The role of economic complexity in the environmental Kuznets curve of MINT economies: evidence from method of moments quantile regression

Green transition in the hospitality industry: The influence of market forces and customer dynamics on sustainable performance in the digital era

In recent years, the ongoing environmental challenges have caused hotel firms to experience stress from stakeholders (i.e., customers and competitors). These stringent ecological changes have compelled hospitality firms to go green. This study investigates the influence of customer and competitive pressures on green innovation and sustainability in the hospitality industry. Utilizing a sample of 309 employees from multiple hospitality companies, the study rigorously tests a series of hypotheses using Smart PLS and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings supported all the hypotheses, indicating that customer and competitive pressures significantly foster green product and process innovations, enhance sustainable firm performance, and encourage green CSR initiatives in the Chinese hospitality sector. Furthermore, green product innovation, green process innovation, and green CSR were found to be critical mediators in enhancing firm performance under the influence of these pressures. These results have substantial implications for theory and practice, highlighting the importance of external pressures in promoting sustainable practices in the hospitality industry.

The dampening effect of geopolitical risk and economic policy uncertainty in the linkage between economic complexity and environmental degradation in the G-20

The question remains whether high geopolitical risk and economic policy uncertainty will have a dampening or enhancing effect on pollution factors. In this regard, the study empirically investigates the effects of economic complexity, geopolitical risk, economic policy uncertainty, renewable energy consumption and economic growth on environmental pollution for G-20 countries from 1997 to 2018. The long-term coefficient estimates, derived from the FMOLS estimator, support the inverted U-shaped EKC linkages between economic complexity and ecological footprint, carbon footprint and carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore, over the long term, geopolitical risks, renewable energy use, and the interaction between economic complexity and policy uncertainty have a positive impact on environmental quality in the G-20 economies. Conversely, economic growth and the interaction between economic complexity and geopolitical risk are negatively associated with environmental quality. Additionally, economic policy uncertainty has a positive effect on ecological footprint carbon footprint and carbon dioxide emissions. Finally, causality results revealed that explanatory variables are the cause of environmental pollution indicators. Hence, in order to advance environmental quality in these nations, precautions must be taken to mitigate the effects of economic policy uncertainty and boost the accessibility of renewable energy sources. Additionally, while not advised as a policy measure, the feasible economic fallout of geopolitical risk should also be considered.

Achieving renewable energy transition through financial stability of renewable energy companies and banking facility

Investing heavily in the transition to renewable energy is essential for global sustainability. Companies in the renewable energy sector often use bank financing for day-to-day operations and capital expenditures. This research looks at the effect of financial ties between renewable energy companies and banks on both industries' viability as they make the switch to renewable power sources. We analyze a large worldwide sample of renewable energy firms and banks to see how these interdependencies affect the long-term viability of both industries. According to our findings, the effectiveness of the shift is heavily impacted by the degree of interconnection between renewable energy businesses and banks. Financing costs are reduced and investments in renewable energy projects are encouraged when banks have a higher exposure to renewable energy enterprises. In addition to highlighting the importance of these linkages, our research also emphasizes the possible hazards associated with them, such as financial contagion and systemic risk, and underscores the necessity for effective risk management methods. In conclusion, this study highlights the need for a coordinated strategy to the renewable energy transition that weighs the advantages and disadvantages of interconnection. We show that there are both positive and negative outcomes that can result from the relationship between financial institutions and renewable energy enterprises, and we highlight the duty of policymakers and regulators to ensure that banks have adequate exposure to the industry while closely monitoring associated risks.

How does economic complexity improve energy efficiency? Mechanism discussion and empirical test

Energy efficiency represents one of the best productive strategies to lessen the effects of global warming and climate change. Similarly, the manufacturing and export of a wide variety of high-tech, knowledge-based items like chemicals and machinery have significant effects on both economic growth and the environment. The main goal of this study is to examine the long-run effects of economic complexity on energy efficiency in 93 countries over the period from 1995 to 2015. The empirical outcomes reveal that economic complexity improves energy efficiency. Specifically, countries that produce and export a wide range of sophisticated products tend to enjoy higher levels of energy efficiency compared to their counterparts who export a limited range of simple products. Moreover, empirical findings suggest that economic growth and population density increase energy efficiency, while trade impedes it. Further empirical investigations from a mediation analysis revealed that about 63% and 38% of the effects of economic complexity on energy efficiency mediate through income inequality reduction and human capital accumulation, respectively. Based on these results, political leaders and governments are provided with solid reasons to pay more attention to improving their productive structures in order to promote energy efficiency and a green future.

