Does"Double Carbon"Goal Impact Supply Chain Rela-tionship-specific Investment?Inspection Based on Exter-nal Pressure and Internal Opportunity
China's proposal of"Double Carbon"goal on September 20,2020,carries substantial strategic implications.Investigating how this goal influences supply chain layout and corporate investment behavior merits thorough examination.At a macro level,achieving this goal is tied to the transformation and upgrading of China's economic structure and the overall layout of ecological civilization.At a micro level,specific measures such as environmental taxes and carbon emission rights serve as entry points,driving companies to adjust their production structures and development philosophies.Under"Double Carbon"goal,companies face stricter and clearer environmental regulatory requirements.Will they respond by increasing supply chain relationship-specific invest-ments and enhancing cooperation with upstream and downstream part-ners,or by reducing such investments to avoid entrapment?This article examines this issue."Double Carbon"goal has triggered changes at both the company and demand levels.On one hand,Chinese companies face greater emission reduction tasks and volatile carbon trading prices,which increase environmental regulatory risks and drive companies to invest in innovation to achieve green goals.On the other hand,the strengthening of green concepts among consumers has prompted companies to trans-form and upgrade,adjusting management processes and methods to meet shifting market demands.These changes have mitigated the drawbacks of non-transferable supply chain relationship-specific investments and lack of trust,promoting the sharing of benefits and risks between up-stream and downstream supply chain partners.This article uses panel data from Chinese A-share listed companies spanning from 2009 to 2022 to empirically test the impact of"Double Carbon"goal on supply chain relationship-specific investments,employ-ing a difference-in-differences model and event study method.The study found that"Double Carbon"goal significantly increases a company's supply chain relationship-specific investments.This finding remains ro-bust across various tests,including parallel trend testing,placebo testing,PSM propensity score matching,window replacement,and changes in measurement methods.In response to environmental regulatory require-ments,companies opt to establish closer supply chain relationships to mitigate environmental uncertainty.Supply chain relationship-specific investments,serving as a clear contractual signal,can enhance joint deci-sion-making among companies.Secondly,heterogeneity analysis reveals that the increase in supply chain relationship-specific investments driven by the"Double Carbon"goal occurs only in resource-based and heavily polluting listed companies,with significant differences compared to oth-er groups.Resource-based and heavily polluting listed companies face stricter environmental regulations,making it more urgent for them to adapt through supply chain relationship-specific investments,thus facil-itating an increase in such investments.Thirdly,analysis of moderation effects shows that,ceteris paribus,both external pressures and internal motivations influence the extent to which"Double Carbon"goal increases supply chain relationship-specific investments.Higher dividend distri-bution pressure and operational risk result in a smaller increase in supply chain relationship-specific investments due to"Double Carbon"goal.Conversely,greater industry competition pressure and higher profitabil-ity levels lead to a larger increase in supply chain relationship-specific investments due to"Double Carbon"goal.This article contributes to research in three main ways:firstly,it en-riches the limited studies on the economic consequences of"Double Carbon"goal.While existing literature discusses"Double Carbon"goal from accounting,finance,and energy economic perspectives,empir-ical studies on its impact on supply chain relationship-specific invest-ments are scarce.This article confirms this gap and introduces a novel measurement method for assessing the impact of"Double Carbon"goal on companies,which is not covered in existing literature.Sec-ondly,it broadens the exploration of factors influencing supply chain relationship-specific investments.Supply chain relationship-specific investments are affected by various factors,with"Double Carbon"goal having a profound and fundamental impact.Existing literature primar-ily examines factors like earnings smoothing,earnings management,accounting conservatism,and shared auditors,but does not address"Double Carbon"goal's impact.This article not only supplements pre-vious research by providing additional evidence on factors influencing supply chain relationship-specific investments but also expands the perspective on how environmental policies impact company deci-sion-making.Thirdly,it examines how"Double Carbon"goal impacts external pressures and internal motivations affecting supply chain rela-tionship-specific investments,providing new insights to the field.The article provides practical recommendations to help companies actively pursue carbon reduction and meet"Double Carbon"goal.
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