The Role of Social Media in Promoting Information Disclosure on Environmental Incidents: An Evolutionary Game Theory Perspective

A conceptional game theory analysis of environmental public interest litigation of China

China introduced civil and administrative public interest litigation (PIL) through a series of pilot projects and legislative revisions in recent years. Now a procuratorate has the standing to bring civil PIL cases against polluters and administrative PIL cases against administrative agencies in its jurisdictions while a qualified non-governmental organization (NGO) has no geographic limits and may bring civil PIL cases against polluters anywhere in mainland China. Previous literature focused on the use of PIL for redressing environmental damages in individual cases. This paper studies the function of PIL beyond individual cases with game theory. This paper uses data collected through autoethnography, interviews, databases of judgements, statistics, and previous literature. This paper finds that local procuratorates and NGOs brought a large number of environmental PIL cases and changed the behavior patterns of local governments and their environmental protection agencies as well as that of polluters. Before the introduction of PIL rules, governmental officers of local governments and their environmental protection agencies were more discretionary and selective in environmental law enforcement and were more cooperative with polluters. After the law introduced PIL rules, they are now less discretionary in environmental law enforcement, less cooperative with polluters, and more likely to strictly enforce the environmental law. This paper models the interaction between local governments and polluters before the introduction of environmental PIL as an infinitely repeated game and reveals the ensuing cooperation. This infinitely repeated game was broken by new players introduced by the PIL, i.e., the procuratorate, NGOs, and the court, which changed the behavior patterns of the local government and its environmental protection agencies as well as that of polluters. This paper concludes that the function of PIL beyond individual cases lies in that it breaks the chain of infinitely repeated game between the local government and polluters and thus changes their behavior patterns.

Environmental disclosure practices in mixed ownership models: A study of Chinese private enterprises

Environmental information disclosure is critical avenue for stakeholders to gauge the fulfillment of corporate environmental responsibilities, as well as a key path for companies to gain social reputation and achieve sustainable development. To achieve both economic and social sustainability and improve the environmental information disclosure by private firms, this study delves into the impact mechanism and realization path of mixed ownership reform on environmental information disclosure among Chinese private enterprises listed between 2010 and 2020. Utilizing a panel fixed effect model, we scrutinize the interplay between state capital involvement and the disclosure of environmental information by private enterprises. Our findings reveal that state capital involvement may encourage private enterprises to disclose environmental information through resource allocation and governance improvements. The higher the shareholding ratio of state-owned participating shareholders, the more it helps private firms to disclose environmental information. State-owned shareholders play a pivotal role in the appointment of supervisors, directors, and executives, effectively improving corporate governance mechanisms and positively moderates how private companies with state-owned capital participate in disclosing environmental information. Moreover, the magnitude of media coverage and the public opinion pressure faced by private enterprises further amplify the influence of state-owned capital involvement on environmental information disclosure. Additionally, our research reveals that corporate profitability partially interplays with the effects of state-owned capital disclosure of environmental information by private companies. According to the research results, we recommend that the government proactively promote mixed ownership reform with private enterprises as the main participants, fully leveraging the resource advantages and influence of state-owned capital. At the same time, it is imperative to strengthen the governance effect of internal state-owned shareholders and external public opinion supervision in private enterprises. Enhancing profitability is also identified as a key driver for private enterprises to engage in more robust environmental information disclosure practices.

The role played by government communication on the level of public fear in social media: An investigation into the Covid-19 crisis in Italy

In situations of crisis, governments must acknowledge that communication is a major weapon in their armoury, and can be used to convince the public to accept sometimes stringent measures, while preventing a worsening of the situation by curbing any spread of panic. Theoretically, during a pandemic, fear can be contained at reasonable levels by governments counterbalancing uncertainty with information. However, there is no empirical evidence on how the flow of information during a crisis can influence emotional states among the population. In this process, social media appears to be a valuable tool for governments to observe emotional response in a population. In the light of this and within the context of the Italian government's social media campaign #iorestoacasa ('I'm staying at home') launched during the Covid-19 crisis, the current study utilises text analytics to explore the relationship between government and press communication, and the level of fear expressed by citizens through more than 200 thousand #iorestoacasa tweets. The results highlight how the content of the messages evolved in the early part of the outbreak and during the social media campaign. They suggest that in Italy the discussion regarding the efforts made by the European Council to find common solutions for dealing with the emergency has prompted a positive influence on public mood. Conversely, messages about people's individual vulnerability and the associated sense of an external locus of control correlated positively with levels of fear. This study opens new ways to support government communication during a crisis by monitoring public emotional response through social media.

Does the Environmental Information Disclosure Promote the High-Quality Development of China’s Resource-Based Cities?

