Environmental regulation, governance transformation and the green development of Chinese iron and steel enterprises

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production Vol. 328; p. 129557
• Main Authors: Zhu, Xuehong, He, Meng, Li, Hailing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 15.12.2021
• Subjects: Environmental regulation; Global malmquist-Luenberger index; Governance transformation; Green process innovation; Total factor environmental governance efficiency; Governance transformation; Global malmquist-Luenberger index; Environmental regulation; Green process innovation; Total factor environmental governance efficiency
• ISSN: 0959-6526; 1879-1786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129557

The green development of Chinese iron and steel industry with high pollution and energy consumption has become an urgent issue. Under the economic transition of China, this paper first establishes a theoretical mechanism for the differential effects of governance transformation models on the green process innovation (GPI) of Chinese iron and steel enterprises (CISEs). Based on the environmental protection data of 86 key CISEs from 2005 to 2018, the global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index is used to measure the total factor environmental governance efficiency (TFEGE) which represents the green development. Then the compound effects of environmental regulation (ER) and governance transformation on the TFEGE of 86 key CISEs are empirically studied. The results show that: (1) there is a U-shaped relationship between ER and the TFEGE. (2) Governance transformation and GPI can significantly improve TFEGE, and governance transformation will advance the inflection point of the U-shaped curve and accelerate the realization of the Porter hypothesis (PH), producing a preliminary compound effect. (3) The interaction of governance transformation and GPI has a positive and significant effect on improving TFEGE, but the heterogeneity analysis of regional economic and manufacturing process shows that it only promotes the inflection point of ER and accelerates the realization of the PH in middle- and short-process CISEs, producing a profound lagging compound effect. •There is a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulations and the total factor environmental governance efficiency of Chinese iron and steel enterprises (CISEs).•Governance transformation brings the inflection point of the U-shaped curve earlier, and promotes the realization of the Porter hypothesis (PH) in the CISEs.•Green process innovation has a positive impact on the total factor environmental governance efficiency of CISEs, proved the "strong" PH is valid in CISEs.•The intersection of governance transformation and green process innovation further brings the inflection point of the U-shaped curve earlier and accelerates the realization of the PH in the central China and short-process CISEs.