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From green to gold? A test of the innovation incentive and performance improvement effect of enterprise voluntary environmental management

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Abstract

Environmental management certification is a common means for companies to conduct environmental management activities. By constructing a comprehensive certification-innovation-performance research framework, this paper analyzes whether environmental management certification can generate innovation incentives and then promote the improvement of corporate economic performance and social responsibility performance. Taking seven-year panel data of companies listed on GEM as a sample, a dynamic effect test including lag periods is carried out. The results show that voluntary environmental management helps to improve economic performance and social responsibility performance, but the influence paths are different. Voluntary environmental management affects economic performance through the mediator variable of green innovation and has a more obvious impact on long-term performance. However, for the performance of social responsibility, the direct effect of voluntary environmental management is significant, and green innovation does not play a mediating role. Regarding voluntary policy, this paper provides new support for the applicability of the Porter hypothesis. The conclusion of this paper has some implications for understanding the impact of voluntary environmental management on enterprise performance and can provide some theoretical support for promoting voluntary environmental management.

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Data Availability

The datasets used in the study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Wang acknowledges the financial support from Shandong Social Science Planning Project [Grant number: 21CJJJ28]

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  1. Shandong University, Jinan, China

    Xin Chen

  2. Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, Jinan, China

    Na Wang

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Correspondence to Na Wang.

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Chen, X., Wang, N. From green to gold? A test of the innovation incentive and performance improvement effect of enterprise voluntary environmental management. Environ Dev Sustain 25, 8005–8029 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02385-5

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