Public environmental concerns and corporate green transformation:the dual examination of government environmental regulations and the internal capacity of enterprises
Accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation of enterprises has become an inevitable path for industrial develop-ment.However,the driving force of corporate transformation is shifting from external pressure to internal power.With the development of digital platforms,public environmental concerns,as an effective supplement to government environmental regulations,have gradually become the leading force for enterprises to improve their internal capacity and achieve green transformation and upgrading.In view of this,this paper used panel data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2020 and constructed a dynamic synergy model and a mediation effect model to focus on the impact of public environmental concerns on the green and low-carbon transformation of en-terprises.It also explored the synergy mechanism between public environmental concerns and government environmental regulations from the perspective of internal and external linkages among enterprises.The main results were as follows:① Public environmental con-cerns had a significant positive effect on corporate green transformation.For every 1%increase in public environmental concerns,cor-porate green transformation would increase by 0.029%.② There was an effective synergy between public environmental concerns,gov-ernment penalties,and government R&D subsidies,in which public environmental concerns had a stronger growth-promoting effect on corporate green transformation when matched with government environmental regulations.That is to say,if the level of synergy between public environmental concerns and government penalties increased by 1%,corporate green transformation would increase by 3.276%.③ The mechanism test indicated that public environmental concerns positively promoted corporate green transformation mainly through three channels in the building of internal capacities:enhancing social responsibility awareness,strengthening technological innovation,and increasing environmental governance investment.In addition,the synergistic effect of public environmental concerns and govern-ment penalties was mainly internalized as the power of environmental governance investment to improve corporate green transformation.Public environmental concerns,in concert with government R&D subsidies,could promote corporate green transformation by enhancing the ability of technological innovation.Based on the above empirical findings,this study suggests that new media platforms should be ef-ficiently used to form a public opinion effect to constrain the environmental behaviors of enterprises and force them to engage in green transformation and upgrading.Local governments should offer official channels to encourage their interactions,optimize the use of envi-ronmental regulation tools,improve their synergy with public environmental participation and their adaptability to the environment,and assist enterprises in selecting green transformation modes that match their own endowments.This will enable them to move from passive governance to active transformation.
public environmental concerngovernment penaltygovernment R&D subsidysynergistic effectcorporate green transfor-mation
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
