Environmental and health impacts due to e-waste disposal in China - A review.

Optimal pricing and remanufacturing mode in a closed-loop supply chain of WEEE under government fund policy

Employees' pro‐environmental behavior serves as a cornerstone in realizing organizations' sustainability initiatives. Leadership plays a vital role in shaping and nurturing the desired employee behaviors. Building upon social learning and self‐determination theories, we developed and tested a research model that investigated the mediating role of employees' green intrinsic motivation and the moderating influence of their green self‐efficacy on the relationship between green servant leadership and pro‐environmental behavior. Data were collected in two waves from 323 pairs of employee‐manager working in Pakistan's energy sector and analyzed with partial least squares path modeling (PLS‐PM). The findings endorsed that green servant leadership influences pro‐environmental behavior through the mediating mechanism of green intrinsic motivation. Further, green self‐efficacy played an interactive role with green servant leadership in shaping pro‐environmental behavior. This research responds to multiple calls for research and advances the knowledge on servant leadership and pro‐environmental behavior.

The interplay of green servant leadership, self‐efficacy, and intrinsic motivation in predicting employees’ pro‐environmental behavior

Optimal operations of a closed-loop supply chain under a dual regulation

This paper explores the relationships between lean manufacturing (LM), the promotion of green practices, employee involvement, pressure to take actions against environmental issues, the adoption of an ISO 14001-based environmental management system (EMS) and environmental performance in order to understand how LM can help improve environmental performance through environmental practices and the development of a lean culture. The effects of pressure to “go green”, employee involvement and the adoption of an EMS based on the International Organization for Standardization’s standard ISO 14001 are discussed. Data were collected from 220 Chinese manufacturing firms and analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) regression. The results suggest that the implementation of LM has a positive effect on the promotion of green practices and consequent achievement of high environmental performance; employee involvement is a moderator that affects the relationship between green practices and environmental performance; pressure to “go green” is a mediator in the relationship between LM and green practices; however, the adoption of ISO 14001 does not act as a moderator on the relationship between LM and green practices, but synergies emerge if ISO 14001 is integrated with LM. The study shows the importance of human attitudes and fosters managers to develop the necessary mechanisms to ensure and enhance employee involvement and lean culture. Although these determinants of environmental sustainability have been studied separately until now, this paper analyzes them simultaneously, investigating the relationship between different strategies and shedding some light on successful actions that promote sustainable manufacturing, and on the role of LM in sustainability. The findings can help manufacturers to take the initiative to improve environmental performance and assist governments in implementing industrial policies.

Lean Manufacturing and Environmental Sustainability: The Effects of Employee Involvement, Stakeholder Pressure and ISO 14001

Firms’ performance in sustainable development has caused increasing concerns. A key issue is that the environmental characteristics of business managers may be an important driver to promote the sustainable practice of enterprises. This study explores the relationship between ascribed responsibility of managers and green sustainable practice of enterprises by introducing the waste management as mediation variable and green self-efficacy as a moderating variable. A survey was conducted in manufacturing enterprises from the Yangtze River Delta in China in 2019, where 149 valid questionnaires were collected out of 200 surveyed enterprises. Subsequently, the data were analyzed through an analytic hierarchy process. The results show that: (1) ascribed responsibility of managers has a positive impact on green sustainable practices (β = 0.428, p < 0.001), and waste management plays a full mediating role during this process (β = 0.428, p < 0.001); (2) managers' green self-efficacy strengthens the positive impact of waste management on sustainable practices (β = 0.284, p < 0.05); (3) green self-efficacy has positively moderated the indirect effect of managers' ascribed responsibility for sustainable practice through waste management. The research enriches the theories on sustainable practice of enterprises from the perspective of managers’ environmental characteristics and provides insights for enterprises to promote sustainable development practice.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/18/4976/pdf

Understanding Firm Performance on Green Sustainable Practices through Managers’ Ascribed Responsibility and Waste Management: Green Self-Efficacy as Moderator

The impacts of China’s fund policy on waste electrical and electronic equipment utilization

The Coevolution Mechanism of Stakeholder Strategies in the Recycled Resources Industry Innovation Ecosystem: The View of Evolutionary Game Theory

E-waste is one of the fastest growing streams of solid waste globally, and its effective management has become a focused issue, which requires a deep understanding of the core guiding theory of extended producer responsibility (EPR). Over the past 20 years, China, one of the world's largest producers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), has made great efforts to improve e-waste management along with the massive generation of e-waste. In 2012, China implemented a unique EPR-based e-waste fund policy. However, the fund policy is unsustainable due to the challenges of non-closed resource use, informal recycling, and fund imbalance. Beginning with an overview of these challenges, this paper focuses on redesigning the fund policy from a closed-loop lifecycle perspective in order to maintain a balanced development of the resource use loop and the fund system in China's ten-year plan. In doing so, two EPR instruments, recycling content standards and consumer-oriented deposits, are added to the current fund policy. Subsequently, three extension scenarios alternately changed a critical parameter of the model to test the impact on sustainable capabilities. In this way, the sustainable supply of funds and secondary resources for the e-waste industry can be established in China and effectively demonstrate solid waste management in developing countries. 

/pdf/managing-e-waste-from-a-closed-loop-lifecycle-perspective-203gvgql.pdf

Managing e-waste from a closed-loop lifecycle perspective: China’s challenges and fund policy redesign

Energy consumption and industrial activities are the primary sources of carbon emissions. As the “world’s factory” and the largest carbon emitter, China has been emphasizing the core role of technological innovation in promoting industrial structure upgrades (ISU) and energy efficiency (EE) to reduce carbon emissions from industrial production and energy consumption. This study investigated the mechanism (through ISU and EE) and spillover effect of technological innovation on carbon emission reduction using the panel dataset of 30 Chinese provinces from 2008 to 2019 and spatial econometrics models. The study concluded that (1) technological innovation had a negative direct effect on provincial carbon emissions, while it also showed a spatial spillover effect on neighboring provinces; (2) technological innovation had an indirect effect on provincial carbon emissions reduction through the mediation of energy efficiency improvement, while the mediation effect of industrial structure upgrading is not yet significant; and (3) the effect of technological innovation on carbon emission reduction showed heterogeneity in the eastern, central, and western regions of China. This study provided empirical and theoretical references to decision-makers in China and other developing countries in promoting technological and carbon control policies. More specifically, direct technology investment and indirect investment in industrial structure upgrades and energy efficiency could help with regional carbon emissions reduction.

/pdf/carbon-dioxide-emissions-reduction-through-technological-1hmynnho.pdf

Guangfu Liu

Papers

Understanding Firm Performance on Green Sustainable Practices through Managers’ Ascribed Responsibility and Waste Management: Green Self-Efficacy as Moderator

The impacts of China’s fund policy on waste electrical and electronic equipment utilization

The Coevolution Mechanism of Stakeholder Strategies in the Recycled Resources Industry Innovation Ecosystem: The View of Evolutionary Game Theory

Managing e-waste from a closed-loop lifecycle perspective: China’s challenges and fund policy redesign

Carbon Dioxide Emissions Reduction through Technological Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Provinces