Effects of transport-carbon intensity, transportation, and economic complexity on environmental and health expenditures

Health and the environment are complex components of the countries, influenced by several factors, especially transport, and economics. Thus, this paper assesses the role of transportation and economic complexity in the environment and public health for the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD) countries from 2001 to 2020. This study also focuses on the relationship between transport and economic complexity with environmental and healthcare expenditures. Precisely, transport and economic activities stimulate healthcare expenditures through multiple channels. The current study employs the STIRPAT model to investigate the association with transportation, economic complexity, transport-carbon intensity, and healthcare expenditure. Besides, the current research confirms the plausible cross-sectional dependency across countries, and it adopts a second-generation technique. Analytical findings suggest that transportation-carbon intensity is positively and significantly associated with healthcare expenditures. Healthcare and transport-household expenditures increase transport-carbon intensity (TCI) by 75% and 45%, respectively, in the long run. In the contrast, TCI and transport-household expenditures have also a remarkable impact on healthcare expenditures and are estimated approximately 95% in the long run. Moreover, economic growth also upsurges TCI and healthcare expenditures through multiple economic activities. Besides, transport-household expenditures (THE) drastically impact transport-carbon intensity and healthcare expenditures (HEX) through passenger traffic (PTF). Diagnostic upshots unveil that the joint effect of THE and PTF increases TCI and HEX by 4 and 3%, respectively. Finally, findings recommend some policy implications and future research directions for the countries based on empirical outcomes. Countries should regulate economic activities to reduce transport carbon emissions.

Toward a sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa: do economic complexity and renewable energy improve environmental quality?

Emission reduction has become more crucial for environmental sustainability in light of the growing concerns about climate change. Many studies have identified that structural change and clean energy technologies improve environmental quality. However, there is an absence of empirics that focus on the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) context, which shifted the structure of their economies from the agriculture sector towards sophisticated manufacturing activities that affect the environment. Hence, this study aims to investigate the impacts of economic complexity and renewable energy consumption on carbon emissions in 41 SSA countries between 1999 and 2018. The study adopts contemporary heterogeneous panel approaches to overcome heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence issues that usually arise in panel data estimates. The empirical findings of the pooled mean group (PMG) cointegration analysis indicate that renewable energy consumption alleviates environmental pollution in the long run and short run. In contrast, economic complexity improves environmental quality in the long run but not in the short run. On the other hand, economic growth contributes adversely to environmental degradation in the long run and short run. The study indicates that urbanization worsens environmental pollution in the long run. In addition, the outcomes of the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test indicate a unidirectional causal path from carbon emissions to renewable energy consumption. The causality results also suggest that carbon emission has bidirectional causation with economic complexity, economic growth, and urbanization. Therefore, the study recommends that SSA countries change their economic structure towards knowledge-intensive production and adopt policies that encourage investment in renewable energy infrastructures by subsidizing the initiatives to achieve clean energy technologies.

A strategic analysis of incorporating corporate environmental responsibility into managerial incentive design: a differential game approach

As corporations' environmental impacts come under greater scrutiny from global financial, regulatory, and societal stakeholders, management scholars have increasingly focused on the role corporate governance plays in undertaking corporate environmental responsibility (CER). This paper combines managerial incentives and CER in a dynamic environment to formulate a differential game model of managerial incentive design in a duopolistic market, investigating whether companies with profit-maximizing interests are motivated to provide their professional managers with incentives related to CER and the impact of such incentives on corporate profitability, social welfare and emissions reduction. The results demonstrate the following: (1) Employing professional managers increases the emissions reduction efforts of firms and giving incentives to professional managers further increases the emissions reduction level of firms. (2) When a firm employs a professional manager and pays him or her a fixed salary, it generates slightly less income than it does when a manager is not employed; however, if the professional manager is given CER-related incentives, the firm's income is greatly increased. (3) As long as professional managers are employed, social welfare increases regardless of whether professional managers are given incentive pay. (4) The emissions reduction of a firm increases with an increase in the income distribution coefficient π₁. This paper extends the existing CER decision-making model by considering different managerial incentive designs, providing new insights into CER and enterprise organizational strategy and offering useful policy recommendations and a scientific basis for environmental governance, which is expected to be useful for finding ways to balance economic development and environmental protection.

