Driving Mechanism of Greening Corporate Environmental Behaviour Under the “Dual-Carbon” Goal: A Study Based on Grounded Theory Study

Abstract

In order to cope with global warming, the Chinese government is actively promoting the “dual-carbon” target policy, a green and efficient system which will become the future development direction of China’s energy system. As the main body of the carbon emissions of enterprises is bound to be the focus of governance, we must accelerate green transformation. In this paper, we use procedural rooting theory, collect data from field interviews, and use open coding, principal axis coding, selective coding, and a theoretical saturation test to explore antecedent motivation mechanisms and the consequent pathway of the green change in corporate environmental behaviours under the “dual-carbon” goal. We aim to clarify the evolution of “internal and external factors—enterprise green change willingness—green change behavior” to construct a theoretical model. The results show that the influence of and interaction effects among the micro-level, macro-environmental level, and meso-industry level dimensions of enterprise will drive companies to make green changes and adopt green change behaviours in the forms of strategic change and innovation optimisation. This study enriches the theoretical framework of green change in corporate environmental behaviour under the rigid constraint of the “dual-carbon” goal and provides countermeasure suggestions for the successful achievement of the “dual-carbon” goal at the corporate body level.

1. Introduction

Greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities have triggered serious crises such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, extreme weather, and loss of biodiversity. In order to better cope with these ecological problems [1], in September 2020, the Chinese government explicitly put forward the “dual-carbon” goal of reaching a peak in carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. Since then, the government has been actively promoting the construction of a carbon emissions trading market, a green financial policy system, and a demonstration zone for the energy revolution, which have continuously put forward higher requirements for enterprises as an important micro-market subject, and have required them to continuously pursue greener, lower-carbon, and high-quality production while maintaining high-speed development [2]. Whether it is technological innovation in energy substitution, production process optimisation, resource recycling or carbon capture, utilisation, and sequestration (CCUS), or other aspects of the transformation, achieving substantial energy savings and carbon reduction requires a large amount of financial, human, and material resources, which is undoubtedly difficult for enterprises [3]. Limited resources, a lack of talent, a lack of funds, and many other practical constraints make it difficult for enterprises in the development process to choose between green change and profit maximisation, i.e., they lack scientific and effective knowledge and the means to change the existing development paradigm [4].

From the viewpoint of existing studies, after the “dual-carbon” target was put forward, scholars carried out discussions from multiple perspectives, e.g., from the perspective of carbon emission control and the division of responsibility, predicting the time to achieve the target, as well as the best path to choose. On the basis of the target requirements and from the perspective of key industries, some scholars have undertaken investigations into the social and economic benefits brought about by the transformation of enterprises to reduce carbon emissions. Some scholars have also explored the social and economic benefits brought about by carbon reduction and the transformation of enterprises from the perspective of key industries on the basis of target requirements [5,6]. Most of these studies indicated that various factors, such as the external economic environment and government policies, have an impact on enterprises’ decision-making behaviour [7]. However, under the rigid requirements of the “dual-carbon” target, some enterprises are actively implementing green changes while others are still reacting negatively. This study aims to find the reasons for these behavioural differences among specific companies. On this basis, the main research questions are as follows: Firstly, what are the factors contributing to differences in enterprises’ shifting behaviours under the “dual-carbon” goal? Secondly, considering the complex survival environment of enterprises, how can these influencing factors be classified into different dimensions? Thirdly, in order to better achieve the “dual-carbon” goal, how should the willingness of enterprises to make green changes be more effectively stimulated and enhanced? This study adopts the Grounded Theory as the research method, directly penetrates enterprises in China, starting from interviews, summarises original data, clarifies antecedent motivation and the after-effect path of the green transformation for enterprises, analyses the linkage mechanism between various elements in the whole process of green change, and refines the transformation path in conformity with the current transformation of enterprises. The objective is to provide useful transformation references for enterprises in line with the “dual-carbon” goal. We expect to provide useful references for enterprises undergoing a green change in line with the “dual-carbon” goal.

2. Literature Review

Growing concern about carbon emissions is making enterprises begin to pay attention to the impact of their decision-making and business behaviour. The proposal of the “dual-carbon” target policy aims both to transform the crude development mode of enterprises—characterised by high emissions and high pollution, which damage the environment—and to reconstruct a harmonious relationship with nature by means of a new development mode with low emissions and low consumption in order to promote sustainable development [8,9,10]. Through a systematic analysis of the work of domestic and foreign scholars on the green change in corporate environmental behaviour, it was found that scholars are focusing on the concept of corporate green behaviour, its driving factors, policy research, and other research perspectives.

