Study On Strategic Choice Of Green And Low-carbon Development For Coal Enterprises

As the growth of the world economy and the process of industrialization are sped up,coal resources as basic energy are used frequently,but the development of the coal industry leads to the increase in carbon emissions and increasingly aggravates environmental pollution problems.As the world's largest emerging economy,China is one of the most coal resource-rich countries and owns a sizable coal industry,yet carbon emissions caused by the consumption of coal stay high for a long time and China is facing serious energy conservation and emission reduction tasks.Although the policy of optimizing the industrial structures has yielded initial results,the development of China still shows the characteristics of extensive growth that enormous energy consumption comes with economic growth and we need to further increase energy efficiency and advance green and low-carbon development.Coal-centered energy structure reflects actual resource endowments of China that cannot be changed.China's energy structure used to center on the consumption of coal resources,which is hard to be changed in the short term despite energy revolution carried out now and the development clean energy,and other energies as supplementary energies are unable to completely replace coals.Therefore,socio-economic sustainable development of China needs to be premised on efficient,clean,green and low-carbon utilization of coals and the advancement of clean energy.Traditional development strategy of coal enterprises will cause greater harm to the economy,environment and human if unchanged,and green and low-carbon development is exactly a scientific direction and solution for coal enterprises to deal with domestic economic development,domestic and overseas political requirements and their own development.To increase energy efficiency,to change the negative external impact on the environment and to satisfy the needs of stakeholders,coal enterprises need to change their traditional development strategy,redesign corporate development strategy from the perspective of green and low-carbon development,and explore how to achieve a competitive edge,promote corporate performance and advance the transformation and sustainable development of themselves by choosing a green and low-carbon development strategy.By reviewing documents pertaining to green and low-carbon development strategy of coal enterprises and theories on strategic management,this article sorts out researchfindings and dissects the driving forces for coal enterprises to choose a green and low-carbon development strategy;on this basis,based on grounded research,this article further studies the factors that influence green and low-carbon development strategic choice of coal enterprises,proposes the types of green and low-carbon strategy for coal enterprises by combining with theoretical deduction,analyzes the influence of four different types of the development on the performance of coal enterprises,and forms a theoretical model of green and low-carbon development strategic choice of coal enterprises.Empirical study and case study are used to verify the theoretical model,and this article puts forward the conclusions and recommendations about green and low-carbon development strategic choice and future research prospects.The main research contents are as follows:(1)This article takes coal enterprises as the objects of study for qualitative research.Grounded in the management practice of coal enterprises,this article seeks for concepts in phenomena,generalizes the concepts as categories,and extracts categories as theories to develop a theoretical model of the factors that influence green and low-carbon development strategic choice of coal enterprises,identify these factors and analyze the influence of different factors on green and low-carbon development strategic choice.(2)An analysis of driving forces for green and low-carbon development strategy of coal enterprises is the foundation for the construction of the theoretical model about green and low-carbon development strategic choice.Based on the institutional theory and the core competence theory,this article dissects the driving forces for coal enterprises to choose a green and low-carbon development strategy and identifies the characteristics of green and low-carbon development strategy of coal enterprises in this vein.(3)Four different types of green and low-carbon development strategy of coal enterprises are extracted from grounded research findings,results of driving force analysis and literature search and theoretical deduction,and the influence of different types of green and low-carbon development strategy on the performance of coal enterprises is analyzed.The theoretical model of green and low-carbon development strategic choice for coal enterprises consisting of “influencing factors on green and low-carbon development strategic choice of coal enterprises—type of green and low-carbon development strategy of coal enterprises—corporate performance” is formed,and Chinese coal enterprises are taken as examples to verify whether the green and low-carbon development strategy selected can fit into the current development ofChina's coal industry and development goals of Chinese coal enterprises.Relevant hypotheses are proposed and verified by empirical research.(4)Through case study of the management practice of green and low-carbon development strategy of enterprises surveyed,systematically verifies the rationality and practicality of the categorization of green and low-carbon development strategies proposed in this article.Then,according to the business conditions of enterprises surveyed,this article identifies main factors that influence green and low-carbon development strategy,determines the optimal green and low-carbon development strategy mix,proposes countermeasures,suggestions and supporting measures for the implementation of green and low-carbon development strategy.According to the abovementioned research contents,the article draws the following conclusions:(1)Four factors-green and low-carbon orientation,enterprise resources and capabilities,stakeholder pressure and green market competition jointly exert an influence on green and low-carbon development strategic choice of coal enterprises,and they form the theoretical model of green and low-carbon development strategic choice of coal enterprises.(2)Through theoretical deduction and literature search,according to the characteristics of green and low-carbon behavior,it is proposed that green and low-carbon development strategy of coal enterprises can be divided into four types-reactive green and low-carbon development strategy,collaborative green and low-carbon development strategy,forward-looking green and low-carbon development strategy,and adaptive green and low-carbon development strategy.(3)Through empirical research,this article utilizes structural equation model and finds that different influencing factors on green and low-carbon development strategic choice influence the same type of strategy differently,and the same influencing factor on green and low-carbon development strategic choice made by coal enterprises also influences different strategies differently.Specifically,green and low-carbon orientation has a positive correlation with reactive green and low-carbon development strategic choice,collaborative green and low-carbon development strategic choice,forward-looking green and low-carbon development strategic choice and adaptive green and low-carbon development strategic choice;enterprise resources and capabilities have a positive correlation with forward-looking green and low-carbon development strategic choice and adaptive green and low-carbon development strategic choice;stakeholderpressure has a positive correlation with reactive green and low-carbon development strategic choice,collaborative green and low-carbon development strategic choice,and adaptive green and low-carbon development strategic choice;green market competition has a positive correlation with reactive green and low-carbon development strategic choice,collaborative green and low-carbon development strategic choice and forward-looking green and low-carbon development strategic choice,and has no positive correlation with the rest.(4)Through empirical research,this study verifies the relations between the four types of green and low-carbon development strategy of coal enterprises and corporate performance,among which cooperative green and low-carbon development strategy,forward-looking green and low-carbon development strategy and adaptive green and low-carbon development strategy have a positive correlation with corporate performance,there is no positive correlation between reactive green and low-carbon development strategy and corporate performance.Coal enterprises may improve corporate performance by choosing collaborative green and low-carbon development strategy,forward-looking green and low-carbon development strategy,and adaptive green and low-carbon development strategy.By probing into the strategic options of coal enterprises' green and low-carbon development,this paper delivers the following four innovative key points.Firstly,regarding coal enterprises' green and low-carbon development,proposing a series of strategy types that are reactive,cooperative,forward-looking and adaptive.Secondly,refining the theoretical model of influencing factors of green and low-carbon development strategic choice that are based on Chinese coal enterprises' management practices.Thirdly,building a strategic option theory model of coal enterprises' green and low-carbon development that features “influence factors of strategic options of coal enterprises' green and low-carbon development – strategic types of coal enterprises' green and low-carbon development – corporate performance”.Fourthly,revealing the principals governing the strategic options of coal enterprises' green and low-carbon development,and providing guidance and reference to the strategic management practices of coal enterprises.