The role of renewable energy consumption on environmental degradation in EU countries: do institutional quality, technological innovation, and GDP matter?

In the face of climate change and environmental degradation, reducing emission of greenhouse gases has become a key factor for environmental sustainability. Therefore, the present research is intended to explore the roles of renewable energy consumption, institutional quality, technological innovation, and GDP on carbon dioxide emissions in the 14 EU countries. In doing so, this study employed novel method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) using annual data from 2000 to 2019. Also, a number of other estimators were applied for robustness check including the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), and the fixed effect ordinary least square (FE-OLS). The empirical findings indicate that renewable energy consumption significantly reduces CO₂ emissions across all quantiles (0.1-0.9). Furthermore, institutional quality and technological innovation improve environmental quality in 0.1-0.7 quantiles, although GDP enhances carbon emissions significantly in all quantiles. In addition, the FMOLS, DOLS, and FE-OLS results confirmed the MMQR results. The outcomes of this study suggest insights for the policymakers to mitigate carbon emissions through promoting innovative technologies for environmental protection and investing more in the development of renewable energy.

Analyzing the co-movement between CO2 emissions and disaggregated nonrenewable and renewable energy consumption in BRICS: evidence through the lens of wavelet coherence

This study investigates the time-frequency nexus of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions with economic growth, nonrenewable (i.e., coal, natural gas, and oil), and renewable (i.e., hydro and geothermal) energy consumption. In this context, BRICS countries (namely, Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa), which are leading emerging countries, are included, and quarterly data from 1990/Q1 to 2019/Q4 is used. The study employs the wavelet coherence (WC) approach to explore the co-movement between the variables at different frequencies. The empirical results show that (i) there is a strong and positive co-movement between CO₂ emission and economic growth; however, it is weak for Russia and South Africa in the medium and long-term; (ii) coal energy consumption is strongly and positively co-moved with CO₂ emission for all BRICS countries; (iii) natural gas energy consumption is strongly and positively co-moved with CO₂ emissions in Brazil, India, and China; however, it is weakly and positively co-moved in Russia and South Africa; (iv) oil energy consumption is strongly and positively co-moved with CO₂ emissions in Brazil, India, and China; however, it changes a bit for Russia and South Africa; (v) hydro energy consumption is weakly and positively co-moved with CO₂ emissions in general, whereas country-based results vary; (vi) geothermal energy consumption is also similar to hydro energy consumption. Thus, the WC results highlight the strong co-movement of economic growth and nonrenewable energy consumption with CO₂ emissions, whereas renewable energy consumption has a relatively lower co-movement. Based on the results, policy implications are also discussed for BRICS countries.

Sustainable development of West African economies to achieve environmental quality

The deterioration of environmental quality spurred on by rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is the main threat to reducing carbon footprint. Africa has recently been identified as having experienced excessive temperatures above pre-industrial standards. Despite its lower GHG emissions, Africa continues to be among the most impacted areas of the world by global warming. However, this research scrutinizes the effect of human capital and trade openness on the ecological footprint (ECF) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions using data from West Africa from 1995 to 2016. The research used dynamic ordinary least squares, fully modified ordinary least squares, and paired Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality tests for its assessment. The study's findings are as follows: (1) The study found that human capital and trade openness decrease the ecological footprint in West Africa; (2) globalization reduces CO₂ emissions while also increasing the ecological footprint; (3) the analysis reveals that natural resources and the population improve environmental quality in West Africa, while biocapacity reduces the ecological footprint and improves CO₂ emissions in the region; and (4) the study revealed the bidirectional causality between biocapacity, the population, and ECF. The study also revealed the bidirectional causality between biocapacity, population, human capital, natural resources, and CO₂ emissions, while ecological footprint is unidirectionally causally related to globalization, human capital, and trade capital. Unidirectional causality runs from the ecological footprint, globalization, and trade openness to CO₂ emissions. To ensure their countries have a long-term future, policymakers in West Africa should take action to limit overexploitation of natural resources and encourage people to live more sustainably. The study suggested that West African countries adopt "green growth" policies and improve technology to help their economies and the environment.