What is corporate green change? For the definition of this concept, scholars at home and abroad have proposed many different designations, such as corporate pro-environmental behaviour, corporate environmental behaviour, corporate environmental management behaviour, etc. [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19] Although the proposed definitions are different, their core connotations are similar. They all refer to the sustainable development behaviours implemented by enterprises under the influence of the government, stakeholders, and employees and executives, which are in line with the parallel development behaviours of resources, environmental protection, and economic benefits.

What are the impacts of the green change process for businesses? Current research is advancing two perspectives. From an external perspective, the new institutionalism theory proposed by DiMaggio and Powell [20] firstly focuses on the fact that business organisations are subject to the external environments, norms, and values of the system. Factors such as politics, laws, and stakeholders all influence the production, operations, and green behaviour of an enterprise. On this basis, a large number of scholars have comprehensively considered the external influences on enterprises’ transition choices, including government regulation, institutional ratings, capital market stakeholder requirements, public scrutiny, consumer demand, and media publicity [21,22,23,24,25,26,27]. Green finance and green policies have been found to be important tools for guiding resource allocation in studies on related policies [28,29]. Cui [30] believes that the implementation of a carbon emissions trading policy has an incentive effect on the green and low-carbon transformation of enterprises. From an internal perspective, there is a shift in the green ethics and perceptions of stakeholders. Among them, executives, as the backbone of corporate management, play a crucial role in the implementation of corporate green change strategies [31,32]. Employees’ sense of belonging to an enterprise and enthusiasm for work will further promote green and low-carbon production behaviours in enterprises in high-carbon industries [33]. In addition, the attitudes of directors and shareholders can have varying degrees of influence [34].

Unsurprisingly, there is room for further exploration in existing research; first of all, scholars seldom examine the green change of corporate environmental behaviour through the prism of the new constraint of the “dual-carbon” goal. They mainly focus on exploring the carbon reduction transformation of enterprises from a single perspective, e.g., the identification of influencing factors, the selection of behavioural strategies, or the evaluation of behavioural effectiveness, which may not fully cover the core elements of the concept of transformation. Such an approach may therefore not adequately cover the core element of the concept of transformation, namely, the “transformation” process itself. For enterprises, change is a dynamic process that evolves over time, requiring in-depth analyses of the drivers and paths behind behavioural changes. Secondly, the existing literature tends to focus more on analysing the homogenizing effects of external environmental regulations or examining them from the perspective of enterprises’ internal resources, capabilities, and leadership. There are no well-developed mature guidelines or theoretical models for change selection. Therefore, it is necessary to go deeper into enterprises to understand the current transformation dilemma and then to fully consider the intrinsic qualities of the enterprise and examine the connotations of environmental behavioural green changes in more detail. At the same time, it is necessary to conduct more in-depth research and link the important internal and external influencing factors together in order to identify effective ways to drive enterprises to make behavioral changes. As an open system, an enterprise will be affected by factors at all levels, from macro to micro. Is there a non-parallel relationship between factors of different levels? The mechanism of factor interaction needs to be explored urgently. Behavioural connotations are defined in this paper on the basis of relevant research on a series of green, low-carbon production changes. This change involves enterprises shifting from their original high-carbon emission production methods to low-carbon emission production methods. This paper analyses the complex internal and external factors affecting the green change in the environmental behaviour of Chinese enterprises under the constraint of the “dual-carbon” goal, hoping to enrich existing research in this field.

3. Method and Data

3.1. Research Method

Grounded Theory (GT) was first introduced in 1967 by Glaser Strauss [35] in his book “The Discovery of Grounded Theory”. This method is important in qualitative research, e.g., to extract theories from facts, undertake analyses, and to illustrate the evolution of concepts in various documents. Subsequently, concepts may be gradually connected and the hierarchy and attributes among them determined. Finally, a theoretical model is constructed to explain social phenomena. The main steps include open coding, spindle coding, and selective coding, with a complete traceability chain which can ensure the objectivity and rigour of the study to a certain extent. The research logic of this method is that there is no need to set theoretical assumptions beginning a study; rather, the researcher starts directly from an actual observation, makes empirical generalisations based on the original data, extracts the relevant concepts and categories, searches for interaction relationships among categories, and then applies system theory [36].

The reasons for choosing “Grounded Theory” for this research were as follows. (1) In emphasising that the inductive construction of theory needs to be based on the analysis of experience, this approach focuses on the systematic collection and analysis of real-world information, which can effectively avoid problems such as the disconnect between theory and practice in research. Although Grounded Theory is based on realistic information, it does not place particular emphasis on empiricism [37], but rather focuses on the development and revision of theory in the process of continuously collecting, analysing, and comparing information. Before data collection begins, we did not make any theoretical assumptions. The focus was on analysing and coding the data, identifying categories, clarifying “story lines”, and revising the theory until it was saturated with theoretical models [38] and, therefore, appropriate to our research needs. (2) Grounded Theory can systematically summarise the factors influencing the green change in environmental behaviour of the sample enterprises after the “dual-carbon” target had been put forward, which helped to clarify the relationship among and the mechanisms of the factors so as to scientifically construct a theoretical model of the process of green change and rationally elaborate a suitable model.

