Since there is a lot of discussion and attention focused on green economic efficiency, the central
government has prioritized the sustainable development of the urban economy. Utilizing the fuzzy set
qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and necessary condition analysis (NCA) methodologies based
on sample data from 276 Chinese cities in 2021, this study examines the institutional configurations
that influence urban green economic efficiency. The findings show that environmental regulations,
environmental subsidies, green credit, the green equity market, and the level of enterprise intelligence
cannot individually constitute the required conditions for determining urban green economic efficiency.
However, they form four institutional configurations that enable cities to attain high levels of green
economic efficiency. The study provides useful insights for sustainable development by thoroughly
revealing the intricate causal links between numerous institutional aspects and urban green economic
efficiency.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
REFERENCES(45)
1.
FAROOQ M.U., SHAHZAD U., SARWAR S., LI Z.J. The impact of carbon emission and forest activities on health outcomes: empirical evidence from China. *Environmental Science and Pollution Research*, 26 (13), 12894, 2019. <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356...> PMid:30888615.
HE B., YU X.X., HO S.E., ZHANG X.Y., XU D. Does China's Two‑Way FDI Coordination Improve Its Green Total Factor Productivity? *Polish Journal of Environmental Studies*, 33 (1), 173, 2024. <https://doi.org/10.15244/pjoes...> PMid:11301846.
SHAO Q.L. Paving ways for a sustainable future: a literature review. *Environmental Science and Pollution Research*, 27, 13032, 2020. <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356...> PMid:32141001.
LUO K., LIU Y., CHEN P.F., ZENG M. Assessing the impact of digital economy on green development efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. *Energy Economics*, 112, 106127, 2022. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enec...>.
ZHANG J. Estimation of China's provincial capital stock (1952–2004) with applications. *Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies*, 6 (2), 177, 2008. <https://doi.org/10.1080/147652...>.
REZA‑GHAREHBAGH R., HAFEZALKOTOB A., MAKUI A., SAYADI M.K. Financing green technology development and role of digital platforms: Insourcing vs. outsourcing. *Technology in Society*, 69, 101967, 2022. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tech...>.
JIANG Q., LI J., SI H., SU Y. The Impact of the Digital Economy on Agricultural Green Development: Evidence from China. *Agriculture*, 12 (8), 1107, 2022. <https://doi.org/10.3390/agricu...>.
ISHIDA H. The effect of ICT development on economic growth and energy consumption in Japan. *Telematics and Informatics*, 32 (1), 79, 2015. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele...>.
GUAITA MARTÍNEZ J.M., PUERTAS R., MARTÍN MARTÍN J.M., RIBEIRO‑SORIANO D. Digitalization, innovation and environmental policies aimed at achieving sustainable production. *Sustainable Production and Consumption*, 32, 92, 2022. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc....>.
LV C., FAN J., LEE C.C. Can green credit policies improve corporate green production efficiency? *Journal of Cleaner Production*, 397, 136573, 2023. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcle...>.
WANG Y., LEI X., LONG R., ZHAO J. Green Credit, Financial Constraint, and Capital Investment: Evidence from China's energy‑intensive enterprises. *Environmental Management*, 66 (6), 1059, 2020. <https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267...> PMid:32793991.
SU X., PAN C., ZHOU S., ZHONG X. Threshold effect of green credit on firms' green technology innovation: Is environmental information disclosure important? *Journal of Cleaner Production*, 380, 134945, 2022. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcle...>.
ZHANG M., LI X., PAI C.H., DING H., ZHANG X. Green credit and fossil fuel resource efficiency: Advancing sustainability in Asia. *Resources Policy*, 86, 104204, 2023. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reso...>.
KONG F., WANG Y. How to understand carbon neutrality in the context of climate change? With special reference to China. *Sustainable Environment*, 8 (1), 2022. <https://doi.org/10.1080/276585...>.
KURNIAWAN T.A., LIANG X., O'CALLAGHAN E., GOH H., OTHMAN M.H.D., AVTAR R., KUSWORO T.D. Transformation of Solid Waste Management in China: Moving towards Sustainability through Digitalization‑Based Circular Economy. *Sustainability*, 14 (4), 2374, 2022. <https://doi.org/10.3390/su1404...>.
