PurposeAmid growing environmental concerns, green demarketing (GD) has emerged as a strategy for encouraging sustainable consumption by discouraging excessive use. This study investigates how message sidedness (one-sided vs. two-sided) in GD communication influences consumer purchase intentions, and whether this effect is moderated by product attribute dominance (utilitarian vs. hedonic).Design/methodology/approachAcross five experiments (N = 1,153), including lab-based scenarios, field studies, and an eye-tracking experiment, participants were exposed to GD brand messages with varying sidedness and attribute emphasis. Perceived sincerity was examined as a mediating mechanism.FindingsResults show that two-sided GD messages, which acknowledge both benefits and limitations, tend to enhance purchase intentions, particularly for products emphasizing utilitarian attributes. In contrast, one-sided messages are more effective when products highlight hedonic features. Mediation analyses confirm that perceived sincerity explains the effect of message sidedness.Originality/valueThis research advances understanding of how message presentation and product positioning interact to shape consumer responses to sustainable branding. It offers actionable insights for marketers on leveraging message transparency and attribute framing in green demarketing strategies.

The digital village strategy is a critical component of China's national blueprint for integrating big data and digital technologies into rural revitalization. This study investigates the implementation of digital grid governance in rural China through a case study of County F—a national pilot site for the Digital Village Strategy. The study highlights the flexible, experimental, and iterative nature of local implementation, shaped by bureaucratic constraints and grassroots realities. The findings illustrate that digital governance entails significant financial and labor investments, particularly regarding frontline actors tasked with continual data collection and reporting. The study emphasizes the central role of relational labor in sustaining digital systems—an often invisible effort rooted in trust, familiarity, and embeddedness within local social networks. Such labor helps local officials navigate tensions between top-down mandates and rural complexities. Digital governance functions more as a symbolic performance of administrative achievement than as a tool for effective governance. The metaphor of “dancing with anklets” captures the politics of ambivalence under digital constraints.

PurposeThe study aims to examine how different types of green brand ritual (GBR) influence customer engagement behavior and the mediation mechanisms and boundary conditions of the positive and negative pathways.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducts two online experiments to collect data from a total of 940 consumers in China. Hypotheses are tested by independent samples t-test, two-way ANOVA and Hayes' PROCESS model.FindingsDifferent kinds of GBR have different effects on customer engagement behavior. Internal GBR is more likely to play a positive role by inciting connectedness to nature. External GBR is more likely to play a negative role by inciting psychological resistance. This dual effect is especially pronounced for warm brands rather than competent brands.Originality/valueThe study pioneers the brand ritual into the field of interactive marketing and enriches its dual effect research. Additionally, the study figures out whether the category of brand ritual can trigger negative effect.Practical implicationsInappropriate brand rituals are worse than no rituals at all. The results provide guidance for green companies to design effective brand rituals to strengthen the connection with consumers. Green brands should describe brand rituals in vivid detail and consciously lead consumers to immerse themselves in them.

Energy performance contracting (EPC) is considered to promote the cooperation of low-carbon investment between supply chain members; however, few studies have examined the impact of supplier encroachment on EPC cooperation. This study investigated a new coopetitive mode in a sustainable supply chain with EPC and supplier encroachment. The supplier may provide an EPC service to curb carbon emissions for the downstream manufacturer and obtain a partial savings in carbon costs by bearing the entire cost of the EPC investment. However, the supplier is motivated to develop a new direct selling channel that engages in Cournot competition with the manufacturer in the final market. The consumer acceptance of a new encroaching channel and the unit incompatibility cost of EPC are two critical factors in supplier and manufacturer decisions. The results demonstrate that the lower the consumer acceptance of a new encroaching channel, the more radical the decision that will be made by the supplier to abate emissions after encroachment to reduce the manufacturer's emissions cost. Moreover, in contrast to the traditional result, encroachment might cause the supplier to charge a higher wholesale price when implementing EPC services. Furthermore, there exist win-win situation in the EPC scenario and lose-lose situation in which the two supply chain members are worse off whether the supplier provides either encroachment or EPC services.

The Communist Party of China leads the Chinese nation through the modern national crisis, set foot on the historical journey of national rejuvenation, in the practice of building socialism to continuously promote the "two combination", born the modern civilization of the Chinese nation. The modern civilization of Chinese nation is the new form of human civilization, with the triple characteristics of Chinese civilization, socialist civilization and modern civilization: the dimension of Chinese civilization is the modern growth of Chinese civilization; the dimension of socialist civilization is the first construction of socialist civilization; and the dimension of modern civilization is the new pattern of modern civilization. The modern civilization of the Chinese nation is the modern development of the Chinese civilization that actively integrates into the history of the world and constructs the Chinese discourse system. The Chinese modern civilization breaks through the definition of the civilization of "private ownership", eliminates the shielding of the subjectivity of capital to people, and jumps the so-called "Thucydides trap", showing the new style of modern civilization.

The impact of digital industrialization on regional pollution control and carbon reduction in China is an area that remains largely unexplored despite being a new driving force in promoting high-quality economic development. This study constructs a combined system synergy model to measure the synergistic governance effect of regional pollution and carbon reduction in China from 2011 to 2020 and then estimates the direct impact and spatial spillover effect using a spatial dual-weight model. Our findings indicate that digital industrialization has a greater impact on regional pollution reduction and carbon reduction as geographical distance decreases, with the spillover effect with close geographical relationships being higher than that of adjacent. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that the added value of digital technology and services has a significantly positive effect, while the spatial spillover effect of the added value of digital infrastructure is significantly negative. Finally, our mechanism judgements prove digital industrialization can impact the level of regional co-governance of pollution and carbon reduction through source prevention, process control, and end-treatment. Our study provides a factual basis for further promoting China’s environmental pollution control and carbon reduction behavior and offers a method to use different spatial weights in depth.