Impact of subsectors of agriculture and economic growth on CO2 emissions in Pakistan: evidence from Environmental Kuznets Curve

Modernization produces carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions but is also able to achieve sustainable agriculture growth by introducing the concept of renewable energy into the agriculture sector, and through this process reduce the CO₂ emissions in the country. The main objective of this research is to check the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis with CO₂ emissions and economic development in renewable energy and agriculture subsectors such as fisheries and crop production in Pakistan. This study covers the time period 1984 to 2020. We have applied the autoregressive distribution lag (ARDL) bound test. The results indicate the existence of long-term association among all variables in the model. The result of co-integration in the short run shows a negative relationship between CO₂ emissions and crop production in the current time period, and it shows a positive correlation with the first lag of CO₂ emission, which means that current crop production reduces the CO₂ emissions by 32% during a year, while in the lag period, it will increase in the short run. In the long run, a 1% increase in crop production will reduce the CO₂ emission by 86%. Renewable energy shows a negative relation with CO₂ emissions in the short run; a 1% increase in renewable energy will reduced the CO₂ by 0.017%. Our results support the existence of the EKC hypothesis for Pakistan. In light of the findings, it is suggested that policy makers should focus more on renewable energy to decrease the level of CO₂ as much as possible. Moreover, the government must provide subsidies for machines used for cropping and give special attention to subsectors such as livestock and fisheries.

Is Europe on the Way to Sustainable Development? Compatibility of Green Environment, Economic Growth, and Circular Economy Issues

The challenges imposed by climate change and the limited nature of resources generate paradigm shifts at the level of economic, social, and environmental policies and strategies. Promoting the principles of sustainable development and the circular economy is a priority worldwide. Thus, the motivation of this research is to explore the European countries' path toward sustainable development by analysing the relationship between green environment, economic growth, and circular economy issues. In order to explore this relationship in the case of European countries, the analysis takes into consideration specific variables: final energy consumption, GDP, capital gross fixed capital formation, greenhouse gas emissions, SOx emissions, NOx emissions, and generation of municipal waste per capita. This study is focused on the period 2009-2020 for 31 European countries, with data being provided by Eurostat and World Bank databases. The panel data analysis was used in order to examine the relationship between a green environment, economic growth and a circular economy. The results of the study suggest that gross fixed capital formation and total greenhouse gas emissions lead to decreasing generation of municipal waste; instead, final energy consumption, GDP, SOx emissions and NOx emissions generate an increase in the generation of municipal waste. The novelty of our paper consists of associating green environment, economic growth, and circular economy in the case of European countries, the results allowing the proposal of economic policy measures to favor the green transition process considering the potential of the circular economy.

Exploring the nexus between economic complexity, energy consumption and ecological footprint: new insights from the United Arab Emirates

Purpose

Motivated by the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-7: clean and affordable energy, SDG-8: sustainable economic growth, SDG-13: climate action), this study aims to investigate the role of economic complexity, disaggregated energy consumption in addition to economic growth, financial development, globalization and urbanization on the ecological footprint of United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts unit root tests (with and without a structural break), autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test and dynamic ordinary least squares.

Findings

The results obtained from the ARDL model suggest that economic complexity (EC), nonrenewable energy and economic growth increase the ecological footprint in both the short and long run, thus deteriorating the environment. However, renewable energy and urbanization reduce the ecological footprint in UAE during the two periods, thus improving environmental quality. Globalization and financial development have different influences on ecological footprint during these periods. These findings are robust to other estimation techniques.

Practical implications

Based on these results, this study offers significant policy implications such as increasing renewable energy supply, particularly solar energy and aligning the product manufacturing structure and complexity toward producing environmentally friendly products which can be used to realize the nation’s agenda of reducing fossil fuels consumption to 38% by 2050 and achieving sustainable environment and growth.

Originality/value

This study provides an empirical attempt to investigate the influence of EC and renewable and nonrenewable energy on the ecological footprint of the UAE.

