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This study aims to explore and segment consumer preferences for electric and hybrid vehicles in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Turkey, focusing on understanding the various factors that influence consumer decisions in these markets.

Using latent class analysis (LCA) on data collected through online surveys and discrete choice experiments, this research categorizes consumers into distinct segments. The approach allows for a nuanced understanding of how various factors such as income level, fuel cost, age, CO₂ emissions, purchase price, vehicle range, policy policies and environmental concerns interact with shape consumer preferences.

The analysis uncovers significant heterogeneity in consumer preferences for electric and hybrid vehicles across Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Turkey, revealing four key segments: “Eco-Driven Innovators,” “Value-Focused Pragmatists,” “Tech-Savvy Early Adopters” and “Reluctant Traditionalists.” “Eco-Driven Innovators” prioritize environmental benefits and are less sensitive to price, demonstrating a strong inclination toward vehicle CO₂ emissions and policy policies. “Value-Focused Pragmatists” weigh economic factors heavily, showing a sharp interest in fuel costs and purchase prices but are open to considering electric and hybrid vehicles if they present clear long-term savings. Technology-savvy early adopters are attracted by the latest technological advancements in vehicles, regardless of the type, and are motivated by factors beyond just environmental concerns or cost savings. Lastly, “Reluctant Traditionalists” exhibit minimal interest in electric and hybrid vehicles due to concerns over charging infrastructure and upfront costs. This detailed segmentation illustrates the diverse motivations and barriers influencing consumer choices, from governmental policies and environmental concerns to individual financial considerations and technological appeal.

This study stands out for its pioneering application of LCA to dissect the complexity of consumer preferences for electric and hybrid vehicles, a methodological approach not widely used in this research domain. Using LCA, the authors are able to uncover nuanced consumer segments, each with distinct preferences and motivations, providing a depth of insight into market dynamics that traditional analysis methods may overlook. This approach enables a more granular understanding of how diverse factors – ranging from environmental concerns to economic considerations and technological attributes – interact to shape consumer choices in different countries. The findings not only fill a critical gap in the existing literature by mapping the intricate landscape of consumer preferences, but also offer a novel perspective on strategizing market interventions. Therefore, the application of LCA enriches the discourse on sustainable transportation, offering stakeholders, manufacturers, policymakers and researchers – a refined toolkit for navigating the evolving market dynamics and fostering the adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles.

This study evaluates how well Victorian local councils’ procurement policies align with the sustainable and circular economy (CE) approach that prioritises sustainable and regenerative practices. It proposes a set of criteria designed to effectively integrate environmental sustainability issues into purchasing policies.

Employing the Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART) framework, a multi-dimensional content analysis guided by the goal-setting theory was applied to evaluate all 79 Victorian local councils’ procurement policies. This approach provided an assessment of policy specificity, measurability, assignability, realism and time sensitivity in promoting environmental sustainability through purchasing policies.

The findings underscored a significant deficiency in policy adherence to all SMART criteria concerning environmental sustainability, hindering the effective green purchasing decisions within government entities. This lack of integration of greening in purchasing policy poses challenges for manufacturers of waste-derived goods, obscuring the procurement objectives of these critical public sector customers.

The paper contributes to the sustainable procurement (SP) discourse by proposing guidelines aimed at improving the efficacy of governmental purchasing of sustainable products. These guidelines address the broader imperative to mitigate the environmental impacts of governmental spending on less sustainable goods, thereby fostering ecological sustainability and promoting responsible consumption.

While past studies have often relied on subjective content analysis methods, the SMART assessment used to develop the environmental sustainability criteria for purchasing policies, which distinguishes this study from previous governmental policy evaluation studies. This approach marks a departure from traditional governmental policy evaluation studies, offering a more structured analysis of policy effectiveness in promoting SP practices.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of China’s Green Credit Guidelines (GCG) policy on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores of restricted enterprises and examine firm’s speculative behavior in response to the policy.

This paper views the GCG policy proposed in 2012 as a quasinatural experiment and uses difference-in-differences (DID) model to evaluate its influence on the ESG scores of Chinese nonfinancial A-share listed enterprises from 2007 to 2019. Robustness tests include the propensity score matching (PSM)–DID method and permutation tests.