3.2. Data Sources

In view of the fact that multiple samples can minimise statistical errors and conclusion biases caused by a small sample size in the research process, this paper initially selected a number of typical Chinese enterprises to conduct multiple case studies. During our research on enterprise selection, some standards were followed to ensure the representativeness of the sample: (1) The interviewed enterprises must have knowledge about and undertake actions in the domain of green production; (2) The interviewed enterprises exhibit diversity; (3) The interviewees are the persons in charge of the behavioural changes of the enterprise; (4) The selected industries included the thermal power industry, iron and steel industry, cement industry, electrolysis industry, coal industry, metallurgy industry, chemical industry, petrochemical industry, building materials industry, paper industry, manufacturing industry, fermentation industry, textile industry, mining industry, and other high-energy-consuming industries. In addition to the standard requirements, there was no artificial predefinition of certain characteristics of the screening sample enterprises, and the selection of samples was not biased, which ensured the randomness and representativeness of the samples to a certain extent. Secondly, the sample size had to meet specific requirements. According to the theoretical saturation principle, the sample size should be determined as if the newly drawn sample would no longer provide new information [39]. Eisenhardt [40] considers a sample size of more than four to be acceptable in a multiple case study. In general, the larger the sample size, the more likely it is that it will tend to saturate the theory. Therefore, drawing on existing experience, in-depth interviews were conducted with typical polluted site compliant enterprises in and outside of Jiangsu Province, China, while ensuring theoretical saturation of the sample and combining the distribution of the eastern and western regions. In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the interviewed enterprises, the research team grouped the management of 17 typical enterprises, whereby each enterprise had at least two groups. The length of each group’s interview was no less than 30 min, and a total of 36 management groups were interviewed. Additionally, 36 audio recordings were compiled and generated, with a total length of about 1308 min, and the text was converted to obtain about 2,898,867 words of audio recordings and text materials.

Statistics on the basic characteristics of the respondent enterprises are shown in

Table 1. Basic Characteristics Statistics of 17 Enterprises.

Characteristics		Quantities	%
Location (China)	Eastern	10	58.82%
	Western	7	41.18%
Years	≤5	1	5.89%
	5–10	5	29.41%
	10–20	5	29.41%
	≥20	6	35.29%
Ownership	Share-holding	3	17.65%
	Private	6	35.29%
	State	5	29.41%
	Mixed	1	5.89%
	Sino-foreign joint venture	2	11.76%
Number of employees	≤20	1	5.89%
	20–300	6	35.29%
	301–1000	6	35.29%
	≥1000	4	23.53%
Asset size (Monetary unit: RMB)	≤3 million	0	0
	300–20 million	1	5.89%
	20.1–400 million	6	35.29%
	≥400 million	10	58.82%

. The percentages of specific industries are shown in Figure 1 (note: “other” refers to the construction and installation industry).

3.2.1. Acquisition of Data

The data source of this study was mainly primary data interviews. Information was obtained through on-site interviews with the target enterprises. The main questions were “Have you heard of green production?”, “Do you know about the ‘dual-carbon’ target?”, “What changes have been made by enterprises after the ‘dual-carbon’ target was proposed?”, “What factors affect the enterprises’ green change?”, “What are the difficulties encountered in the process of this green change?”, “What are the factors affecting the green change of enterprises?”, and “What are the difficulties encountered by enterprises in the process of undertaking green change”.

3.2.2. Organisation of Data

As qualitative research is closely related to data collection, organisation, and analysis, case information was analysed predominantly via manual combing. This article was compiled with the aid of Nvivo14, a useful tool for specialised qualitative data analysis and research. Guo [41] demonstrated the match between the Nvivo family of software and Grounded Theory. This paper set important criteria in the collation process: it was formulated to select word frequencies of more than three times in the coding as initial concepts for defining categories; and it prevented ineffective superpositions of the number of subsequent main categories. In this study, 31 interviews were randomly selected as the raw material for coding, and the remaining five were used as saturation test data for the results of the Grounded Theory distillation.

