The effects of environmental regulations on the sustainable entrepreneurship from the perspective of dynamic capabilities: a study based on Chinese new energy enterprises

Abstract

Environmental regulations play important roles in enterprises’ sustainable entrepreneurship, and their relationships are affected by enterprises’ dynamic capabilities. This paper analyzed the panel data of China’s new energy industry from 2011 to 2021, aiming to explore the impact of environmental regulations on sustainable entrepreneurship and the mechanism of dynamic capacities between them. The results include: There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between incentive environmental regulation and enterprises’ sustainable entrepreneurial performances, and there is a positive relationship between command environmental regulations and enterprises’ sustainable entrepreneurial performances; Both absorptive capacity and innovative capability of dynamic capacities negatively moderate the inverted U-shaped relationship between incentive environmental regulations and sustainable entrepreneurial performances, and negatively moderate the positive relationship between command environmental regulations and sustainable entrepreneurial performances. The results highlight the importance of dynamic capabilities for new energy enterprises, and provide a certain enlightening effect on the formulation of environmental regulation policies, as well as the application of enterprises’ dynamic capabilities.