IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i4p1459-d1588279.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Enterprises Willing to Participate in Voluntary Environmental Regulation? A Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Test

Author

Listed:
  • Feng Pan

    (School of Public Administration and Humanities and Arts, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China)

  • Yanni Xu

    (School of Public Administration and Humanities and Arts, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China)

  • Lin Wang

    (School of Economics and Management (Tourism), Dalian University, Dalian 116622, China)

Abstract

Voluntary environmental regulation is characterized by its non-compulsory nature, which gives enterprises the right to make their own choices. The wide application and high prevalence of the ISO14001 standard in China make it a representative and typical standard that can effectively reflect the degree of voluntary participation of enterprises in environmental management. Therefore, this paper uses whether enterprises have obtained this certification as a proxy measure of whether they have participated in voluntary environmental regulation for model construction. Enterprises that choose to participate indicate that they have higher self-imposed limits on environmental protection and have invested significant resources in reducing pollution and emissions. In order to investigate the willingness of enterprises to participate, a four-party evolutionary game model of “central government–enterprises–investors–consumers” was developed for theoretical analysis, followed by an empirical test using a numerical simulation method, aiming at identifying the key factors influencing the voluntary participation of enterprises. The study found that the central government’s active implementation is a key factor in promoting the active participation of enterprises in voluntary environmental regulation; investors’ green investment and consumers’ concern also play an important role, but the influence of consumers’ concern is relatively small and has a partial substitution effect with investors’ green investment; increasing central government rewards and boosting the amount of green investment by investors will effectively increase the speed and motivation of enterprises to participate.

Suggested Citation

  • Feng Pan & Yanni Xu & Lin Wang, 2025. "Are Enterprises Willing to Participate in Voluntary Environmental Regulation? A Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Test," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-21, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:4:p:1459-:d:1588279
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/4/1459/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/4/1459/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Fairchild, 2008. "The Manufacturing Sector’s Environmental Motives: A Game-theoretic Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 79(3), pages 333-344, May.
    2. Fawad Ahmed & Naveed Ahmad Faraz & Zhengde Xiong & Ying Ma, 2024. "The multilevel interplay of responsible leadership with leader identification and autonomous motivation to cultivate voluntary green behavior," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 1861-1889, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wong, Jin Boon & Zhang, Qin, 2022. "Stock market reactions to adverse ESG disclosure via media channels," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    2. Hui Yu & Wei Wang & Baohua Yang & Cunfang Li, 2019. "Evolutionary Game Analysis of the Stress Effect of Cross-Regional Transfer of Resource-Exhausted Enterprises," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-16, November.
    3. Zhang, Jiawei & Li, Yuan & Xu, Hanwen & Ding, Yi, 2023. "Can ESG ratings mitigate managerial myopia? Evidence from Chinese listed companies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Rimsha Naz & Danish Ahmed Siddiqui, 2021. "Exploring the Link between Corporate Reputation with Sustainability Leadership and Market Valuation: A Comparative Analysis of Award and Non-Award Companies in PSX," Global Journal of Educational Studies, Macrothink Institute, vol. 7(1), pages 19-53, June.
    5. Frédérique Bardinet, 2016. "Comparaison de trois méthodologies ESG : les différences de notations des bases de données extra financières," Post-Print hal-01900607, HAL.
    6. Tianchu Feng & Meijuan Liu & Chaozhu Li, 2022. "How Does Vertical Fiscal Imbalance Affect CO 2 Emissions? The Role of Capital Mismatch," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-15, August.
    7. Frederique Bardinet Evraert & Serge Evraert, 2019. "Do the ESG scores help to select the most successful companies?," Post-Print hal-03227627, HAL.
    8. Yalabik, Baris & Fairchild, Richard J., 2011. "Customer, regulatory, and competitive pressure as drivers of environmental innovation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(2), pages 519-527, June.
    9. Ricky Y. K. Chan & Jennifer W. M. Lai & Namwoon Kim, 2022. "Strategic motives and performance implications of proactive versus reactive environmental strategies in corporate sustainable development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2127-2142, July.
    10. Edyta Bombiak, 2022. "Green Intellectual Capital as a Support for Corporate Environmental Development—Polish Company Experience," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-18, April.
    11. Isabel Lourenço & Jeffrey Callen & Manuel Branco & José Curto, 2014. "The Value Relevance of Reputation for Sustainability Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(1), pages 17-28, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:4:p:1459-:d:1588279. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.