In the context of the increasingly prominent contradiction between economic development and ecological environment, how to promote green development has become the core of sustainable economic development. Digital finance is an innovative financial model with a high degree of integration of finance and digital technology and provides a new opportunity for achieving green development. Based on identifying the mechanisms of digital finance and environmental regulation on green development efficiency, this research uses the directional distance function and Malmquist-Luenberger index to measure the green development efficiency of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020 and then employs a dynamic panel GMM model to empirically analyze the relationships among digital finance, environmental regulation, and green development efficiency. The results of the study show the following. 1) Digital finance contributes to the efficiency improvement of green development. 2) Environmental regulation has not yet crossed the Porter’s inflection point and still has a dampening effect on green development efficiency. 3) The synergy between digital finance and environmental regulation has a positive impact on green development. 4) Digital finance alleviates the financing constraints arising from environmental regulation and to some extent weakens the negative effect of environmental regulation on the efficiency of green development. In view of this, the government should give full play to the active role of digital finance in eco-environmental governance, optimize the top-level design of environmental regulation, and promote industrial structure upgrading and optimal allocation of financial resources.

PurposeProfessor independent directors have been the subject of academic debate as to whether they can improve corporate innovation performance. Accordingly, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between professor independent directors, the marketization process and corporate innovation performance in China.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2014 to 2017, this study examines how professor independent directors and the (low and high) marketization process affect corporate innovation performance.FindingsThe empirical analysis of this yields the following main results. First, enterprises with a higher proportion of professor independent directors outperform those with a low proportion of professor independent directors in terms of corporate innovation. Second, the study of introducing the marketization process finds that there is no “market failure”. Third, while professor independent directors have a significant association with innovation performance in the high-marketization group, this association is negligible in the low-marketization group, indicating that there is no “substitution effect”.Originality/valueThis research provides empirical evidence to support the hiring of professors with relevant backgrounds as independent directors who can contribute meaningfully to corporate governance and innovation while also fostering industrial transformation. This study also identifies that the role of professor independent directors in facilitating corporate innovation is more effective in regions with a high degree of marketization than in regions with a low degree of marketization, implying that increasing marketization benefits the role of professor independent directors in facilitating corporate innovation.

Improving the efficiency of green development is an important means of achieving high-quality development, and the optimal allocation of financial resources is the core factor in promoting green development. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China taken from 2005 to 2021, this paper constructs a financial resource misallocation (FM) index and green development efficiency (GDE) measurement system, empirically examining the impact and transmission path of FM on the GDE from the dual perspectives of financial resource element mismatch and structural mismatch. First, the results show that financial misallocation is the key factor inhibiting the improvement of GDE, and with the improvement of GDE, the inhibitory effect of financial misallocation decreases first and then increases in an inverted V-shaped trend. Second, the inhibitory effect of financial resource structure mismatch on GDE is greater than that of financial resource element mismatch. Moreover, after the degree of financial marketization is distinguished, this inhibitory effect is more evident in the regions with a low degree of financial marketization. Third, through mechanism analysis, we found that FM affects the improvement of GDE by inhibiting financial resource agglomeration through enterprise technological innovation and industrial structure height.

The Chinese government encourages farmers to enter the forestry property market for forestry property trading and promotes the standardization of the forestry property trading market. Unfortunately, the development of the forestry property market is still very slow. Farmers are the most important subject of mountain and forest management and the micro foundation of forestry property market operation, and their active market participation is the key to the healthy development of forestry property market. Based on the theory of planned behavior, this paper used the survey data of farmers in collective forest areas in three southern provinces of China to reveal the psychological decision-making process of farmers entering the forestry property market by structural equation model (SEM). The research results show that: (1) Farmers’ behavioral attitudes (AB), subjective norms (SN) and perceptual behavioral control (PBC) positively influence farmers’ willingness to enter the forestry property market. (2) An important reason why farmers’ intentions are largely not effectively translated into behavior is the constraint of PBC. (3) Reducing the risk of transfer and maintaining the interests of both parties constitute the main factors of AB, and the greatest external pressure on farmers’ willingness to enter the forestry property market comes from the opinions of village collectives. (4) PBC has a significant impact on behavior, where unfamiliarity with the forestry property market is the main factor affecting farmers’ PBC. Therefore, the government should further strengthen the propaganda of forestry property right market, improve the market service system, reduce the transaction cost, introduce specific encouragement policies and measures, and effectively consider farmers’ interest demands on forestry property trading; in addition, the power of grassroots organizations should be emphasized when formulating forestry property trading policies.