3.3. Data Analysis

3.3.1. Open Coding

Open coding first analyses original textual data word by word and sentence by sentence to generate initial concepts, then combines similar concepts to identify higher-level concepts, categories, and finally conceptualises the data. In this paper, the initial concepts and categories were extracted scientifically by comparing the original data word by word and sentence by sentence. In this process, 36 initial samples were sorted, eliminating interfering language, and a total of about 280,000 words were obtained. After multiple screenings, five types of materials used for saturation testing were eliminated, and ultimately 1228 statements for open coding were obtained. After sorting and analysing, concepts with a frequency of less than 3 were eliminated and similar concepts were merged. In this way, 182 initial concepts and 15 categories (denoted as A01~A15) were obtained. The 15 categories corresponding to the initial concepts (

Table 2. Example of an enumeration of initial concepts corresponding to the single-sentence part of the source material.

Selected Source Statements	Initial Concept
“Reduce production costs so that your product is competitive in the market”. “… Because competition is greater now. Originally, it was our factory that was doing it on its own, and a lot of factories didn’t do that. Now, they are also learning, taking the waste slag and grinding it into ash. So now in the market, the first grade of ash is competitive, and everyone down there is doing superfine ash”.	Product Market Competition
“The waste is uniformly disposed of by our purchasing department to a qualified supplier with full authority… We are all classified, this waste is to be classified periodically, and we then let the supplier, let the qualified supplier come over to dispose of it”. “Like that solid waste, itself to be disposed of without comprehensive utilisation, the disposal of that has some costs, generating carbon dioxide… Then we make products, and this carbon dioxide is equivalent to an emission reduction”.	Optimisation of waste disposal
“The downstream companies have environmentally friendly gradings. Or low-carbon products, that is, production is said to be “green”, including my production process, which is green. Cleaner production-oriented, downstream companies are willing to use such a product”. “And then also the manufacturers downstream have requirements for them, i.e., that you can only buy as much carbon as you can buy. In that case, it’s a reverse and forward push”.	Downstream business attitudes
“There’s the energy saving aspect, and then there’s through cooperation with other people’s companies… An energy enterprise puts solar panels on our side, and then sells us the electricity that’s generated from that, which is lower than the market price, …” “Like on our own, we basically work with other people. You pay money to invest in equipment and make technical improvements, and then I’ll use yours and just pay again…”	Inter-enterprise cooperation
“This business itself requires the business to be energy efficient”. “And then there’s also some of head office consistency, which is another requirement…”	Management requirements

) are listed here in the first three in terms of frequency, as shown in

Table 3. Initial concepts and categories generated by open coding.

Area	Source (Quantities)	Initial Concept (Frequency)
A01 Resource Base	31	Production conditions (18), Project transformation conditions (93), Financial conditions (31)
A02 Policy Regulation	24	Policy standards (42), National macro requirements (9), Emission requirements (7)
A03 Industry Pressures	29	Industry competitive pressures (31), Industry requirements (25), Peer green behaviour (15)
A04 Green Cooperation	22	Inter-enterprise cooperation (35), University-enterprise industry-academia-research cooperation (6), Third-party agency cooperation (7)
A05 Innovation Optimisation	25	Optimisation of waste disposal (23), Optimisation of energy recovery (10), Optimisation of recycling technologies (43)
A06 Regional level of green development	10	Regional energy base (7), Degree of regional promotion (4), Natural conditions (9)
A07 Management philosophy	27	Personnel management systems (17), Management requirements (39), Management decisions (7)
A08 Green competition in the marketplace	12	Product market competition (11), Green access requirements (4), Product verification requirements (3)
A09 Environmental Oversight	30	Public monitoring (32), Environmental policy (19), Environmental monitoring and verification (23)
A10 Strategic Change	18	Corporate identity (12), Procurement control (9), Transport control (3), Strategic development direction (72), Business strategy objectives (3), Business model planning (7)
A11 Policy Incentives	23	Financial subsidies (39), Publicity incentives (5), Technical support (5)
A12 Expected Returns	26	Return on investment (33), Product upgrade advantage (10), Cost reduction (17)
A13 Market Greening Requirements	31	International market demand (44), Consumer demand (48), Downstream business attitudes (34)
A14 Technical Capability	27	Autonomous transformation capacity (28), Autonomous research and development capacity (24), Autonomous monitoring capacity (14)
A15 Management’s willingness to change	8	Management attitudes (14)

.