The effect of industrialization, militarization, and government expenditure on carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana

The need to attain lower carbon dioxide emissions has become a topical issue in recent times. The effect of a number of economic variables on carbon dioxide emissions has been empirically assessed. Rising government expenditure, industrialization, and militarization have characterized many developing countries including Ghana. While it is undeniable that such situation has socio-economic importance to offer developing countries, their environmental effects have become a matter of debate among researchers. This study assesses the carbon dioxide emissions effect of industrialization, government expenditure, and militarization in Ghana. Based on the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) framework, the study models Ghana's carbon emission as a function of income, population, industrialization, government expenditure, and military expenditure. Time series data over the 1971-2018 period was used for investigation. The techniques employed to analyze the data were unit root test, cointegration test, and regression analysis. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) regression approach reveals there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between income and carbon emission confirming the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Also in the long run, carbon emissions are positively influenced by population, industrialization, and militarization but reduced by government expenditure. Similar outcome was obtained in the short run. The paper concludes that the level of income, industrialization, militarization, and population matters to deal with carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana. Policy implications of the findings include the urgent need for authorities to promote the use of eco-friendly production methods for military and industrial activities to sustain the economic growth without harming the environment.

The criticality of financial risk to environment sustainability in top carbon emitting countries

This research examines the linkage between financial risk and carbon emissions using a quarterly dataset spanning from 1991 to 2019 for top carbon emitting countries. To achieve the study objective, this study apply quantile-on-quantile regression (QQR), the quantile regression (QR) approach for robustness check, and the nonparametric predictive test that identifies causality in mean and variance. Empirical findings from the QQR technique disclose the following: (i) financial risk decreases carbon emissions in the USA, Russia, Germany, and Canada; (ii) in China, India, Japan, Brazil, and Indonesia, financial risk enhances carbon emissions (iii) while we find mixed reactions in the case of South Korea. The outcomes of the conventional quantile regression also confirm the QQR outcomes, while that of nonparametric causality discloses evidence of causality in majority of quantiles from financial risk to carbon emissions. Based on these empirical outcomes, policymakers in the financial risk-induced-environmental degradation regions should consider implementing policies or reforms that would keep financial systems sound, in order to prevent shocks to the environment, and its attendant multiplier impact on the environmental sustainability targets implemented to protect both the immediate and the future generations.

Reducing coal overcapacity in China: a new perspective of optimizing local officials' promotion system

Reducing coal overcapacity is an important strategy to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutralization in China. Determining the drivers of coal overcapacity is the first step toward this strategy. The existing literature focuses mainly on the macro determinants of coal overcapacity. Micro factors such as local officials' intervention motivation also plays a role, but has received less attention in the literature. Using data from 25 coal-producing provinces in China, we demonstrate that local officials' promotion pressure under the GDP-based promotion system significantly leads to coal overcapacity. Mediation effect analysis suggests that factor market distortion is one important channel through which local officials' promotion pressure affects overcapacity in the coal sector, and the distortion in the capital market plays a more dominant role than distortion in the labor market. To alleviate the negative effect of officials' promotion pressure on capacity utilization rate, we build a diversified promotion system incorporating environmental indicators. Results show that when the environmental pressure index accounts for at least 50% of the weights in the diversified promotion system, the negative effect of promotion pressure disappears. Our results suggest that to reduce coal overcapacity problem, policymakers may wish to weaken the GDP-based political promotion incentive by adding environmental and ecological indicators and reducing interventions on factor allocation. Results from the present paper has implications for resource-dependent countries facing similar overcapacity problems, especially in the context of the open economy and green recovery in the post-COVID-19 period.

The impact of smart city pilots on corporate total factor productivity

The existing literature on smart city pilots mainly focuses on the city level and rarely addresses the firm level. This paper assesses the impact of smart city pilot policy (SCP) on firms' total factor productivity (TFP) and explores the impact of SCP under different heterogeneities as well as the mechanisms of action of the SCP. The LP approach is used in this paper to measure firms' TFP, and the impact of SCP is analyzed by the DID model with firms' panel data from 2009 to 2019 as research objects. First, it was found that the SCP can significantly increase the TFP of firms (0.041). Second, through heterogeneity analysis, we found that SCP can strengthen the monopoly position of monopolistic firms and state-owned enterprises. Moreover, the SCP can also alleviate the development imbalance of TFP between firms in coastal and non-coastal areas. In addition, SCP can significantly improve TFP of heavy polluting enterprises. Finally, we find that the important ways for SCP to improve firms' TFP is increasing investment in technological innovation, talent agglomeration, attracting financing, improving resource allocation efficiency, and digital transformation. The study provides unique insights for policy makers and business managers in China and other emerging countries to enhance TFP and achieve corporate sustainable development.

