政府环境行为、政企关系与公司绿色治理：基于“央地分权”的视角

Improving corporate green governance contributes to the implementation of national green development strategy. Notably, green governance has salient externalities. Therefore, given the decentralization in the Chinese context, central and local governments play an critical role in motivating corporations to adopt green governance mechanisms, and the actual implementation of green governance systems in corporations is also influenced by their relations (i.e. political and personal connections) with the governments. As a result, coordinating the environmental behaviors of central and local governments and optimizing the relations between governments and corporations are key determinants for corporations to transit towards more sustainable development, and for the nation to achieve high-quality economic growth. This project, through integrating green governance and corporate social responsibility legitimacy theories, aims to construct an evaluation indexes system for corporate green governance. Specifically, from an view point of political period, this project investigates how central government can impact corporate green governance through utilizing environmental protection assessment and constraints, and how the impacts are mediated by both explicit and implicit government-corporation nexus. In addition, this project adopts a regional perspective to explore the influences of local governments (e.g. exercising more environmental leadership, paying more attention to environmental protection, and offering executive promotion incentives etc.,) upon corporations’ adoption of green governance systems. Again, the role of government-corporation relations in mediating the influences is also investigated. Furthermore, the decentralization between central and local governments is emphasized in this study to ascertain the interactive effects of environmental behaviors of both central and local governments on corporate green governance. In summary, this project is aimed at extending the theory of corporate green governance under the background of decentralization between central and local governments in China. It has practical implications for the Chinese listed firms to improve corporate green governance and provides timely suggestions for governments as policy maker.

公司绿色治理水平的提升有助于推动国家绿色发展战略的实施，在“央地分权”的背景下，央地两级政府的环境行为对公司绿色治理产生着重要影响，并且在这一过程中政企关系发挥着调节作用，在此背景下本项目将开展如下研究：（1）本项目在综合绿色治理观和企业社会责任等理论的基础上，构建公司绿色治理的评价指标体系。（2）从周期性视角研究中央政府环保考核和环保约束对公司绿色治理的影响，并考察显性政企关系和隐性政企关系的调节作用。（3）从区域性视角研究地方政府环境领导力、环保动力和晋升激励对公司绿色治理的影响，并考察显性政企关系和隐性政企关系的调节作用。（4）从“央地分权”视角研究中央政府环境行为和地方政府环境行为对公司绿色治理的交互效应。最后提出提升公司绿色治理水平的对策建议。本项目将在“央地分权”背景下的公司绿色治理理论上取得突破，并为规范和指导上市公司优化绿色治理行为提供借鉴。

改革开放以来，在中央政府的持续关注下，中国的绿色治理取得重要进展。既有研究对绿色治理绩效的解释过于强调来自中央或地方政府的单一影响因素，忽视了环保目标责任制下所形成的中央政府—地方政府—企业的三层委托代理关系。基于此，本课题聚焦“央地分权”下的政府环境行为与公司绿色治理，不仅构建公司绿色治理的评价指标体系，而且探讨中央政府环境行为、地方政府环境行为以及政企关系对公司绿色治理的影响效应，在此基础上提出提升公司绿色治理水平的对策建议。主要研究内容体现在以下几个方面：（1）本课题探明了公司绿色治理的概念和内涵，构建了公司绿色治理的指标体系，并且参与对上市公司绿色治理（CGGI）进行评价和发布；（2）从“任务下沉”角度分析并实证检验了中央政府、地方政府以及国有企业影响公司绿色治理的机制；（3）通过考察官员访问和政府环保补助对企业绿色投资以及企业投保环责险的影响，证实政府影响公司绿色治理存在官员访问和政府补助等两种路径；（4）通过考察政府环境规制和多个大股东对国有企业绿色投资的影响，证实了政府和多个大股东对公司绿色治理的影响存在互补效应；（5）从优化环保领域的央地政府关系、激发底层企业高管强化绿色治理动机等方面提出了提升公司绿色治理水平的对策建议。本课题的理论贡献和实践意义主要有：第一，深入挖掘了公司绿色治理的概念和内涵，构建了公司绿色治理的评价指标体系，为公司绿色治理的测量提供了新的方法与视角。第二，基于“央地分权”的制度背景，系统地构建了一个“中央政府—地方政府—企业”影响公司绿色治理的理论框架，补充了公司绿色治理的前因研究；第三，课题所揭示的政府环境行为对公司绿色治理的影响机理，为相关部门通过完善央地两级政府治理机制提升上市公司绿色治理水平提供了新的思路。