XIONG W., JIANG M., TASHKHODJAEV M., PASHAYEV Z. Greening the economic recovery: Natural resource market efficiency as a key driver. *Resources Policy*, 86, 104268, 2023. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reso...>.
VIS B., DUL J. Analyzing Relationships of Necessity Not Just in Kind But Also in Degree. *Sociological Methods & Research*, 47 (4), 872, 2016. <https://doi.org/10.1177/004912...> PMid:30443090 PMCid:PMC6195096.
ZHENG Y., LI C., LIU Y. Impact of environmental regulations on SME innovation: Evidence from China. *Environmental Technology & Innovation*, 22, 101515, 2021. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eti....>.
SHAO Y., CHEN Z. Can government subsidies promote green technology innovation transformation? Evidence from Chinese listed companies. *Economic Analysis and Policy*, 74, 716, 2022. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eap....>.
DONG Z., HE Y., WANG H., WANG L. Is there a ripple effect in environmental regulation in China? Evidence from local‑neighborhood green technology innovation. *Ecological Indicators*, 118, 106773, 2020. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecol...>.
SHUAI S., FAN Z. Modeling the role of environmental regulations in China's green economy efficiency: Evidence from super‑efficiency DEA‑Tobit. *Journal of Environmental Management*, 261, 110227, 2020. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenv...> PMid:32148297.
AMBEC S., COHEN M.A., ELGIE S., LANOIE P. The Porter Hypothesis at 20: Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation and Competitiveness? *Review of Environmental Economics and Policy*, 7 (1), 2, 2013. <https://doi.org/10.1093/reep/r...> PMCid:PMC7450147.
FAROOQ U., WEN J., TABASH M.I., FADOUL M. Environmental regulations and capital investment: Does green innovation allow to grow? *International Review of Economics & Finance*, 89, 878, 2024. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iref...>.
HUANG Z., LIAO G., LI Z. Loaning scale and government subsidy for promoting green innovation. *Technological Forecasting and Social Change*, 144, 148, 2019. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tech...>.
PLANK J., DOBLINGER C. The firm-level innovation impact of public R\&D funding: Evidence from the German renewable energy sector. *Energy Policy*, 113, 430, 2018. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpo...>.
DUQUE‐GRISALES E., AGUILERA‐CARACUEL J., GUERRERO‐VILLEGAS J., GARCÍA‐SÁNCHEZ E. Does green innovation affect the financial performance of Multilatinas? The moderating role of ISO 14001 and R\&D investment. *Business Strategy and the Environment*, 29 (8), 3286, 2020. <https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.25...>.
THOMPSON P., COWTON C.J. Bringing the environment into bank lending: implications for environmental reporting. *The British Accounting Review*, 36 (2), 197, 2004. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar....>.
HE L., ZHANG L., ZHONG Z., WANG D., WANG F. Green credit, renewable energy investment and green economy development: Empirical analysis based on 150 listed companies of China. *Journal of Cleaner Production*, 208, 363, 2019. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcle...>.
HARIHARAN D., REDDY D. Impact of Waste Management Policies and Use of Green Energy Sources to Reduce Environmental Pollution in the Global Business Market Atmosphere. *Technoarete Transactions on Renewable Energy, Green Energy and Sustainability*, 2 (2), 2022. <https://doi.org/10.36647/TTREG...>.
HOPENHAYN H. Firms, Misallocation, and Aggregate Productivity: A Review. *Annual Review of Economics*, 6 (1), 735, 2014. <https://doi.org/10.1146/annure...>.
NAMBISAN S., LYYTINEN K., MAJCHRZAK A., SONG M. Digital Innovation Management: Reinventing Innovation Management Research in a Digital World. *MIS Quarterly*, 41 (1), 223, 2017. <https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/...>.
LYU W., LIU J. Artificial Intelligence and emerging digital technologies in the energy sector. *Applied Energy*, 303, 117615, 2021. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apen...>.
POPKOVA E.G., INSHAKOVA A.O., BOGOVIZ A.V., LOBOVA S.V. Energy Efficiency and Pollution Control Through ICTs for Sustainable Development. *Frontiers in Energy Research*, 9, 2021. <https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg....>.