3.3.2. Axial Coding

Principal axis coding is the process of obtaining the meanings of the primary and secondary categories in open coding using the model proposed by Strauss and Corain. It is also necessary to undertake data mining work [42]. In this paper, the initial category obtained above was the sub-category, and the main axis coding was carried out by considering the causal chain. For example, the four sub-categories of “Resource Base”, “Expected Benefits”, “Management philosophy” and “Technological Capability” obtained in the open coding could be interpreted as “at the level of the enterprise itself, factors such as material resources, expected revenues, internal management philosophy, and technological capabilities, which all have an impact on an enterprise’s willingness to adapt to a greener environment”. Therefore, these four sub-categories could be integrated into the main category of “micro-firm level factors”. The 15 sub-categories were repeatedly refined, and 7 main categories were finally summarised. The main categories, subcategories formed by the main axis coding, and their intrinsic links are shown in

Table 4. Main Categories, Sub-categories and their Intrinsic Linkages.

Main Categories	Sub-Categories	Connotation
Micro-firm level factors (F)	A01 Resource Base	In-house resource acquisition, support, and reserves are fundamental to green change.
	A12 Expected Returns	The desire of companies to achieve the goals of improving the efficiency of resource utilisation, increasing profits, and reducing costs is an important motivation for green change.
	A09 Management philosophy	The philosophies of business managers regarding important procedures such as management, decision-making, and appraisal will directly affect whether or not an enteprise can make a green change.
	A14 Technical Capability	The research and development of green and low-carbon technologies, as well as the technical talent, achievements, and transformation experience of enterprises are important technical guarantees for the green change of enterprises.
Macro-environmental level factors (E)	A02 Policy Regulation	A series of regulations issued by the government is an important external factor for green change.
	A11 Policy Incentives	A range of subsidy-supporting policies enacted by the government are important externalities for green change.
	A09 Environmental Oversight	Social scrutiny triggered by environmental problems of high emissions and pollution is one of the factors influencing the green change of enterprises.
Meso-industry level factors (P)	A13 Market Greening Requirements	The propensity of consumers and upstream and downstream vendors to buy low-carbon products. The creation of a market for low-carbon products is a major reference for companies in terms of making green changes.
	A08 Green competition in the marketplace	With an increase in market maturity, a change of traditional concepts makes high pollution, high carbon emissions, and a lack of environmental protection awareness in the development of enterprises liabilities; green change will bring new opportunities for the development of enterprises, placing companies in a more powerful position.
	A03 Industry Pressures	The requirements of the industry in which the enterprise operates and the behaviour of its peers are the main factors influencing its green change
	A04 Green Cooperation	Cooperative resource and technology sharing among enterprises will enable them to achieve higher green returns with less investment.
Willingness of businesses to make green changes (W)	A15 Management’s willingness to change	Enterprises are willing to assume social responsibility, purchase new equipment, invest in new technologies, reform the original production process, carry out pollution control, recycle and reuse resources, and bear the risks brought about by the reform.
Regional level of green development (R)	A06 Regional level of green development	With an increase in market maturity, a change of traditional concepts makes high pollution, high carbon emissions, and a lack of environmental protection awareness in the development of enterprises liabilities; green change will bring new opportunities for the development of enterprises, placing companies in a more powerful position.
Green change behaviour in business (B)	A10 Strategic Change	Strategic change in enterprises is an important means of internalising the will for green change into organisations and systems. Driven by micro-, meso-, and macro-level factors, corporate management will make disruptive changes to the development paradigm which will necessarily involve steps in strategic planning, formulation, implementation, and adjustment so that it can always be integrated with the environment.
	A05 Innovation Optimisation	Innovation and optimisation are important means of implementing green change behaviours in enterprises, and only through continuous innovation in products, production, and management, and optimisation of production and management processes can enterprises truly adapt to the current economic environment and successfully promote green behaviours.

.

3.3.3. Selective Coding

Selective coding sorts and summarises the core categories from main categories, clarifies the intrinsic connections among the core categories and other categories. Then, it connects the overall pathway of the research object and the underlying causal relationships to form a continuous line. It systematically describes the relationships between these categories and ultimately develops a new theoretical structure. In this paper, 182 initial concepts, 15 sub-categories, and 6 main categories were extracted from the 1228 statements in the initial code. After conducting a logical analysis, the result revealed that the motivation mechanism of green change in corporate environmental behaviour under the goal of “dual-carbon” can be centred on the core category of “Corporate green change willingness”. The structure of the substantive theoretical framework proposed in this paper is shown in

Table 5. Selective coding.

