| Environmental sustainable development depicts a beautiful image of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature,and is a common goal of human development.However,we still face some challenges,including environmental issues such as climate change,ozone layer depletion,ecological degradation,and reduced biodiversity.Entering the new era,the people’s need for a beautiful ecological environment has become an important aspect of the main contradiction in society.The 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China once again emphasized the need to firmly establish and practice the green concept,and plan for development from the perspective of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.For a long time,China’s environmental governance mainly relies on government power,but there are often situations where both government and market mechanisms fail,and the main body of ecological environment protection is insufficient and lacks cooperation.Social capital emphasizes the importance of trust,cooperation,and communication between individuals,which precisely facilitates the achievement of social governance mechanisms and is an important tool for breaking through the dilemma of collective action.So,whether social capital can effectively improve the environment and become a new way to break through the dilemma of environmental governance in the context of multi subject co governance has not received the attention it deserves in existing research,which is also the main theme of this article.This study is based on the macro and micro perspectives of social capital in the context of multi subject co governance in environmental governance,aiming to clarify the environmental effects of social capital and explore effective ways to break through the dilemma of environmental governance.Based on existing research and relevant theories from interdisciplinary fields,the article first constructs an analytical framework for the impact of social capital on the environment from three levels: regional,corporate,and public,as well as the mechanisms of its impact.Further,using the panel data of 30 provinces from 2010 to 2020,the panel data of Shanghai A-Stock and Shenzhen A-Stock from 2011-2021,and the CGSS 2018 comprehensive social survey data,based on theoretical research,this paper examines the environmental effects and mechanisms of social capital through a variety of econometric models.The main content and conclusions are as follows:(1)A theoretical study was conducted on the relationship between social capital,regional environmental efficiency,corporate environmental responsibility,and public environmental participation using literature review and theoretical deduction methods.Based on the definition of core concepts through literature review,this article systematically reviews the theories of embedded social networks and social capital,rational action theory,and repeated game theory.Furthermore,based on the above theories,an analytical framework for the impact of social capital on the environment and its mechanism framework were constructed,providing solid theoretical guidance and path guidance for subsequent research.(2)Based on the macro perspective of social capital,a logistic model is used to empirically test the impact of social capital on regional environmental efficiency,the mediating effect of technology development and achievement transformation stages,and the moderating effect of regional government governance quality differences.The results indicate that social capital has a significant impact on regional environmental efficiency,and its impact on technological progress is greater.Secondly,the level of innovation plays a mediating role in the relationship between social capital and environmental efficiency.Compared to the achievement transformation stage(16.01%),the intermediary effect played by the technology development stage(23.45%)is more obvious,indicating that China still needs to strengthen its ability to innovate at the source,smooth the flow of innovative resources,and strengthen the linkage between technology and the market in the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements.In addition,social capital,as an informal system and a formal system of government regulation,complement each other.Regions with high quality government governance can better benefit from the accumulation of social capital,and in the absence of government regulation,the complementary role of informal systems is difficult to effectively play.(3)Based on the micro perspective of social capital,this study empirically tests the impact of corporate social capital on corporate environmental responsibility using the bidirectional fixed effects model and instrumental variable method,and further analyzes the role of government behavior.The results indicate that corporate social capital has a significant positive guiding effect on corporate environmental responsibility.From the three dimensions of corporate social capital,companies with political connections have higher enthusiasm for environmental responsibility,and companies with richer director network and social connections and information advantages have better environmental responsibility performance.Secondly,the analysis of the role of government behavior indicates that the enhancement of corporate social capital will strengthen the guiding role of formal systems such as government subsidies for enterprises,which will help them obtain more government resource support and promote green business operations.In addition,heterogeneity analysis found that the impact of social capital on corporate environmental responsibility varies at both the corporate and regional levels.(4)Based on the micro perspective of social capital and the different characteristics of micro survey data,this study empirically tests the impact of social capital on public environmental participation,as well as the moderating effect of economic income level and environmental cognitive ability,using the ordered logit model and the left merged Tobit model.The results indicate that social capital has a positive impact on public environmental participation in China,and the impact of different dimensions of social capital on public environmental participation varies,but all have a positive effect.Secondly,a deeper understanding of environmental issues and how to solve them enhances the public’s sense of ownership and social responsibility,increasing the likelihood of individuals taking environmental action.With the increase of income level,personal willingness to participate in the environment increases,but the marginal willingness to pay for environmental protection decreases;And without social capital,the improvement of economic income status cannot promote public environmental participation.In addition,heterogeneity analysis found that the public environmental participation effect of social capital is better in the eastern region than in the central and western regions.High income groups have a greater demand for environmental protection compared to low-income groups.However,self-assessment of household economic conditions far above the average level is not conducive to public environmental participation,indicating that controlling income inequality and increasing the proportion of the middle class are beneficial for improving social environmental preferences.(5)Based on the above analysis and testing,combined with the actual situation in China,suggestions are proposed from several aspects: strengthening social network construction,building social trust,forming reciprocal norms,emphasizing the matching and connection between social capital and government governance quality,adhering to innovation driven,improving environmental awareness level,and narrowing the wealth gap.This article has made innovative attempts in the following aspects: firstly,combining relevant theories from the interdisciplinary fields of economics,sociology,and management,incorporating social capital into the research framework of environmental issues,enriching the existing perspective of studying environmental issues,and improving the theoretical framework of the environmental governance system.Secondly,starting from the construction level of the important environmental governance system of joint governance by multiple entities,combined with the sorting and summary of existing research results,a framework for analyzing the environmental effects of social capital has been constructed.Starting from the overall framework of sustainable development,a framework for analyzing the environmental effects of social capital,including regions,enterprises,and individual residents,has been proposed,enriching research on the economic consequences of informal institutions.Thirdly,we empirically examined the environmental effects of social capital from both macro and micro perspectives using multi-source heterogeneous data.In response to the heterogeneity of environmental governance entities,we measured social capital indicators based on different levels of analysis of social capital,and examined the impact and mechanism of social capital on regional environmental efficiency,corporate environmental responsibility,and public environmental participation,enhancing the feasibility of social capital analysis,It contributes to the completeness of subsequent empirical analysis,the robustness of results,and the deepening and expansion of research. |
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