imply a discriminatory treatment in a host country for foreign-owned enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the resource dependence theory, the stakeholder perspective and environmental management capabilities, this study examined the relationship between the heterogeneity of customer pressures and the varying levels of environmental policies in China. Data on 1215 Chinese manufacturing firms were analyzed to demonstrate that environmental pressures emanating from different types of customer have different impacts on firm environmental conduct and that the pressures from multinational consumers have a stronger effect on local Chinese suppliers' propensity to reduce product environmental risks than those from local consumers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT What is the current state of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting and what is the relation between ESG reporting and the financial performance of Chinese companies? This study analyses corporate ESG disclosure in China between 2005 and 2012 by analysing the members of the main indexes of the biggest Chinese stock exchanges. After discussing theories that explain the ESG performance of firms such as institutional theory, accountability and stakeholder theory we present uni- and multivariate statistical analyses of ESG reporting and its relation to environmental and financial performance. Our results suggest that ownership status and membership of certain stock exchanges influence the frequency of ESG disclosure. In turn, ESG reporting influences both environmental and financial performance. We conclude that the main driver for ESG disclosure is accountability and that Chinese corporations are catching up with respect to the frequency of ESG reporting as well as with respect to the quality. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transfer of environmental goods and services to China will increasingly be of importance to developed nations as the demand for environmental management services increases in China. A review of the literature on technology transfer to China revealed a range of well recognized and commonly known constraints to transferring technologies to China. There were gaps in the literature in relation to the concerns that environmental professionals have regarding technology transfer to China, as there is limited information on the transfer in environmental goods and services to China. A survey of the non-trade barriers and their practical impact on the transfer of environmental technologies and goods and services to China, focusing on Australian suppliers, was undertaken to address these gaps. The survey, which was developed from barriers to technology transfer already described in the extensive research addressing the wider issues of technology transfer to China, targeted environmental professionals but also included other professionals with interests in transferring environmental goods and services to China. From the survey, the highest priority barriers to transferring environmental goods and service to China were identified, and those that are most likely to limit Australian vendors of environmental goods and services in their technology transfers to China were protection of intellectual property (IP), limitations of the rule of law, fragmentation and bureaucracy of the Chinese government and establishing appropriate level of ownership (of environmental goods and services providers in China). Examples of Australian experience were also examined, which confirmed these barriers to providing the needed technology and innovation to manage China's increasing environmental impacts. The research also shows that the barriers identified do not appear to be unique to transfer of environmental goods and services but rather generic to the transfer and adoption of Australian technology into China. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the need to establish new sustainable business models in China and uses multiple objectives to examine in a sample of Chinese companies the reality of the level of sustainable development, environmental awareness and performance, community responsibility, performance barriers and drivers and other sustainability issues. A mixed methodology was adopted, using a questionnaire survey and interviews with 20 manufacturing companies in Guangzhou and Shenzen. Evidence from the small sample of companies demonstrates the lack of significant sustainable development practices in China, although small and medium sized companies appeared to show interest in this area and would like to further contribute to for example triple bottom line objectives. Increasing concerns are found from the company level regarding the need to use renewable energy, source alternative sustainable materials, close the loop of the supply chain, improve the quality of products produced rather than reducing cost, export to Europe and treat employees as an asset. The lack of skills, finance and knowledge are found to be prohibiting the effective embedment of sustainable development within companies and hence cause an under-performance in this regard. The study concludes that the establishing of a new business model for sustainable development in China is needed urgently, and this should be a joint effort with the Chinese government. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a survey of the attitudes of corporate managers and managerial students across Australia, the People's Republic of China and Indonesia toward 18 key contemporary environmental management issues. The study sought to explore whether respondents from these countries, characterized by differing levels of development, also differ in their attitude toward environmental management. Results indicated that, despite age being a moderating factor, significant differences did exist between the 676 country respondents on 15 of the 18 questions. Contrary to expectations, Australian respondents were more cautious of supporting a forthright view on environmental issues, whilst Chinese respondents favoured a more centralized approach to decision making regarding the environment. The results lend marginal support to the new environmental paradigm (NEP), but also to the radicalization of environmental issues and age as a possible influence on respondent beliefs. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]