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Digital government: The new player in improving mining companies’ environmental performance?

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  • Linghu, Jingying
  • Guo, Chengcheng

Abstract

Enhancing environmental performance (EP) is a critical path for the transformation of mining companies. Digital government is a new form of government governance in the digital era, providing more opportunities for companies. Whether digital government can promote mining companies' EP remains to be explored. Utilizing data of listed mining companies from 2010 to 2021 in China, this study investigates the impact of the digital government policy on mining companies' EP and reveals several important findings. First, digital government construction enhances mining companies' EP by promoting company digital transformation and innovation. Additionally, the environmental protection efforts have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between digital government and mining companies' EP. Second, heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the effect of digital government on mining companies' EP is more pronounced in eastern and middle regions, key cities, competitive industries and non-state-owned companies. Finally, further analysis reveals that the digital government improves mining companies' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and governance performance, but insignificantly affects the social performance. Overall, our results provide micro-level evidence for the environmental benefits of government governance reform and offer a new perspective for exploring the drivers of mining companies’ EP.

Suggested Citation

  • Linghu, Jingying & Guo, Chengcheng, 2024. "Digital government: The new player in improving mining companies’ environmental performance?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:93:y:2024:i:c:s0301420724004616
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2024.105094
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