The high-quality development (HQD) of resource-based cities (RBCs) is the premise on which to ensure the healthy, stable, and sustainable development of China’s economy. In this study, we use the global Malmquist–Luenberger index based on the slacks-based measure of directional distance function (SBM-DDF-GML index), which is an improved data envelopment analysis (DEA) model of the non-radial and non-oriented, to calculate the HQD level of 102 RBCs in China from 2003 to 2019. Then, we empirically evaluate the effect of environmental information disclosure (EID) on HQD improvement in RBCs by adopting the method of time-varying difference-in-difference with propensity score matching (PSM-DID) and investigate the heterogeneous effects of EID. Additionally, the mediating effect model is employed to explore the impact mechanisms of EID on the HQD. The results show that: (1) EID has a significant and positive effect on the HQD of RBCs, and this conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests. (2) EID plays a more effective role in the promotion of HQD in central RBCs, resource strong-dependent RBCs, growth RBCs, and regenerative RBCs than in other types of cities. (3) EID promotes the HQD of RBCs through the environmental pollution reduction effect and the industrial structure upgrading effect. These findings enrich the content of the relationship between EID and the HQD and present a feasible path for RBCs in China to achieve the HQD through environmental governance.

Local governments' use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of Portugal

While the use of social media by local governments has gained relevance in recent years, crises are critical situations that reinforce the need to reach citizens to disclose information, demonstrate the government's commitment, and increase the citizens' level of preparedness and awareness of resources. This paper examines the factors that influenced local governments' e-disclosure during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. To accomplish this objective, we systematically tracked every post published by the official Facebook page of 304 Portuguese municipalities between March 2 and July 5, 2020. The findings show that financial autonomy is the main predictor of e-disclosure, factors varied on the different phases of the pandemic's first wave, and sociodemographic factors became more prevalent as explanatory factors when the crisis worsened. Our study may help increase the level of preparedness during possible future crises. In particular, establishing communication strategies for prolonged public health crises, making financial resources available for the accomplishment of such strategies, and reducing the digital divide can contribute to more effective disclosure. Future research should explore the dynamics of disclosure during public health crises. This study also highlights the need to incorporate time in research that focuses on the determinants of e-disclosure that could also be tested in normal times.

Incentives for Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure in China: Public Media Pressure, Local Government Supervision and Interactive Effects

Disclosing environmental information is essential for listed firms to demonstrate social conscience. To fulfill government and public media supervision, Chinese listed firms are increasing the quality and quantity of disclosed environmental information. This elicits a new topic of interest: the correlation between media/government supervision and corporate environmental information disclosure (EID). The paper addresses this issue through data analysis and factor correlation study in data from some high-pollution firms in China during 2017–2019. The study first introduces a standardized definition for the quantification of media and government supervision, as well as the degree to which the corporation discloses the environmental information. Then, the correlations between the factors are isolated and refined to three sub-topics: (1) how public media and local government supervision affect the quality of corporate EID; (2) how is the interactive effect of public media and government supervision related to corporate EID; (3) how is the distinct ownership of corporate affect the government supervision on corporate EID. The concluding result from the above factor analysis could provide guidance for authorities to adjust certain laws and regulations so that the media and government supervision better motivates the corporate EID, and furthermore, better sustainable development of ecological environment.

How to Restrain Regulatory Capture and Promote Green Innovation in China. An Analysis Based on Evolutionary Game Theory

In response to severe environmental challenges, green innovation (GI) has been thoroughly considered by various governments. Although China has promulgated many environmental policies to promote environmental governance, regulatory capture and the lack of independent external supervisors lead to a challenging future. This study employs an evolutionary game method to explore how the policy burden and media affect decision-making between local governments and manufacturing enterprises. On this basis, the simulation method is used to examine critical factors that affect regulatory capture and GI. The results show that the policy burden is the main factor that causes regulatory capture. When the policy burden exceeds a certain threshold, it will cause regulatory capture and hinder GI. Moreover, media, as an external supervisor, can restrain regulatory capture and promote GI significantly. Specifically, when the capacity of media supervision is high enough, due to the positive role of the media, it will inhibit the negative effects of policy burdens. Finally, combined with the different development stages of China’s green industry, the corresponding policy recommendations are given. These results extend the research of regulatory capture and provide a reference for governments to promote environmental governance in practice.

Government Environmental Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance: Evidence from China

Government environmental information disclosure (GEID) is a key policy instrument in environmental governance. Local governments in China are improving the disclosure level of environmental information, but does the environmental information disclosed by local governments reflect the existing state of the local ecological environment? This paper analyzes the correlation between GEID and environmental performance and verifies whether or not the environmental information disclosed by local governments can reflect actual local ecological environment conditions. Based on data from Chinese cities, this paper adopts a multiple regression method, and the results show that the environmental information disclosed by governments can reflect the local environmental performance as a whole, and the higher the level of GEID, the better the local environmental performance; but the relationship between the two has significant regional differences. In eastern China, the higher the level of GEID, the better the local environmental performance. In central and western China, the correlation between GEID and environmental performance is not significant. In addition, it should be noted that the correlation between the level of GEID and the emission intensity of water pollutants is not significant in all regions. This study contributes to further clarifying the effectiveness of GEID policy and identifying a breakthrough for the optimization of environmental policies faced with the dilemma of serious environmental pollution and urgent economic development needs.