Relationship Structure			Connotations
① The first half of the green change: antecedent motives	Will to change		Green change willingness refers to an enterprise’s green behaviour under the “dual-carbon” target. It is the subjective willingness of an enterprise’s management to seek green and carbon-reducing development.
	Micro-firm level factors → Willingness of businesses to make green changes	Resource Base → Green change behaviour in business	The resource base refers to the financial and equipment status of an enterprise, as well as the support in terms of energy and relationships. It is the material basis on which the enterprise’s willingness to make a green change is formed.
		Expected Returns → Green change behaviour in business	Expected return is an enterprise’s measurement and consideration of the return situation after the change; the level of return will directly affect the formation of the enterprise’s degree of willingness to affect a green change.
		Management Philosophy → Green change behaviour in business	The management philosophy of an enterprise always affects the internal operation logic of the enterprise in daily management, operation, assessment, etc., and has an important influence on the formation of a will to make green changes.
		Technical Capability → Green change behaviour in business	Technological capability refers to the R&D capability of an enterprise’s technical team and represents the technological self-confidence and guarantee that promotes the formation of the enterprise’s willingness to make green changes.
	Macro-environmental level factors → Willingness of businesses to make green changes	Policy Regulation → Green change behaviour in business	Policy regulation is the government, through the law, norms, and other administrative means; this can stimulate green change willingness.
		Policy Incentives → Green change behaviour in business	The government stimulates willingness to make green changes through policy incentives, tax subsidies, and technical assistance.
		Environmental Oversight → Green change behaviour in business	Environmental supervision mainly stems from the concerns of the public, the supervision and verification efforts of the relevant departments, etc., which have a strong influence on the willingness of enterprises to make green changes
	Meso-industry level factors → Willingness of businesses to make green changes	Market Greening Requirements → Green change behaviour in business	The green demand of the market and the huge market space it creates have a distinctive guiding effect on the green change of enterprises.
		Green competition in the marketplace → Green change behaviour in business	The demand for green and low-carbon products and a lack of competitiveness of original products will have an important impact on the willingness of enterprises to make green changes.
		Industry Pressures → Green change behaviour in business	The requirements of the development of the industry in which the enterprise is located and the green behaviour of peer enterprises will play roles in promoting the formation of an enterprise’s willingness to make green changes.
		Green Cooperation → Green change behaviour in business	The strength of green cooperation as an enabler of corporate willingness to make green changes
② Green changes the second half: the back path	Willingness of businesses to make green changes → Green change behaviour in business	Green change behaviour in business → Strategic Change	An enterprise’s willingness to make green changes will have a direct impact on the enterprise’s changes in the future development model, in which strategic planning, formulation, implementation, and adjustment are all specific green change behaviours of the enterprise.
		Willingness of businesses to make green changes → Innovation Optimisation	An enterprise’s willingness to make green changes will allow it to innovate and optimise its production processes in terms of products, production, and management.
③ Greening the whole process: moderating the impact	Willingness of businesses to make green changes → Green change behaviour in business Regional level of green development		The level of green development in the region where an enterprise is located will have a limiting and moderating effect on the transition from the enterprise’s willingness to make green changes to the actual process of generating green change behaviours.

.

3.3.4. Saturation Test

The theory saturation test is conducted by coding new textual material on three levels. The aim is to test whether new initial concepts and categories will be generated again, in addition to the initial concepts, subcategories, and main categories obtained from the first coding. If no new initial concepts and categories are generated again, it indicates that theoretical saturation has been reached [36]. In this paper, we recoded the 182 original utterances of the remaining 5 textual materials. The results showed that there were no initial concepts with significant differences from the previous study, individual similar concepts could be classified as existing initial concepts, and there were no new relational structures among the categories. Overall, it can be concluded that this study reached theoretical saturation, and further data collection and organisation was deemed unnecessary.

4. Result Analysis

Based on this “story line”, a model of the driving force of green change in corporate environmental behaviour under the “dual-carbon” goal was constructed, as shown in Figure 2.

4.1. Macro to Micro Multidimensional Drivers

• Micro-firm level factors

First of all, the resources at the disposal of enterprises are the basic conditions for greening environmental behaviour. In addition, the expectation of profit is also an important motivation for enterprises to make green changes. In a dynamic and complex business environment, the questions of how to improve the utilisation of resources, reduce costs, and increase profits are important and are directly related to the sustainable development of enterprises. Therefore, the more abundant the resources, the higher the expected profit of the enterprise. Then, after forming the concept of green change, the management will implement it through organisational change and other measures. During this process, the corporate strategy becomes an important guide for future development, consistently guiding the enterprise to maintain the trajectory of green development without departing from the business situation. Along with the process of green environmental behaviour changes, enterprises will gradually design and implement stricter regulations and systematic rules in important aspects such as green management and green decision-making and assessment to enable themselves to advance steadily on the road of green environmental behaviour change. At the same time, the level of technological capability of enterprises determines the quality and quantity of the results of green environmental behaviour change and is an important guarantee for green environmental behaviour change. In short, the interaction mechanisms of various factors at the micro enterprise level play a decisive role in the green transformation of enterprises.

2.

