How Can Multiple Regulatory Tools Promote the Green Production Practices in Manufacturing Companies?

It is important to guide companies to choose green production behavior through government regulation. Using research data of 592 manufacturing companies in China, this study used Stata software and Process plug-in to build Ordered Probit regression and multiple chain mediation models. It investigated the policy impact and interactive effects between command-and-control, market-incentive, and information-guided regulatory instruments in promoting the green process. The paper explores the mechanisms of regulatory instruments on the impact of green transformation within the firm. Empirical analysis showed that these regulatory instruments are conducive to the green production behaviors of industrial companies. However, when multiple regulatory instruments were implemented concurrently, there were interactive effects between regulatory instruments, manifested as complementary and substitution effects. The marginal impact of policies exhibits heterogeneity when regulatory instruments are applied to different company ownership structures, sizes, and regions. Corporate green strategies, environmental protection equipment, and technological innovation have multiple chain mediating effects on regulatory instruments and corporate green production behaviors. This study provides a theoretical framework for government to scientifically assess the policy effect of regulatory instruments. It is beneficial to the government to design and optimise the regulatory tools and their combination and accelerate corporate green transformation