The GCG policy significantly increases the ESG scores of restricted enterprises, particularly enhancing environmental (E) performance. However, it only improves the social (S) and governance (G) performance of firms heavily reliant on bank credit, indicating speculative behavior by enterprises. Increased Government attention, a higher proportion of female executives and more developed local green finance reduce speculative behavior, while executives with financial backgrounds promote it.

Governments should mandate standardized ESG reporting and monitor restricted enterprises, banks should monitor speculative behavior and firms should integrate ESG into their long-term strategies to support sustainable development.

The results provide evidence of the effectiveness of implementing the GCG policy in China and offer guidance for better promoting green credit policy in developing countries, contributing to the transition toward a more sustainable future.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to explore if the GCG policy’s asymmetric effects on ESG components are due to enterprise speculative behavior and examines the factors influencing this behavior, providing insights for regulators to better implement the GCG policy to promote sustainable development.

This paper aims to examine the impact of corporate environmental transparency (CET) on corporate financial performance under a mandatory environmental disclosure policy in China, the largest carbon-emitting country. It aims to clarify the concept of CET and investigate its short-term financial implications for key pollutant-discharging entities (KPEs).

A multidimensional model is used to construct a comprehensive CET index for KPEs in China. Empirical tests are conducted to assess the relationship between CET and corporate financial performance.

The study finds a negative relationship between CET and corporate financial performance in the short term. Increased environmental transparency necessitates higher environmental resource allocation, adversely affecting profits. The results remain unchanged from a battery of robustness tests. Despite mandatory disclosure, companies tend to provide general and vague information rather than specific and meaningful environmental data.

The findings provide rich practical implications for policymakers to improve a mandatory environmental disclosure policy. The paper also contributes to the existing knowledge by developing a measure of CET and presenting new evidence to the debate on whether corporate environmental disclosure can be regarded as transparency.

Policymakers are advised to refine mandatory environmental disclosure regulations to ensure genuine transparency and to implement policy measures that alleviate the financial burdens of companies with high CET levels, thereby encouraging sustainable practices.

This paper contributes to the existing knowledge by developing a measure of CET and providing new evidence on the debate over whether environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure equates to transparency. It emphasizes the complexity of transparency and the inadequacy of current environmental disclosure practices among KPEs. The study underscores the need for financial support for companies with high CET levels to alleviate short-term financial strains and promote long-term sustainability.

This paper examines how firms respond to local government’s environment initiatives through textual analysis of government work reports (GWRs). This study aims to provide insights into how firms strategically respond to government’s environmental initiatives through their disclosure and investment practices.

This study uses a textual analysis of GWRs from China’s provinces. The frequency and change rate of environmental keywords in these reports are used as a measure of the government’s environmental initiatives.

This study finds that environmental disclosure scores in environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports increase with the frequency or change rate of environmental keywords in provincial GWRs. This effect is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises, firms in highly marketized provinces or those listed in a single capital market. However, there is no significant relationship between firms’ environmental investments and government initiatives, except for cross-listed firms in provinces with consistently high frequency of environmental keywords in their GWRs.

The findings indicate that government environmental initiatives can shape firms’ disclosure behaviors, yet have limited influence on investment decisions, suggesting that environmental disclosure could potentially be opportunistic. This underscores the need for more effective strategies to stimulate firms’ environmental investments.

This study provides valuable insights into the differential impacts of government environmental initiatives on firms’ disclosure and investment behaviors, contributing to the understanding of corporate environmental responsibility in the context of government initiatives.

The paper aims at addressing the following research questions: does institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency? And which pillars of institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency?

By specifying a directional distance function in the context of stochastic frontier method where GHG emissions are considered as the bad output and the GDP is referred as the desirable one, the work computes the environmental efficiency into the appraisal of a production function for the European countries over three decades.

According to the countries' performance, the findings confirm that high and upper middle-income countries have higher environmental efficiency compared to low middle-income countries. In this environmental context, the role of institutional quality turns out to be really important in improving the environmental efficiency for high income countries.