Macro-environmental level factors

Policy regulation is an important external factor influencing green changes in corporate environmental behaviour, mainly stemming from the conflict between external environmental issues and economic and social development. Because of the shortcomings of the market regulation mechanism, the government will assist in regulation and control, forcing enterprises to take the road of green and low-carbon development. Meanwhile, the government’s various tax reductions, tax exemptions, subsidies, and green financial projects bring about benefits for enterprises that actively make green changes. These will also positively push enterprises to make green changes. In addition, environmental monitoring from various parties has always guided the development of enterprises. Enterprises’ fulfilment of their social responsibilities and the creation of a green brand image are influenced by this factor. Overall, the interactions of various external factors play a key role.

3.

Meso-industry level factors

Enterprises, as open and dynamic organisations, will always be in contact with the outside world. They need to be able to understand external changes and trends and take countermeasures accordingly. On the one hand, the market demand for green change puts forward new requirements, i.e., catering for consumer needs and promoting the upgrade of green products as the basis for enterprises to achieve long-term development. On the other hand, in green product market competition, enterprises need to strive for a larger share of the market. This drives them to produce more environmentally friendly products in order to gain the favour of the market. In the meantime, green change in the behaviour of peer enterprises will invariably push enterprises to take the initiative to make green changes. Enterprises often want to engage in green cooperation. In terms of external relations, enterprises should strengthen cooperation with partner enterprises based on the idea that “cooperation will bring common benefits”. They need to pay attention to the auxiliary role of external third-party accounting and continue to provide information and knowledge support for decision-making.

4.2. Willingness of Enterprises to Make Green Changes

It was found that the willingness of enterprises to make green changes is affected by three major factors, i.e., the micro-level of enterprises, the macro-environmental level, and the meso-industry level. Among them, the resource base, expected benefits, management philosophy, technological capability, policy planning, policy incentives, environmental supervision, market green demand, market green competition, industry pressure, and green cooperation all affect the strength of enterprises’ willingness to make green changes. Enterprises’ willingness to make green changes can strengthen their awareness of energy saving and carbon reduction. This promotes a green and low-carbon corporate culture, improving the green production process through decision-making to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and resource waste. By improving their production processes, enterprises can enhance their environmental performance. On the one hand, this can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, they can increase resource utilisation by using clean energy, thereby promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction. Enterprises’ willingness to make green changes describes the willingness of enterprise managers to make greener and lower-carbon changes based on their own development situation, combined with the market and the policy environment of the “dual-carbon” target. This willingness is mainly manifested in initiatives to adopt energy-saving and carbon-reducing measures and responding to the government’s call. In the formation of green willingness to change, enterprises will take into account their inherent industrial structural constraints, which will lead to either the further erosion or a surge in their willingness to change. Therefore, the moderating influence of industrial structure was considered. Enterprises’ willingness to make green changes is the most persistent driving force behind green change behaviour. This is the spontaneous decision-making of enterprises and is directly related to the enthusiasm of enterprises concerning green change behaviour.

4.3. Corporate Green Change Behaviour

Enterprises will make green changes when driven by their willingness to do so. Firstly, enterprises will make strategic changes, which are also an important means of internalising the will for green change in organisations and systems. The mechanism is driven by internal and external factors, i.e., with the intention of promoting green transformation, the management of an enterprise will make subversive changes to development models. This necessarily involves steps such as strategic planning, formulation, implementation, and adjustment in order to always be in line with the requirements of low carbon and more environmentally friendly practices. Secondly, innovation and optimisation are important drivers of green change. Only through continuously innovating in production methods and optimising management processes can enterprises truly adapt to the current economic environment and promote green change. In the process of change, the higher the level of green development in the region where the enterprise is located, the greater the willingness to adopt such behaviour. As such, this was considered as a moderating factor. In short, a green strategy is the guide, while innovation and optimisation are important measures for the implementation of green change. These two aspects complement each other and jointly exert their influence on the green transformation of enterprises’ environmental behaviours.

5. Conclusions and Discussion

5.1. Conclusions

Enterprises are the main actors promoting the smooth implementation of the “dual-carbon” goal in China. The implementation of green changes in their environmental behaviour is a decisive factor in ultimately determining whether or not the production level of society as a whole can shift towards greening and decarbonisation. As a long-term and mandatory policy requirement in China, the “dual-carbon” goal will have a direct and purposeful impact on the willingness of companies to change their behaviour. This paper took heavily polluting and high-energy-consuming enterprises as the research object and used the Grounded Theory to construct a theoretical model. Chinese enterprises that met the criteria participated in in-depth interviews which were then decoded level by level. In the decoding process, along the main line of thinking—i.e., that internal and external factors drive the formation of enterprises’ green change willingness, which is eventually transformed into green change behaviours—we finally constructed a model of the driving mechanisms of green change under the “dual-carbon” goal. In existing research [43,44] on the market [45], resources [46,47], and other types of factors affecting the discussion, we found that the reduction of consumption and emission reduction requirements stimulate willingness to change behaviour. Then, multi-dimensional factors combine to increase the willingness of enterprises to embark on a green transformation pathway. The three conclusions drawn from this study are:

• Under the “dual-carbon” goal, the green change of heavily polluting and high-energy-consuming enterprises is taking the form of specific behaviours. These behavioural changes are the responses of Chinese enterprises which are seeking to achieve the “dual-carbon” goal and satisfy high-quality development requirements. Changes come in the form of two specific behaviours: the strategic change of green management and the development and optimisation of cleaner production practices. Moreover, green changes in corporate environmental behaviour can be both active and passive. The ultimate goal is to achieve the long-term, sustainable green and low-carbon development goals of the enterprise itself.
• Under the “dual-carbon” goal, the willingness of enterprises to make green changes is driven by the interaction of internal and external factors on multiple levels. Influencing factors on the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels jointly influence enterprises’ willingness to make green changes. The current state of an enterprise, including resources, financial situation, the awareness of the enterprise’s management of low-carbon transition, and the enterprise’s own technological capability, greatly influence the enterprise’s willingness to change. This works in synergy with external policies, regulation, and other factors that are necessary for the development of the industry.
• Under the “dual-carbon” goal, enterprises’ green change willingness leads to the emergence of green change behaviour. An enterprise as an independently developing whole can often be seen as an individual with a collective consciousness. In the Theory of Planned Behaviour, it is believed that an individual’s behaviour is primarily influenced by willingness; the stronger his or her willingness, the higher the likelihood that he or she will perform a particular behaviour [48]. In an individual or in a business, behaviour is easily and directly influenced by a willingness to grow. If enterprises are to take prompt actions, promote low-carbon behavior, and achieve long-term transformation, they must maintain and enhance their determination to make changes.

5.2. Management Implications

Green change behaviour is directly affected by willingness. In order to successfully promote the development of green change behaviour, the primary task is to stimulate an enterprise’s willingness to effect a green tansformation.

This paper proposes the following four conclusions:

• Taking into account green market demand and competition and in efforts to meet the expectations of the public, the concept of green consumption should be promoted at the level of the whole society. By fulfilling their social responsibilities (such as green brand marketing), enterprises can shape their public image, which can enhance consumer loyalty, making green and low-carbon products the preferred choice for consumers. At the same time, companies would build a green and low-carbon image to attract green cooperation.
• Institutions exert a binding influence on organisations, forcing firms located in the same system and influenced by the same external institutional factors to converge in terms of their behaviour. Therefore, policy incentives and constraints could be strengthened. On the one hand, policy regulations should be used to guide enterprises in changing their development direction. This would stimulate them to independently favour a lower-carbon and greener way of development by means of financial subsidies and tax incentives. On the other hand, responsibility for carbon emissions has been clarified through the enactment of laws. Legislation has further provided control requirements. Enterprises are required to comply with the carbon emissions data reporting, verification, and quota system and face administrative penalties or financial liabilities for violations. Enterprises need to embed emission reductions targets in their strategic planning or risk losing market access.
• Based on the Theory of Resource Allocation, enterprises should enhance their willingness to carry out green transformation. They should invest more funds in energy-saving and emission-reduction projects to ensure that resources are directed towards sustainable business. In this way, bridges for the research and development cooperation among schools and enterprises could be established. A channel would be opened up for technical exchanges and learning between schools and enterprises, or among enterprises.
• Based on the Resource-Based view, enterprises can internalise green changes into their strategic resources and maximise differentiated advantages in terms of their development. By conducting research and development of clean production technologies and optimising energy efficiency, the carbon emissions per unit output can be reduced, thereby creating a cost advantage. Companies could also participate in the carbon trading market and obtain profit through excess quotas. Additionally, the carbon universal mechanism could be utilised to attract green investment and enhance capital market valuation. Within an enterprise, the establishment of a long-term strategic plan, rational allocation of resources, and the active training of professionals would all promote green change.

Due to the inherent limitations of qualitative research methods applied in this study, the coding process was inevitably subjective. At the same time, although the number of samples reached the requirements of the Grounded Theory, and although we, as far as possible, chose enterprises in different industries as research cases, there were inherent differences in different industries, so the question of whether the proposed model could be applied to different industries needs to be examined in more depth. In addition, this study did not undertake to identify key influencing factors. Future studies may use listed companies for validation, thus enhancing the objectivity and scientific validity of the model.