The Impact of Green M&A Listed Companies’ Size on the Rural Ecological Environment—Digitalization as Moderating Effect

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The Abstract should include the type of method used to study the research problem. 

In the Introduction, there is a lack of the manuscript's aim. Besides, the goal should be the same in the Abstract and the Introduction.

Introduction - except for the lack of the paper's aim, there is a lack of direct indication of the proposed approach's novelty. Esspecialy if the Authors had proposed in the 3rd chapter construction of a benchmark model of the impact of the size of heavily polluting listed companies implementing green M&A on rural ecosystems. Moreover, there is also a lack of information about proposed methodology. The Introduction should signal what method is used in the study, what is a novelty, and how the proposed study fills the existing literature gap. The Introducion is quite interesting and exactly introduces to the problem but does not include indicated remarks.

Authors in the literature review mainly focus on literature which references China. The literature review should include a wider perceiving studied research problem. It is important, especially if the Authors refers to the environmental policy. It is worth noting that environmental policy is important in the case of sustainable development, so reference to the world literature and other scientific research is needed.

Conclusion refers just only to China, but is it not interesting how can the study results be used in the case of general environmental policy? How can the results of the study be used in general way? Besides, it is also good to add the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed approach - including the proposed model and used data/variables. The conclusions should be more constructive and depth. 

Author Response

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The Abstract should include the type of method used to study the research problem. 

Response: Thanks for your suggestions. We already added the details of the method of this study in the Abstract part on lines 18-20.

This study used the entropy method to measure the Rural Ecosystem Index (REI). STATA software conducted OLS, 2SLS, IV-GMM regressions, and regressions on moderating variables.

In the Introduction, there is a lack of the manuscript's aim. Besides, the goal should be the same in the Abstract and the Introduction.

Response: Thanks for your suggestions. We have added the research aim on lines 20-21 of the Abstract. Also, add the goal of this study on lines 131-134.

Lines 20-21 This research aims to analyze the impact of listed companies on the environment, and explore the role of the digitization level's moderating effect.

Lines 131-134 This research aims to assess the current level of regional development of rural ecology in China and reveal the industry and geographical distribution of green M&A listed companies. Explore the impact of the size of green M&A listed companies on the rural ecological environment and the moderating effect of the level of rural digitalization.

Introduction - except for the lack of the paper's aim, there is a lack of direct indication of the proposed approach's novelty. Esspecialy if the Authors had proposed in the 3rd chapter construction of a benchmark model of the impact of the size of heavily polluting listed companies implementing green M&A on rural ecosystems. Moreover, there is also a lack of information about proposed methodology. The Introduction should signal what method is used in the study, what is a novelty, and how the proposed study fills the existing literature gap. The Introducion is quite interesting and exactly introduces to the problem but does not include indicated remarks.

Response: Thanks for your suggestions. We have added the novelty of this study on lines 135-140. And also added the novelty of research methodology on lines 140-149.

Lines 135-140 Regarding the novelty of this study, compared to previous studies, it constructs a unique evaluation index system for the rural ecological environment. It also exhibits the regional and industrial distribution of green M&A listed companies between 2010 and 2020. It is the first attempt to explore the impact of the size of green M&A listed companies on the rural ecological environment. This study is the first attempt to analyze the moderating effect of rural digitalization level on the rural environment.

Lines 140-149 Regarding the novelty of the research methodology. On the one hand, the choice of instrumental variables is an essential innovation of this study. To avoid endogeneity problems, 2SLS and IV-GMM were used as instrumental variable regression models. Rural road mileage and rural congestion were selected as instrumental variables for the relationship between green M&A listed companies and the rural ecology environment. On the other hand, using the digitalization level as a moderating variable to explore the moderating effect on listed companies and the ecological environment is another methodological innovation in this study.