Reliable and affordable energy supply is the key to achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) aimed at alleviating poverty. However, few studies explore renewable energy and poverty alleviation (RE-PA) practices and RE-PA nexus from a text mining perspective. This paper aims to find the research concerns of the RE-PA nexus and propose a conceptual framework for the synthesis of renewable energy, poverty alleviation, and SDGs. Topic modelling method and Latent Dirichlet Allocation model were adopted, and 5333 records were obtained from Web of Science and the 12-topic model was used to reveal the latent intellectual structure of the current research on RE-PA nexus. The results suggest that the top research concerns of the RE-PA nexus are sustainable energy development, country resource policy, and economic-environmental-social sustainability. Energy access of rural households, ecosystem services, and renewable energy performance are three essential future research directions. The top research concerns and future research directions would help to further explore the RE-PA nexus. This study could also provide a basis for integrated policy recommendations for renewable energy development and poverty alleviation while pursuing SDGs on energy and poverty.

The projects that combine solar photovoltaics (PV) and poverty alleviation (PA) are the explorations of sustainable development (SD) from the Chinese government, aiming at both reducing the number of rural poor and the intensity of carbon emissions. Currently, the actual energy and environmental performances of those Photovoltaic-based Targeted Poverty Alleviation Plants (PV-PAPs) remain to be validated. Based on the field survey data from 23 grid-connected PV-PAPs in 7 provinces of China, with a total installed capacity of 51.39 MW, this study evaluated their energy and environmental benefits by adopting the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Net Energy Analysis (NEA) methods. The following indicators of PV-PAPs were calculated: Energy Payback Time (EPBT), Energy Return on Investment (EROIPE-eq), Greenhouse Gas Emission Rate (GHGe-R) andCarbon Payback Time (CPBT). The results show that: (1) The EPBT of 23 power stations would be 0.79-1.94 years, the EROIPE-eq range from 15.48 to 38.15, the range of GHGe-R would be 43.34-106.78 g/kWh, and the CPBT range from 1.88 to 5.11 years. Even in areas with poor solar radiation, PV-PAPs still have good energy efficiency and environmental benefits. (2) The indirect environmental cost incurred by human factors should be highlighted. It might lead to the change of benefits, such as the GHGe-R, which might fluctuate from 0 to 51.44 g/kWh for the power plants with similar technical specifications. (3) Compared with traditional coal-fired electricity generation (EG), the PV EG could reduce carbon emissions by 87.35-94.9%. This study reveals the status and effects of PV-PAPs in China, and provides practical evidence for further large-scale practice of solar PV in China, which could also provide a basis for decision-making of policy makers. Finally, policy recommendations were proposed to help promote the SD of the PV industry in China. (c) 2020 International Energy Initiative. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

改善能源生态效率是实现“十三五”节能降耗和生态文明建设的现实选择,本文考虑生态和社会福利因素,以2000-2016年省际面板数据样本为基础,利用SBM-DEA模型计算和分析了中国区域能源生态效率,并运用固定效应模型从财政分权、经济竞争的内生经济增长和制度层面探究其影响机制.研究发现,近17年来中国中西部地区能源生态效率水平较东部地区差,其中中部地区呈现持续恶化趋势.财政分权显著改善了能源生态效率,而地方政府间经济竞争降低了能源生态效率.地区虚拟变量揭示经济竞争使东部和中部地区能源生态效率显著下降,但有助于西部地区提高能源生态效率.基于反事实分析,如果能够遏制经济竞争加剧,能源生态效率年均能够获得1.38％额外改善.最后,本文提出从改革财政激励制度,强化审计监督问责,因地制宜调整产业结构等政策建议,鼓励地方政府形成经济竞争与合作,以期提升中国能源生态效率.

The study of environmental-oriented total factor energy efficiency considering pollutants as a non-expected output has attracted wide attention, but few studies have included social welfare into the above framework for analyzing China’s provincial energy ecological efficiency (EEE). In addition, China’s fiscal decentralization and economic competition have created tremendous momentum for economic growth; however, research has been lacking on whether they have improved China’s energy utilization, pollution control and social welfare level. To fill these gaps, by applying the 2000–2016 panel data from 30 provinces and considering the social welfare condition, we use the slacks-based measure data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) method to calculate EEE and build empirical model to test the relation between EEE, fiscal decentralization and economic competition. The results reveal that, firstly, in the last 16 years EEE has been getting worse and the situation of the middle and western areas of China are poorer than in the eastern area, with the middle area still deteriorating further. Secondly, economic competition among local governments aggravates the provincial EEE in China, while the high degree of fiscal decentralization in state governments significantly contributes to improve the EEE; and the co-impact of economic competition on EEE has been negatively strengthened against the background of fiscal decentralization. Thirdly, the influence of economic competition on EEE presents a regional difference; economic competition makes the degree of EEE go down in the east and middle regions, while by contrast, economic competition has helped the EEE level in western regions. The conclusions point out that the temporal trend of EEE in various regions of China, and the economic competition actions adopted by most Chinese local governments to enhance their own financial strength, have not improved energy efficiency and pollution control capability, and has reduced the social welfare of the region. Accordingly, policy proposals are that the Chinese government can adjust the fiscal and tax revenue system and preferential tax system of the central government and local governments and curb competition between provincial jurisdictions.