Analysis of Farmland Abandonment and Government Supervision Traps in China

Farmland abandonment has become relatively common in rural China. In the context of food security, the Chinese government has introduced policies for farmland abandonment supervision, but the effect of these policies has proven to be marginal. By constructing an evolutionary game model, our research explores the evolutionary logic during the supervision of farmland abandonment by governments and rural households. The results indicate that low food yield and high opportunity costs are the leading causes of farmland abandonment. The probable punishment administered by the central government for dereliction is a major motivation for the local government to practice farmland abandonment supervision. The low supervision avoidance cost for rural households leads local governments and households to form collaborations to jointly cope with central government supervision. When this occurs, local governments' supervision of farmland abandonment falls into a trap, as it leads to continued supervision practices that are costly and ineffective. Food security risk comes from the contradictory population and land resources demands. To improve food security while managing these contradictory demands, it is both necessary and feasible for the government to control population growth and focus on farmland protection, whereas it is unnecessary and unfeasible for the government to supervise whether or not farmland should be abandoned.

Does Internal Control Contribute to a Firm’s Green Information Disclosure? Evidence from China

The literature shows that a firm’s environmental information disclosure is affected by internal and external factors. However, it is unclear whether internal control positively impacts a firm’s green information disclosure. We collected data from the period 2010–2016 from either environmental reports or the environmental section of social responsibility reports of A-share listed companies in the heaviest polluting industries of the Chinese capital market, 1603 companies in total, and established an evaluation index for measuring firm greenness. Our research indicates that the level of internal control was positively correlated to the firm’s greenness level, and deficiencies in internal control were negatively correlated to the firm’s greenness level, indicating that high-quality internal control improves company green information disclosure. Pertaining to property rights, the internal control of state-owned enterprises had a significant effect on improving the level of environmental information disclosure. Among five elements of internal control, the internal environment, information and communication elements had a significant positive impact on firm greenness. Compared with samples with uncorrected major deficiencies in internal control, rectified companies’ environmental information disclosure was greener. These findings provide empirical evidence for a comprehensive understanding of the non-financial reporting goals of firm internal control, and will become a useful reference for firm green governance decision-making.

Dynamic Evolution of Safety Regulation of the Ridesharing Industry under Social Media Participation

The emergence of ridesharing has spread against the background of the sharing economy. There have been a lot of controversies since the emergence of ridesharing, particularly regarding regulatory issues. The safety regulation of the ridesharing industry involves many parties, including governments, platform companies, and society at large. Currently, because of the influence of information asymmetry, it increases the uncertainty of governments’ regulation effect and the difficulty of making regulation measures. Meanwhile, social media, one of the most important forces of social regulation, has not paid enough attention to playing an appropriate role in the safety regulation of the ridesharing industry. Therefore, this study constructs an evolutionary game model between governments and platform companies that concerns the safety regulations of ridesharing passengers under social media participation. The influence path of social media is explored by model solution and numerical simulation. Our results indicate that social media participation has a positive impact on this safety regulation. Specifically, social media participation could reduce governments’ regulatory costs and encourage it to strictly regulate. The exposure of social media could bring losses to platform companies involved and promote platform companies’ investments in improving passengers’ safety. This study provides a decision basis for governments to introduce social media in the safety regulation of the ridesharing industry.

The Influence of Top Managers on Environmental Information Disclosure: The Moderating Effect of Company's Environmental Performance

Abundant extant literature emphasizes the impact of board members attributes’ influence on environmental information disclosure. Considering the voluntary nature of environmental information disclosure, executives have strong managerial discretion when they make such decisions, so this article focuses on top managers’ influence on environmental information disclosure. We hypothesize that top managers’ educational background and age will affect companies’ environmental decision. The hypotheses are verified with the data from Chinese listed manufacturing companies. As the results show, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) educational background and average age of top managers positively affect environmental information disclosure, while the impact of legal educational background is negative. The company’s environmental performance plays a U-shaped moderating effect on the relationship between MBA educational background and environmental information disclosure.

Application of Game Theory against Nature in the Assessment of Technical Solutions Used in River Regulation in the Context of Aquatic Plant Protection

The anthropogenic transformation of riverbeds causes a violation of the dynamic equilibrium of the river and its environment, threatening the ecological safety of aquatic ecosystems and dependent waters. However, the differing results of these transformations are dependent on many factors and it is difficult to determine them precisely before the works start. The designers and contractors of these works are dealing with the riverbed, which in terms of hydromorphological and biological features is variable, unique, and strongly diverse. Thus, decisions are followed by an unknown result concerning changes in the riverbed ecosystems. The aim of this study is to determine the suitability of game theory as a tool supporting decision-making in the design of regulatory works including ecological aspects, as well as an indication of a regulatory works model that would meet the expectations of water users while corresponding to environmentally friendly riverbed regulation. The analysis was made on the basis of observed changes in the number of species in aquatic plant vascular communities—one of the most important elements of a riverbed ecosystem. Using game theory, it is possible to create an effective tool for the design of regulatory works and decision-making process.