Environmental Regulations, Environmental Subsidies and Enterprise Investment for Environmental Protection: Evidence from Pollution Enterprises of China

Environmental protection concerns the global and long-term development of the social economy. The negative effects of production and management activities of pollution enterprises on the environment attract more and more attention from the whole society. The government is not only continuously strengthening production regulation, responsibility monitoring and establishment of rules and regulations of pollution enterprises, but also increasing supports to environmental-friendly development of pollution enterprises. To explore influences of environmental regulations and environmental subsidies on enterprise investment to environmental protection, influences of environmental subsidies under environmental regulations were discussed through the propensity matching using data of listed enterprises in China’s pollution industry from 2013 to 2019. Results demonstrate that environmental subsidies promote the growth of enterprise investment to environmental protection significantly and environmental regulations are the primary influencing factor. According to heterogeneity analysis, environmental subsidies have significant positive effects on the investment in environmental protection of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises. The quantity and amplitude of investment in environmental protection of state-owned enterprises are more prominent. Environmental subsidies significantly promote investment in environmental protection of enterprises where senior executives have a technological background, but they have no significant influences on enterprises where senior executives have no technological background. Conclusions have some policy significance: government urges pollution enterprises to increase investment in environmental protection and pursue sustainable development from perspectives of incentives (increasing economic subsidies) and pressure (developing collaborative effect of environmental regulation).

The Core-Periphery Structure in the Yangtze River Delta: An Enterprise Linkage Perspective, 1978–2019

Metropolitan areas are important for engaging in fierce global competition. Cities in metropolitan areas in China are generally characterized by a core-periphery structure. The Yangtze River Delta metropolitan area (YRD) is a national strategic region in which Shanghai, as a central city, drives the economic growth of hinterland cities. Exploring the spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors between the central city and its hinterland cities in the YRD can provide a basis for promoting regional development. Based on the headquarters-branches and enterprise investment data from 1978 to 2019, this study analyzes the spatiotemporal characteristics and influencing factors of enterprise linkages between Shanghai and its hinterland cities in the YRD. Our results reveal the following: (1) the headquarters-branch linkages between Shanghai and its hinterland cities manifest polarization characteristics, with different polarized characteristics among the three provinces; (2) the enterprise investment linkages between Shanghai and its hinterland cities are getting closer, but the key cities for investment in each province are different; (3) economic strength is a core factor that affects whether Shanghai establishes enterprise branches in its hinterland cities; and (4) the enterprise investment linkages between Shanghai and its hinterland cities depend on whether a city has a comparative advantage.

Methods for Assessing the Investment Attractiveness of Innovative Projects

The material examines basic concepts of enterprise investment activities assessing from the point of view of the investment climate in the industry. The main objective of this study is to determine an integral assessment of the possibilities of financing innovative projects of industrial enterprises.The relevance of such a study is explained by the urgent need to form a more accurate and reliable assessment of the priorities of modern financing of innovative projects. The study takes into account additional factors that are applicable in the specific context of the enterprise.In the course of the study, the following logical sequence is observed: several relatively simple and essential components in the structure of enterprises are distinguished, which consistently have the most significant impact on the dynamics of changes in the innovative and investment characteristics of the entire industry as a whole. The research object is various energy enterprises of Ukraine since they are one of the key factors that allow creating and developing a competitive world economy in terms of energy-saving innovations, including non-traditional renewable energy.Based on the results obtained, it becomes possible to determine the integral indicators of the investment attractiveness of specific innovative projects. This technique allows you to sensibly assess all sides of the issue and make an informed management decision on forming the company’s investment strategy.

EXPLICATION OF THE INVESTMENT POLICY ESSENCE BY THE CASE OF METALLURGICAL SECTOR COMPLEX

The article analyzes multiple definitions of enterprise investment policy. It reveals the scientists’ judgments on the essence of the enterprise investment policy and presents the term definitions integrated with the scientific approach, applying semantic-syntactic criteria in the ontological analysis methodology. In terms of the scientific approaches, suggested by the authors, the objectives of the industrial enterprise investment policy, methods for evaluating the investment policy in general, and the capital investment projects specifically are considered. The authors outline the main problematic issues that require further in-depth research. Differences in the objectives of the investment policy between the enterprises inside the branch, as well as factors of influence on institutional conditions of investment into the metallurgical industry are identified based on the analysis of the strategic profile of the national metallurgical companies and analytical data of the World Steel Association. The authors give the essential criteria of the investment activity efficiency in the field, among which are: fluctuation in world metal prices; the national currency exchange rate volatility; vertical integration in metallurgic enterprise management; oligopoly in the domestic metallurgical market. Approaches, proposed by the authors, are relevant both methodologically and practically, and encourage to further investigation of the enterprise investment policy and investment activity specifics in the metallurgical industry sector.