Determinants of load capacity factor in South Korea: does structural change matter?

By likening biocapacity and ecological footprint, the load capacity factor follows a specified ecological threshold, permitting for an in-depth analysis of ecological damage. It can be seen that as the load capacity factor is reduced, the ecological damage intensifies. Until now, scholars have used carbon dioxide, ecological footprint, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and other indices to objectively examine ecological problems. The utilization of these metrics can cause the supply side of ecological concerns to be overlooked. To make up for this weakness, this paper evaluates the impact of structural change and trade globalization on the load capacity factor. The research also considers other drivers of load capacity factors such as economic growth and energy. We utilized the nonparametric such as nonparametric causality and quantile-on-quantile (QQ) regression approaches to scrutinize these interconnections for South Korea between 1970 and 2018. The findings from the QQ approach disclosed that in the majority of the quantiles, the influence of economic growth, structural change, energies (renewable and nonrenewable), and trade globalization mitigate the load capacity factor. Moreover, the nonparametric causality test divulged that in variance and mean, all the independent variables can predict the load capacity factor. Policy proposals for South Korea's sustainable development are offered based on the findings.

Do pilot free trade zones improve the green total factor productivity? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

China's pilot free trade zone (PFTZ) is an important national strategy to achieve high-quality development, so it is necessary to discuss the effect of PFTZ implementation on green total factor productivity (GTFP). Based on the data from 279 cities in China from 2004 to 2018, this study takes the establishment of PFTZ as a quasi-natural experiment and uses the difference-in-differences (DID) method to systematically evaluate the effect of PFTZ on urban GTFP. The empirical results of this paper are shown as follows: Firstly, the construction of PFTZ has a significant effect on urban GTFP, and this effect has increased gradually over time. Secondly, the construction of PFTZ mainly promotes the urban GTFP by increasing the level of science and technology innovation, reducing government intervention and improving the level of human capital. Thirdly, the effect of PFTZ construction on GTFP is more pronounced in regions with earlier waves of PFTZ and in western regions where environmental concerns are higher. In addition, there is a significant positive linkage between the construction of the PFTZ and the Belt and Road Initiative to improve the urban GTFP. The findings of this paper enrich the relevant literature on PFTAs and sustainable development and provide a theoretical basis for further promotion of PFTZ construction.

Risk management in sustainable supply chain: a knowledge map towards intellectual structure, logic diagram, and conceptual model

The global spread of COVID-19, international trade protectionism, geopolitical conflicts, and climate change presents challenges and risks to sustainable supply chains (SSCs). In recent years, scholarly interest in sustainable supply chain risk management (SSCRM) has continued to rise. A helpful literature review is necessary to enable supply chain practitioners to apply empirical findings from academic research or conceptual frameworks to their operations to maintain the stability and competitiveness of sustainable supply chains. The knowledge map of SSCRM is explored in this study using both quantitative and qualitative analysis. A total of 793 articles were retrieved to reveal the knowledge map of SSCRM. Scientometric and context analysis are combined in quantitative analysis to identify the intellectual structure of risk management research related to SSC. Then, a critical review is conducted in qualitative analysis to summarize and analyze the motivations, strategies, approaches, and tools of SSCRM. Combining the quantitative and qualitative analysis results, a conceptual model is constructed for SSCRM from three aspects: (1) risk identification, (2) risk assessment, and (3) risk mitigating and responding. Finally, future research directions are suggested based on the conceptual model for guiding the theories and practice of SSCRM. This study can work as a roadmap for providing appropriate risk management policies and toolkits to SSC, which could advance theoretical thinking on how to mitigate SSC risks.

