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The objective of this chapter is to analyze China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) to the European Union in environmental industries.

We combine a narrative approach with statistical analysis. We first review the policy background concerning China’s OFDI and environmental protection. Then, we provide statistics on China’s OFDI to the EU in environmental industries, using firm-level data from one of China’s major provinces: Jiangsu.

We find that the OFDI to the EU in environmental industries experienced a considerable growth in terms of number of investing firms and investment value. The OFDI in environmental industries to the EU was highly concentrated in a few countries, particularly Germany and Luxemburg, and a few industries, particularly new energy.

Using firm-level data from only one province may limit the generalizability of our findings. However, we believe the case of Jiangsu province sheds much light on the situation of entire China because Jiangsu is one of the most important Chinese provinces in terms of OFDI.

The detailed analysis of our Jiangsu’s OFDI in EU’s environmental industries in this chapter can help to inform the investment cooperation in environmental industries between China and EU in terms of both scope of investment partners and target industries.

This study is one of the first to provide a detailed summary statistics on China’s OFDI to the EU in environmental industries. Given China’s growing concerns regarding environmental protection and OFDI, we believe the question merits further analysis.

We aim to comb the current policies that have been developed to promote the environmental industries in China and analyze them in a comparative manner.

We mainly use the method of text study to study the existing policies that Chinese central government published to promote the development of environmental industry. We built a database of policies and regulations from 1979 to 2015 by searching the official website of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China.

We find that the existing policies focus on command and control approaches. Policies are more oriented to the stage of production instead of stages of investment and consumption. They rely more on negative incentive when stimulating supply and positive incentive when encouraging demand. Based on existing academic wisdom, we suggest that Chinese government should pay more attention to environmental economic policy and to stimulating demand for environmental products.

Few studies provide a systematic overview of the policy systems that have been developed to promote environmental industry in China in a systematic manner.

The central debate on pollution havens concerns whether the level of environmental regulation in developing countries influences foreign investment location decisions. Most empirical studies are based on aggregate data, while micro-level evidence is relatively lacking in the literature. To fill this research gap, this paper tests for the existence of intracountry pollution havens in China by estimating the determinants of foreign investment flows based on a large firm-level panel dataset. Evidence from this study supports the existence of pollution havens within China in certain industries. However, the sensitivity of foreign investment to environmental regulation varies significantly across industries with different pollution characteristics. Furthermore, when the impact of government subsidies on foreign investment is accounted for, the results show that subsidies can compensate for pollution treatment costs in provinces with stricter environmental regulation.

In this chapter, we examine the interplay between external legitimacy judgments, internal identity beliefs, and conceptions of sustainability. Based on observation at industry events and interviews with key stakeholders, we examine how organizational actors interpret the concept of sustainability in civil aviation, an industry subject to intense legitimacy threat for its environmental impact. We find that the concept of sustainability is interpreted through a process of naturalization, by which conceptual ties to past practices are forged, and the concept becomes corrupted. We describe three mechanisms (relabeling, bundling, and zooming out) through which concept naturalization occurs, and we show how this process creates resonance between sustainability and an industry ethos, which captures the aspirations, ideals and values of the industry.

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, the author posits and finds a significant positive relation between environmental performance (i.e., environmental efficiency) and firm performance (i.e., firm efficiency) by using a large panel sample from 1987 to 2015. The results are consistent with the notion in prior research (e.g., Porter, 1991; Porter & van der Linde, 1995) that pollution indicates a form of resource inefficiency and reducing pollution can increase firm performance. Second, managerial ability has recently received tremendous research attention. The author investigates the impact of managerial ability on the relation between environmental efficiency and firm efficiency and finds that the results are mainly driven by firms with low managerial ability.

The issue of environmental regulation and productivity has received increasing attention among academics, but little research has focused on Chinese firms despite the serious state of pollution in China. This study aimed to fill that gap. Analyzing a sample of firms from 12 Chinese cities, we found that environmental regulation could improve firm productivity, but the responses to environmental regulation differed across industry sectors, firm sizes, and locations. In this paper, we discuss the implications of these responses toward the environmental policy in China.

The increasing trend towards sustainable development has seen a shift from ‘end of pipe solutions’ to the ongoing threat of pollution. Policy makers have come to accept the need for some form of inbuilt environmental standards to be included in any overall planning strategy. These shifts come in the wake of the Brundtland Report and the Rio World Summit. They have also shaped environmental policy. A central feature of this new thinking is the theory of ‘Ecological Modernisation’ (EM). Underpinning this debate are the theorists Janicke, Weale and Hajer, who have each contributed to the conceptualisation of EM as a feature of modern society. It can be argued that EM theory reflects a critical new positioning of the environmental debate, moving away from the periphery of social, cultural and political channels and becoming an important aspect of policy planning in these areas.

It is not in doubt that pollution prevention and resource efficiency projects can sometimes make good business sense for an individual enterprise. For organizations that have previously done little to address their environmental impacts, some opportunity frequently exists to lessen those impacts while raising production efficiency and keeping their basic approach to business intact. This was the experience of many businesses during the 1980s and the origins of the suggestion that the environment was a “win-win” issue for business (Walley & Whitehead, 1996). Simply updating production equipment can offer a double dividend, which is partly why so many businesses are able to claim they are getting greener while aggregate environmental conditions deteriorate (McDonough & Braungart, 2002). The unresolved issue is whether an ongoing commitment to improve environmental performance is reflected in ongoing gains in business performance. As expressed by one advocate of eco-industrial development, the issue is not about doing the same with less but rather about doing far more with far less (Cohen-Rosenthal, 2003, p. 22).

Amid rising environmental concerns, Industry 4.0 and blockchain technology (BCT) are transforming circular economy practices and prevailing business models. Recognizing the same, the current study examines the role of advanced technology in circular practices and their impact on eco-environmental performance, which influences organizational performance. The study collects data from 185 food processing enterprises that are located in Malaysian territories. By employing CB-SEM modeling, the study provides three key findings. First, Industry 4.0 significantly improves the circular economy practices. Second, circular economy practices help to improve firms' environmental performance but did not stimulate operational performance. Third, higher eco-environmental performance significantly boosts organizational performance. This study set out the foundations for participating countries/firms that help to achieve sustainable goals through the integration of blockchain technology in circular economy practices.