FISS P.C. Building Better Causal Theories: A Fuzzy Set Approach to Typologies in Organization Research. *Academy of Management Journal*, 54 (2), 393, 2011. <https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.20...> PMCid:PMC11676925.
TONE K. A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis. *European Journal of Operational Research*, 130 (3), 498, 2001. <https://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-...>.
CRILLY D., ZOLLO M., HANSEN M.T. Faking It or Muddling Through? Understanding Decoupling in Response to Stakeholder Pressures. *Academy of Management Journal*, 55 (6), 1429, 2012. <https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.20...>.
Investigating Factors Influencing Regional Green Innovation Based on the Grouping Perspective Ye Yang, Yanfeng Cong Highlights in Business, Economics and Management
Moving Toward Carbon Neutrality in China:
The Role of Human Capital in Reducing
Carbon Intensity Congying Ma, Yongxia Ma Polish Journal of Environmental Studies
Do the E-commerce-induced business clusters increase the income of local rural households? Li Qiuyun, Mingjia Xie, Yuehuan Tang Economic Analysis and Policy
Designing Governance for ESG: Incentive and Oversight Complementarities in Corporate Sustainability Performance Beyza Gürel, Nehir Balci, Mustafa Reha Okur Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management
Foreign investment and local emissions: Decoding the sectoral FDI-Environment nexus Beenish Amir, Saba Fazal Firdousi, Ayesha Afzal Environment, Development and Sustainability
Specialization in Environmental Justice
and Enterprises’ ESG: Evidence from
the Environmental Courts in China Mengmeng Geng Polish Journal of Environmental Studies: Politics, Economics and Industry
Impact of enhancing national autonomous innovation demonstration zones on cities’ efficiency in technological innovation Mei He, Zhixiong Fan, Yanrui Chen Scientific Reports
Leveraging environmental knowledge to strengthen ESG performance and drive green innovation Asep Marfu, Agung Purwanto, Dwi Atmanto Discover Sustainability
Research on Whether Quality Policies Can Promote the High-Quality Development of China’s Manufacturing Industry and Its Configuration Paths in the Context of Sustainable Development Zhiqiang Zhang, Yifan Bai Sustainability
Can the Inclusiveness of Foreign Capital Improve Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Performance? Evidence from China Bing He, Cancan Ma Sustainability
The “label code” of pro-environmental behavior—a study on pro-environmental behavior based on behavioral label theory Xiaozhi Huang, Jiayue Li Scientific Reports
ESG emphasis of top companies in East and Southeast Asian countries unveiled by deep learning Chao Li, Alexander Ryota Keeley, Shunsuke Managi Green Technologies and Sustainability
The Power of Collaboration: How Does Green Innovation Network Affect Urban Green Total Factor Productivity? Hongrui Jiao, Hongbing Deng, Shengmei Hu Sustainability
Typologies of Service Supply Chain Resilience: A Multidimensional Analysis from China’s Regional Economies Zhaoyu Chen, Mad Ithnin Salleh Sustainability
The Pollution Reduction Effect of Target
Responsibility System of Environmental
Protection: Evidence from China Chao Li, Qiuyue Yang, Wenfang Fu Polish Journal of Environmental Studies
Does the Digital Economy Matter for Carbon
Emissions in China? Mechanism and Path Bing He, Weichao Ding, Deyin Zhang Polish Journal of Environmental Studies
Spatial and Temporal Differentiation of Carbon Emission Efficiency and the Impact of Green Technology Innovation in Hubei Province Shan Duan, Bingying Shang, Yan Nie, Junkai Wang, Ming Li, Jing Yu Sustainability
Sustainable development of national green innovation capacity: a qualitative comparative analysis based on dynamic public data Yi Ran, Liu Qijia Frontiers in Public Health
The role of sustainable-oriented investor penetration in enhancing corporate carbon and energy efficiency: Evidence from China Yunrong Li, Chi Zhou Green Technologies and Sustainability
Mechanisms of investor attention in enhancing ESG performance: evidence from Chinese listed companies Dan Lu, Tiantian Meng, Yeng Wai Lau, Tze San Ong Discover Global Society
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.