Exploring the technical and behavioral dimensions of green supply chain management: a roadmap toward environmental sustainability

Environmental sustainability issues have become an increasing concern for enterprises and organizations due to new tendencies in climate change. Green supply chain management (GSCM) practices are growing worldwide in this context. Based on socio-technical systems and institutional theory, the present study develops a conceptual model highlighting a mediating effect between two distinct categories of GSCM dimensions, i.e., technical practices and behavioral practices, along with the moderating effect of institutional pressure on organizational performance. Data were collected from 260 Pakistani manufacturers, and the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was employed to analyze the hypotheses. The classification of technical and behavioral GSCM practices and findings of this research contributes to the literature on GSCM. Empirical results reveal that behavioral practices of GSCM (top management support, supplier, and customer involvement) mediate the relationship between technical GSCM practices (eco-design, green manufacturing, and reverse logistics) and organizational performance (economic, environmental, and social). The results also demonstrate that institutional pressure positively moderates the relationship between technical practices and organizational performance. These findings suggest that organizations in developing countries must focus on the behavioral dimensions of GSCM first for the successful implementation of technical dimensions of GSCM to gain effective environmental, economic, and social performance.

Does political risk spur environmental issues in China?

China is one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the world. Therefore, it is essential to explore the determinants of CO₂ emissions in China. But previous studies so far have not examined how the political risk of this country can affect its CO₂ emissions due to the lack of a long-term dataset. Hence, this study aims to capture the effect of political risk on China's CO₂ emissions while controlling renewable energy consumption, technological innovation, and the economy's economic growth. We employ Bayer and Hanck cointegration, FMOLS, DOLS, CCR, and frequency domain causality tests to establish the relationship among the variables mentioned above. The outcome of the study reveals that political stability is an important predictor of environmental degradation in China. Moreover, political stability is helpful to lower CO₂ emissions, while technological innovation and renewable energy consumption can reduce CO₂ emissions, economic growth further deteriorates environmental quality by increasing its carbon emissions. Therefore, the present study recommends that policymakers in China should control political tension in the country to control CO₂ emissions and, at the same time, promote technological innovation and renewable energy consumption.

Validation of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and role of carbon emission policies in the case of Russian Federation

Climate change currently observed and expected in the future is associated with risks to security and sustainable development and natural and irreversible consequences. To minimize these risks, it is necessary to adapt the public administration, economic sectors, and regional infrastructure to the changing climate conditions. This paper discovers the links between CO₂ emissions and their key determinants such as economic growth, energy consumption, population, trade openness, and financial development including the period from 1990 to 2020 to test the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by using ARDL bound test for the Russian Federation. Findings reveal that energy consumption and population have a positive impact on CO₂ emissions, while economic growth, financial development, and trade openness have been found to decrease CO₂ emissions in the long term. The results of this paper show that there is a "U"-shaped relationship between CO₂ emissions and economic growth in the Russian Federation. This shows that EKC is valid up to a certain income level in the Russian Federation, and when this income level is exceeded, a positive relationship will begin between economic growth and environmental degradation. As a policy implementation, policymakers must implement clean energy technology policies to achieve the 2060 net zero carbon target. Policies such as fossil-based energy use and reducing energy intensity should be adopted.

Economic growth, technology, and CO2 emissions in BRICS: Investigating the non-linear impacts of economic complexity

Upgrading economic structures and producing less pollution-intensive goods are indispensable for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) that produce 41% of global CO₂ emissions. Economic complexity (ECC), which measures the sophistication of productivity and economic structure, has important environmental repercussions. Theoretically, the environmental impacts of economic complexity at higher levels and lower levels of complexity vary from each other. However, the majority of previous studies have overlooked these theoretical underpinnings while assessing the environmental repercussions of economic complexity. In addition, technological competencies are necessary to boost the economic complexity levels. Accordingly, this study uncovers the non-linear effects of economic complexity on CO₂ emissions including technology, population density, and economic growth in a STIRPAT model. To this end, the panel data from 1992 to 2018 is analyzed using the Continuously Updated Fully Modified method (CuP-FM) in the context of BRICS. The long-run results uncovered that CO₂ emissions intensify at a lower level of economic complexity. On the flip side, a higher level of economic complexity is beneficial in mitigating CO₂ in BRICS. Hence, the economic complexity and CO₂ connections follow an inverted U-shaped curve. The results also disclosed that expanding the level of technology lessens CO₂ and stimulates the quality of the environment. Further, population density and economic growth are evidenced to intensify CO₂. Moreover, economic complexity and technology Granger cause CO₂. Lastly, strategies are directed in the context of Sustainable Development Goals 9 and 13 to control CO₂ emissions by upgrading technology and products complexity.