This article attempts to analyze the role of different dimensions of institutional quality in different European countries' performance – in terms of mitigating GHGs (undesirable output) – while trying to raise their economic performance through their GDP (desirable output).

1. The paper aims at addressing the following research question: does institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency?

2. We adopt a directional distance function in the context of stochastic frontier method, considering 40 European economies over a 30-year time interval.

3. The findings confirm that high and upper middle-income countries have higher environmental efficiency compared to low middle-income countries.

4. The role of institutional quality turns out to be really important in improving the environmental efficiency for high income countries, while the performance decreases for the low middle-income countries.

The paper aims at addressing the following research question: does institutional quality improve countries' environmental efficiency?

We adopt a directional distance function in the context of stochastic frontier method, considering 40 European economies over a 30-year time interval.

The findings confirm that high and upper middle-income countries have higher environmental efficiency compared to low middle-income countries.

The role of institutional quality turns out to be really important in improving the environmental efficiency for high income countries, while the performance decreases for the low middle-income countries.

The purpose of the present study is to test the effect of financial development and environmental degradation on the control of corruption.

This study used a dynamic approach known as system GMM to analyze annual data from 90 developed and developing countries over 24 years, from 1996 to 2020.

The present study shows a significantly negative relationship between financial development and control of corruption and a significantly positive relationship between environmental degradation and control of corruption. The result suggests that improvement in financial development may reduce control of corruption; however, reduction in environmental degradation may reduce control of corruption. The results are consistent across both developed and developing countries.

The study’s findings have significant implications for financial institutions, governmental policy departments and environmental regulatory agencies. The policy outcomes are closely linked to the economic prosperity of countries. In general, developing countries can implement strategies to promote financial development and environmental regulations, even though they may temporarily tolerate corrupt activities. Conversely, developed nations may have differing implications from developing countries.

This study is different from the past literature as none of the studies have been conducted previously focusing on developed and developing countries’ financial development, environmental degradation and control of corruption.

Green entrepreneurship (GE) is a novel concept in business and enhances environmentally friendly production and operation activities for “sustainable development” (SD). The aim of this study is to determine the drivers that contribute to the growth and success of “micro, small, and medium enterprises” (MSMEs) in the manufacturing sector in India. The study also examines the mutual and cause-and-effect relationships among these identified drivers.

The study used integrated research methodology and identified nine key drivers of GE (GEDs) through extensive literature reviews, theoretical perspectives (i.e. “resource-based view” (RBV), “natural resource-based view” (NRBV) and “critical success factor theory” (CSFT)), and expert opinions. Further, “total interpretive structural modeling” (TISM) and “matrice d'impacts croisés multiplication appliquée á un classment” (MICMAC) analysis are used here to develop a hierarchical model and cluster the drivers, and fuzzy “decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory” (fuzzy-DEMATEL) is used to develop causal relationships among the drivers. Further, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to ensure the robustness of the results.

Results indicated that green manufacturing and operation capability development, green business process management and attitudes toward developing sustainable business models significantly impacted GE and SD. The findings of this study help managers, policymakers, and practitioners gain an in-depth understanding of the drivers of GE.

The study considers a limited number of drivers and is specific to Indian manufacturing MSMEs only. Further, a limited number of experts from different enterprises are considered for data analysis. This study is also based on interrelationships and their relative importance based on multicriteria decision-making techniques. This study aids government decision-making, policy formulation and strategic decision-making for manufacturing businesses in achieving SD goals. In addition, this research also encourages green entrepreneurs to start eco-driven companies and facilitate the use of environmentally friendly goods to offset environmental challenges and accomplish sustainable development goals.

This study proposes an integrated methodology that will benefit managers, practitioners and others in developing strategies and innovations to improve and develop green practices. This study further helps with responsive, sustainable business development in various manufacturing MSMEs.

