This study develops a multiple mediating model for exploring the link between environmental regulation and financial performance through green dynamic capability, sustainability exploration/exploitation innovation, based on the data from 355 Chinese manufacturing firms. Empirical results support a mediating role of green dynamic capability and sustainability exploration/exploitation in the link between environmental regulation and financial performance, respectively. What’s more, our findings indicate that environmental regulation can help improve financial performance via two multiple mediating paths, i.e., green dynamic capability and sustainability exploration innovation, as well as green dynamic capability and sustainability exploitation innovation. These key findings will help to understand how important green dynamic capability and sustainable innovation is when Chinese manufacturing firms establish a business-politics tie.

The links among firms’ environmental regulation, innovation process, and sustainable development has been analyzed, but a research gap still remains in terms of environmental commitment and different types of sustainable innovation in firms’ sustainability. Through collecting a dataset of 380 valid respondents from Chinese manufacturing firms, this paper incorporates evironmental regulation, environmental commitment, sustainability exploration innovation, sustainability exploitation innovation, environmental performance, and business performance into a multiple mediating effect model. Our key emperical findings are as follows: (1) Environmental regulation not only cannot affect environmental performance and business performance, but also cannot affect the two types of firm performance through sustainability exploration innovation or sustainability exploitation innovation; (2) The relationship between environmental regulation, environmental performance (or business performance) is subsequently mediated by both environmental commitment and sustainability exploitation innovation; (3) Environmental regulation does not affect environmental performance (or business performance) through environmental commitment and sustainability exploration innovation. These results do, however, support the Porter Hypothesis in terms of revealing a new multiple mediating effect path dominated by environmental commitment and sustainability exploitation innovation. Our findings can provide a better understanding of how environmental commitment and sustainability exploitation innovation play a key effect in helping firms relieve the pressure from environmental regulation, and thus improve their environmental management while keeping their competitive edge.

The patent portfolio affects the research and development (R&D) decisions of artificial intelligence enterprises, and provides rights protection for the enterprise’s product market, which is of great practical significance for the realization of innovation performance. The aim of this paper is to discover how the patent portfolio of artificial intelligence enterprises affects the relationship between R&D intensity and innovation performance. Based on the panel data of 164 listed enterprises in the A-share artificial intelligence concept sector of China, using the panel fixed effect regression method, the impact of R&D intensity on innovation performance was analyzed, and the moderating effect of the three dimensions of the patent portfolio on the two was examined. Studies have shown that the impact of R&D intensity on innovation performance is in an inverted U-shaped relationship. In addition, the diversity characteristics of the patent portfolio have a moderating effect on the relationship between R&D intensity and innovation performance, and when the enterprise is at a high level of diversity, the two have a U-shaped flip relationship. The size of the patent portfolio has a positive impact on innovation performance. The research results have theoretical and practical significance for the implementation of effective R&D management in artificial intelligence enterprise organizations.

The link between green organizational identity (GOI) and corporate environmental performance (CEP) has been investigated, but existing studies have no consistent conclusion. A significant research gap remains regarding the mediating role of sustainability exploration innovation (SER), sustainability exploitation innovation (SEI), and the moderating role of government environmental regulation (GER). This study explored the relationship between GOI and CEP in a moderated meditation model which includes SER, SEI, and GER. Using structural equation modelling and bootstrap method based on data sets from of 380 Chinese companies, the results show that: (1) GOI promotes SER, thereby enhancing CEP; (2) GOI promotes SEI, thereby enhancing CEP; (3) GER can positively moderate the indirect effect of GOI on CEP via SER; (4) GER negatively moderate the indirect effect of GOI on CEP via SEI. These findings suggest that firms choose different innovative ways between SER and SEI to improve CEP which depends on different levels of GER in China.

Public health issues are a global focus, but recent research on the links between fossil energy consumption, pollutant emissions, and public health in different regions have presented inconsistent conclusions. In order to quantify the effect of fossil energy use and pollutant emissions on public health from the global perspective, this paper investigates 33 countries with high GDP and fossil energy consumption from 1995 to 2015 using a fixed effect model. Further, this paper utilizes heterogeneity analysis to characterize the disparity of countries with different features. Empirical results indicate that total fossil energy consumption is beneficial to the life expectancy of the population (LEP), but pollutant emissions (PM10 concentration and greenhouse gas scale) have a negative effect on LEP. Moreover, the heterogeneity test indicates that pollutant emissions lowers LEP in net energy importers more than in net energy exporters, and the effect of such emissions in low- and middle-income countries on public health is more harmful than that in high-income countries. These findings suggest that it is a greater priority for governments to strengthen the control of pollutant emissions through enhancing the efficiency of energy consumption, rather than by reducing its scale of use in low- and middle-income, and net energy importing countries. Additionally, governments also need to focus on the volatility of pollutant emissions in high-income countries with necessary control measures.