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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Green
Investment Efficiency from the Perspective
of Social Media Attention-Evidence
from Steel Enterprises in China
1
School of Economics Management and Law, Hubei Normal University, HuangShi, 435002, China
2
Alibaba Business School, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China
Submission date: 2024-06-14
Final revision date: 2024-08-23
Acceptance date: 2024-09-21
Online publication date: 2024-11-22
Publication date: 2025-11-04
Corresponding author
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(6):7299-7316
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Is environmental improvement due to production constraints or green investment efficiency? What
impact do social factors have on green investment efficiency? On this issue, this paper combines the
measurement of the slack model (SBM) and the "super efficiency" (DEA) model, based on the panel data
of China's large and medium-sized steel enterprises from 2009 to 2017, constructs the corresponding
model to evaluate enterprise green investment efficiency, and further studies the impact of social
media attention on green investment efficiency. The results show that: Firstly, social media attention
has a significant positive effect on enterprise green investment efficiency. Secondly, environmental
regulation (ER) has a significant positive effect on enterprise green investment efficiency, and the
influence of social media attention on enterprise green investment efficiency is positively regulated
by environmental regulation. Thirdly, social media attention has a heterogeneous effect in promoting
enterprise green investment efficiency. In terms of scale, the promotion effect of social media attention
on green investment efficiency is more significant in large enterprises than in medium-sized enterprises.
In terms of ownership, the promotion effect of social media attention on green investment efficiency is
more significant for state-owned enterprises than private enterprises. In terms of region, the promotion
effect of social media attention on green investment efficiency is more significant in east China than in
centeral and west China. This paper aims to provide a reasonable reference for the green transformation
of China's heavy polluting enterprises.
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.
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