A study on the impact of ESG rating on green technology innovation in enterprises: An empirical study based on informal environmental governance.

Improving corporate green technology innovation is a key link in achieving green transformation and development. Compared with formal environmental regulations that force companies to carry out green innovation passively, ESG ratings under soft environmental regulations can better stimulate the internal motivation of companies. This study uses the ESG ratings of listed companies published for the first time by SynTao Green Finance as an exogenous impact. Taking China's A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2022 as a research sample, the multi-period differences-in-differences model was used to empirically test the impact of ESG rating soft supervision on corporate green technology innovation. The results show that the impact of ESG rating events as a soft market regulation has a significant positive impact on the improvement of corporate green technology innovation. This conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. Meanwhile, enterprise digital transformation plays a positive regulatory role. The heterogeneity test shows that the green technology innovation of state-owned enterprises is more affected by ESG ratings. Mechanism research has found that ESG rating events promote corporate green technology innovation by easing corporate financing constraints and reducing managerial myopia. Further research found that under the influence of the external environment, intensified market competition and increased attention from the capital market are also conducive to the improvement of corporate green technology innovation. This study strengthens the corporate ESG concept under the guidance of green development and provides empirical evidence for promoting corporate green transformation.

China's pilot free trade zone and green high-quality development: an empirical study from the perspective of green finance.

Achieving the integration of green and economic development has become the key to promoting high-quality economic development in China. In the context of dual-cycle development, a higher level of opening up will be an important prerequisite for achieving this goal. This article uses panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2020 as the research sample and takes the establishment of the Pilot Free Trade Zone (PFTZ) as a quasi-natural experiment. By constructing the Green Dual-Cycle High-Quality Development (GDHD) indicator system, taking green finance as the starting point, industrial structure adjustment and technological innovation ability as the perspective of differentiation. This article uses the difference-in-differences method and the intermediary effect model to explore the impact of PFTZ on regional green high-quality development. The study found that establishing PFTZ has significantly promoted regional green high-quality development, and this effect remains valid under multiple robustness tests. Further research has found that, under the advantages of green finance in PFTZ, regional industrial restructuring and the improvement of green innovation capabilities are the main ways to achieve this goal. This study provides a new development path for China's PFTZ to promote high-quality regional development better.

Do China's pilot free trade zones promote green dual-circulation development? Based on the DID model.

Accelerating the formation of a green dual-circulation pattern is an essential strategic choice for China to achieve high-quality development. As a vital link for two-way economic and trade cooperation, the pilot free trade zone (PFTZ) is an important window for promoting green dual-circulation development. From the perspective of green dual-circulation, this paper attempts to construct a comprehensive index system of green dual-circulation by entropy weight method based on Chinese provincial panel data from 2007 to 2020 and uses the Propensity Score Matching-Difference in Differences method to test the policy impact of PFTZ building on regional green dual-circulation. The empirical results show that: (1) the establishment of PFTZs significantly promotes regional green dual-circulation development by 3%-4%. This policy effect has a strong positive impact on the eastern regions; (2) PFTZs can improve regional green dual circulation through the effect of green finance, technological progress, and the agglomeration of innovative talents. The mediating effect of green finance and technological progress is more pronounced; (3) The promotion effect of PFTZs is primarily due to the local green circulation effect, with no significant effects on the surrounding areas; and (4) There is a positive policy linkage effect between PFTZs and the Belt and Road Initiative. This study creates the analytical perspective and empirical support for assessing the policy impact of PFTZs and provides management insights for PFTZ policymakers in promoting green dual-circulation development.

Investigation of Yield Surfaces Evolution for Polycrystalline Aluminum after Pre-Cyclic Loading by Experiment and Crystal Plasticity Simulation.

This study aims at introducing the back stress of anisotropic strain-hardening into the crystal plasticity theory and demonstrating the rationality of this crystal plasticity model to describe the evolution of the subsequent yield surface of polycrystalline aluminum at the mesoscopic scale under complex pre-cyclic loading paths. By using two different scale finite element models, namely a global finite element model (GFEM) as the same size of the thin-walled tube specimen used in the experiments and a 3D cubic polycrystalline aggregate representative volume element (RVE) model, the evolution of the subsequent yield surface for different unloading cases after 30 pre-cycles is further performed by experiments and numerical simulations within a crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) frame. Results show that the size and shape of the subsequent yield surfaces are extremely sensitive to the chosen offset strain and the pre-cyclic loading direction, which present pronounced anisotropic hardening through a translation and a distortion of the yield surface characterized by the obvious "sharp corner" in the pre-deformation direction and "flat" in the reverse direction by the definition of small offset strain, while the subsequent yield surface exhibits isotropic hardening reflected by the von Mises circle to be distorted into an ellipse by the definition of large offset strain. In addition, the heterogeneous properties of equivalent plastic strain increment are further discussed under different offset strain conditions. Modeling results from this study show that the heterogeneity of plastic deformation decreases as a law of fraction exponential function with the increasing offset strain. The above analysis indicates that anisotropic hardening of the yield surface is correlated with heterogeneous deformation caused by crystal microstructure and crystal slip. The crystal plasticity model based on the above microscopic mechanism can accurately capture the directional hardening features of the yield surface.

Investigation of Anisotropic Subsequent Yield Behavior for 45 Steel by the Distortional Yield Surface Constitutive Model.

The subsequent anisotropic yield behavior of 45 steel was predicted by the distortional yield surface constitutive model, which can describe the anisotropic subsequent yield and the cross effect of metal associating with loading history. The yield characteristics and plastic hardening behaviors of the 45 steel were simulated under three preloading paths including pre-torsion, pre-tension, and pre-tension-torsion. Based on the comparison between the experimental yield stresses and the simulation by the classical Chaboche model, the proposed model can describe the remarkable anisotropic yield behavior related to the loading history, which can effectively describe the sharp point of yield surface in pre-loading direction and the smaller curvature near its opposite direction. It was successfully simulated by the constitutive model proposed that the subsequent distortional yield surface defined by small offset strain and the degradation process of the distortion feature defined by large offset strain.

The Anisotropic Distortional Yield Surface Constitutive Model Based on the Chaboche Cyclic Plastic Model.

Considering the cross effect in the evolution of subsequent yield surfaces for metals, an anisotropic distortional yield surface constitutive model is developed. By introducing an anisotropic distortional hardening function into the isotropic hardening part of the classical Chaboche rate-dependent constitutive model, the plastic-deformation-induced distortional and anisotropic hardening behaviors of subsequent yield surfaces are characterized. The experimental data of distortional yield surfaces for T2 pure copper under three different loading paths, including pre-tension, pre-torsion, and pre-tension-torsion proportional loading of 45-degree, are simulated by implementing the models into a numerical user defined material (UMAT) procedure based on the ABAQUS finite element package. To validate the anisotropic plastic model, the simulated yield surfaces are compared with experimental observations and predicted results for a crystal plasticity model and good agreement are noted. The simulations demonstrate that the proposed model can accurately capture the characteristics of the distortional yield surface and the anisotropic hardening process of the yield surface. Moreover, the distortional shapes of experimental subsequent yield surfaces in loading direction and opposite direction can be better revealed by the anisotropic plastic constitutive model than the crystal plastic constitutive model.