This study highlights the crucial significance of stakeholder participation in the creation of a comprehensive energy and electrical master plan for Mozambique. The purpose of this study is to deliver a practical insights that transcend theoretical concerns by digging into the subtleties of stakeholder relationships and strategic collaborations, paving the path for pragmatic and meaningful solutions that connect with real-life conditions. This debate lays the groundwork for educated decision-making, propelling Mozambique’s energy industry towards a more sustainable and prosperous future.

The study used a combined approach of stakeholder analysis (SA) and social network analysis (SNA) to enhance our understanding of the stakeholder landscape in Mozambique’s energy sector. This methodological approach offers a unique vantage point to examine the individual stakeholders’ roles and the intricate web of connections, partnerships, collaborations and information-sharing activities. By integrating SA and SNA, this study aims to provide a more comprehensive and dynamic depiction of stakeholder interactions, contributing methodologically to the existing body of literature.

The findings also highlight the need to develop frameworks that promote private investment and joint endeavours with entities such as Cahora Bassa Dam/Mozambique Transmission Company. A consistent legal framework ensures uniform performance and a robust monitoring system for ongoing projects, improving accountability and progress tracking. Furthermore, the discussion includes enhancing the competence of the regulatory agency regulating the electricity industry. This includes tackling complex concerns with electricity pricing and other regulatory aspects relevant to private investment. A highly empowered regulatory agency is critical to creating an atmosphere conducive to long-term private sector involvement.

While the study emphasises the need to integrate multiple stakeholders, it may not detail specific issues or impediments that may develop during the engagement process. Additional research could look into potential tensions or barriers to effective collaboration. Furthermore, the study emphasises the necessity of addressing environmental impacts; it must thoroughly examine specific environmental concerns such as carbon emissions, deforestation or renewable energy possibilities. Future research could assess the suggested policies’ environmental impact more extensively. Additionally, while the conclusion briefly mentions economic prosperity, a more thorough consideration of the possible economic and social implications of various energy policies could provide a greater understanding of their practicality and potential benefits.

In terms of practical contributions, this study aspires to shed light on how stakeholder interactions can shape energy policy interventions that ensure reliable and affordable energy sources for economic development and societal well-being. By unveiling the complex network of relationships and partnerships, this study seeks to provide actionable insights for policymakers, industry players and other stakeholders involved in Mozambique’s energy sector. By taking this action, this research aims to pave the way for more effective and inclusive energy policies that align with circular economy principles, thus addressing a critical need in scholarly discourse and practical implementation.

The study underscores the critical role of energy stakeholders in shaping energy policies and projects, given their influential positions and impact on decision-making processes. While existing literature acknowledges this influence, a discernible research gap exists in comprehensively understanding how stakeholder interactions and collaborations in the energy sector affect policy interventions within a context such as Mozambique. This study seeks to bridge this gap by delving into the intricacies of stakeholder involvement and its implications for energy policy development in Mozambique.

This study aims to examine the direct effects of Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) practices on employee green behavior (EGB) in the university setting in Bangladesh and to find the indirect effects of how GHRM promotes EGB through sequentially mediating employee environmental knowledge management (EEKM) (environmental knowledge and knowledge sharing) and green self-efficacy (GSE).

For the empirical study, the researcher uses partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the proposed conceptual model built on existing literature for greening workplaces in the university in Bangladesh. The study has collected data from 288 Bangladeshi university employees using convenient sampling.

The findings that GHRM practices positively and significantly promote EGB, which captures the employee's tendencies to exercise green behavior in daily routine activities such as turning off lights, air conditioning, computers and equipment after working hours, printing on both sides, recycling (reducing, repair, reuse), disseminating good green ideas, concepts, digital skills and knowledge to peers and champion green initiatives at work. Moreover, the findings also revealed the sequential mediation of EEKM (environmental knowledge and knowledge sharing) and GSE of employees between the link GHRM and EGB. At last, the findings suggested that HR managers can implement the GHRM practices to promote green behaviors among the academic and non-academic staff of the university.

This study contributes to the field by extending knowledge of Social Cognition Theory and Social Learning Theory for greening workplaces in Bangladesh, particularly universities. Specifically, this empirical study is unique to the best of our knowledge and highlights the role of EEKM and GSE as mediation between GHRM and EGB association.