"波特假说" ——生态创新与环境管制的关系研究述评

环境管制通常被视为生态创新的重要影响因素,两者之间的关系存在著名的波特假说,即环境管制可以激励企业进行生态创新,并进而建立竞争优势.从波特假说的起源和内涵阐释出发,从理论和实证两个方面对波特假说相关研究进行了文献梳理与评述,指出大部分实证研究证实了弱的波特假说,即环境管制会刺激生态创新的发生；对于强的波特假说,现有研究结论不尽统一,其矛盾的核心在于生态创新能否带来环境绩效与竞争绩效的统一.总之,环境政策对于生态创新的确具有正向或负向的作用,影响的作用方向和强度取决于环境政策的类型、生态创新的类型、生态创新的不同阶段以及管制对象本身的一些特性等.提出了环境管制与生态创新的研究展望,包括:进一步的理论深化研究,研究尺度的拓展,加强环境政策累积效应和叠加效应的研究和针对中国的实证研究与应用等.

The Porter Hypothesis: a literature review on the relationship between eco-innovation and environmental regulation

Environmental regulation has been considered as an important factor which influences eco-innovation. The relationship between environmental regulation and eco-innovation is addressed by the famous Porter Hypothesis: environmental regulation can stimulate firms to carry out eco-innovation and then build the competitive advantage. This paper started from the interpretation of the meaning of the Porter Hypothesis, and did a literature survey on related studies from both empirical and theoretical perspectives. It indicated that: most empirical studies validated the Weak Porter Hypothesis, i.e. environmental regulation can stimulate eco-innovation; consensus has not been reached on the Strong Porter Hypothesis, with the controversy rooting in whether eco-innovation can bring a harmony between environmental performance and competition performance. In short, the environmental policy does have a positive or negative role on eco-innovation. The direction and strength of the impact depends on the type of environmental policy, the type of eco-innovation, the stages of eco-innovation, as well as some characteristics of the regulated object itself. Based on the above reviewing work, this paper indentified the directions for future research in the field of environmental regulation and eco-innovation, including deepening the theoretical research, extending the scope of research, strengthening studies on the accumulative effect and superimposed effect of environmental policies as well as the empirical and applied research in the Chinese context.