The role of environmental transformational leadership in employees' influencing organizational citizenship behavior for environment well-being: a survey data analysis

Many researchers and intellectuals focused on the topic of organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE); however, employees' pro-environmental behaviors, such as eco-helping, eco-civic engagement, and eco-initiatives, are often being ignored. Also, the investigation of the stimulating factors behind these behaviors remains weak. Hence, this research aims to explore the role of environmental transformational leadership (ELT) in these three types of organizational citizen behaviors for the environment (OCBE) considering the indirect effects of psychological empowerment and leader-member exchange (LMX). We examined the effects of meditation by using four steps for mediation analysis and the Sobel test. Chi-square (χ²) tests for observing the difference were also applied. The results from a survey of 500 employees from the manufacturing industry in China provide that environmental transformational leadership contributes indirectly and directly to promoting environmental behavior within organizations due to the inspirational nature of transformational leaders. Furthermore, the intentions of employees for organizational environmental behavior stimulate on account of a high sense of leader-member exchange and psychological empowerment. Based on these findings, the study suggests that leadership in organizations should facilitate their employees with psychological empowerment and sharing of information and initiative regarding the environment for boosting OCBE. It is also recommended that at the time of recruitment and selection of employees, they should be given orientations regarding environmental protection and resource conservation. Moreover, organizations should promote the transformational style of leadership to achieve environment-related goals.

Does health expenditure matter for life expectancy in Mediterranean countries?

This research assesses the effect of health expenditure and sanitation on life expectancy in Mediterranean countries. We also consider other drivers of life expectancy, such as CO₂ emissions and economic growth. The study covers the period 2000-2018, and the recently developed method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) approach was utilised to assess these interconnections. This method is immune to outliers and creates an asymmetric interrelationship between variables. The outcomes from the MMQR unveiled that economic growth, health expenditure, and sanitation enhanced life expectancy in all quantiles (0.1-0.90). Furthermore, in all quantiles (0.1-0.90), the effect of CO₂ emissions on life expectancy was negative. Moreover, as a robustness check, the FMOLS, DOLS, and FE-OLS long-run estimators were applied, and the outcomes validated the MMQR outcomes. Based on the results generated, policymakers in these nations should implement effective environmental and public health measures that will pay off in the long run through improved health as a result of lower emissions of CO₂, as well as increased economic expansion and productivity.

Quantile relationship between globalization, financial development, economic growth, and carbon emissions: evidence from Vietnam

Environmental quality and economic activity have a strong relationship. Carbon emissions remain one of the world's most dangerous environmental issues. Both international and local governments are developing initiatives to address this problem. Capitalizing on the limitations of the existing literature, this article investigates the dynamic nexus of financial development, economic growth, and globalization on carbon dioxide emissions in Vietnam for 1990-2020 using the quantile-on-quantile regression. The findings unveil a positive feedback link between globalization and carbon dioxide emissions at the middle and high quantiles. In addition, there is a negative nexus between financial development and carbon emissions at most quantiles, while CO₂ emissions and economic growth have a positive association at all quantiles. More importantly, our empirical results also provide the bidirectional causality between financial development, economic growth, globalization, and carbon dioxide emissions in Vietnam at different quantile levels. The consistency of the outcomes uncovers that the findings are trustworthy and appropriate for guiding policy to reduce CO₂ emissions in Vietnam. Therefore, they can help policymakers understand how financial development and globalization can achieve sustainable economic growth and tackle environmental issues in this country.

Towards Environmental Sustainability in China: Role of Globalization and Hydroelectricity Consumption

Countries encounter conflicting policy options in reaching fast development goals due to high resource use, rapid economic expansion, and environmental degradation. Thus, the present research examined the connection between CO2 emissions and urbanization, globalization, hydroelectricity, and economic expansion in China utilizing data spanning the period between 1985 and 2018. The novel quantile-on-quantile (QQ) and quantile regression (QR) approaches were applied to assess this interconnection. The QQ approach is characterized by its ability to incorporate quantile regression fundamentals and non-parametric estimation research. As a result, the method appears to transform the quantile of one parameter into another. The QQ outcomes revealed that in all quantiles (0.1–0.95), gross domestic product (GDP), urbanization, and globalization trigger CO2 emissions in China, while in each quantile (0.1–0.985), hydroelectricity consumption mitigates CO2 emissions. The QR outcomes also affirmed the outcomes of the QQ regression estimates. Policies are suggested based on these findings.