 

Authors in the literature review mainly focus on literature which references China. The literature review should include a wider perceiving studied research problem. It is important, especially if the Authors refers to the environmental policy. It is worth noting that environmental policy is important in the case of sustainable development, so reference to the world literature and other scientific research is needed.

Response: Thanks for your suggestions. In the literature review, we have added the the world literature on lines 183-185, 200-202, 223-225, 260-262, 303-306, 327-329.

Lines 183-185 Studies have shown that setting climate targets and implementing a carbon trading system can significantly reduce CO2 emissions in Germany (Engler, Gutsche, Simixhiu, & Ziegler, 2023).

Lines 200-202 Regarding the building of smart villages in the EU, research shows that the intelligent transformation of the countryside facilitates better infrastructure services and improves the inhabitants' quality of life (Pultrone, 2022).

Lines 223-225 The development of technologies brought about by the 4th Industrial Revolution is conducive to building an intelligent countryside and solving much-needed environmental problems (Cowie, Townsend, & Salemink, 2020).

Lines 260-262 Research on Italian firms has shown that environmental innovation can lead to technological adaptations and green economic systems, which can improve the performance of firms (Vasileiou, Georgantzis, Attanasi, & Llerena, 2022).

Lines 303-306 Using the Delphi method, scholars have selected rural economic, population, and environmental indicators to evaluate rural development in Portugal. The ecological indicators include the proportion of treated wastewater and bodies of water with good ambient water quality (Abreu, Mesías, & Ramajo, 2022).

Lines 327-329 The critical role of forestry in increasing biodiversity and combating climate change is raised in the EU Rural Development Regulation (Torre, Wallet, & Huang, 2023).

 

Conclusion refers just only to China, but is it not interesting how can the study results be used in the case of general environmental policy? How can the results of the study be used in general way? Besides, it is also good to add the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed approach - including the proposed model and used data/variables. The conclusions should be more constructive and depth. 

Response: Thanks for your suggestions. In the literature review, we have added the the world literature on lines 773-777. And added advantages and disadvantages on lines 728-736.

Lines 773-777 As early as 1980, scholars predicted that the changes brought about by technology could impact rural development (Cowie et al., 2020). The results of this study also show that the increased digitalization brought about by the technological revolution is beneficial to solving rural environmental problems.

Lines 728-736 This research attempts to analyze the impact of green M&A listed companies on the rural ecological environment and explore the moderating variables that can improve the rural ecological environment. The analysis of the effect of green M&A listed companies on rural ecology is this study's most significant novelty. However, there are two limitations: On the one hand, it is not explored whether there is a specific threshold effect on the negative impact of green M&A listed companies on the rural ecological environment; On the other hand, it is not attempted whether there are other moderating variables other than the level of digitalization, such as the level of education, that have a positive moderating effect on the rural ecological environment.

Reviewer 2 Report

1. The abstract is focusses more on the conclusion, but less on the background, problem, result and methodology. 

2. In the Background of the study, no where the term "Green M&A or M& A listed companies was mentioned or explained.

3. There is need to give brief information about the method of data analysis used, the tool use for the analysis as well as method used for cleaning the data.

4. In the introduction, line 116, the word “Thesis” was mentioned. Why?

5. the study conclusion need to be improved, by comparing it with other findings in the literature. the result has to be back up by literature.

6. Policy implication is more of literature review. Why the much citation?

7. The policy implication should have to be based on the outcome of the study (Key findings),and provide policy suggestion based on that.

8. What is the implication of this study to the firm?

9. The key novelty of the study has to be clearly stated.

Author Response

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1. The abstract is focusses more on the conclusion, but less on the background, problem, result and methodology. 

Response: Thanks for your suggestions. We have added the background on lines 13-14, problem on lines 20-22, result on lines 22-24, methodology on lines 18-20.

Lines 13-14 In promoting high-quality economic development, environmental protection has become an essential responsibility for the sustainable development of listed companies.

Lines 20-22 This research aims to analyze the impact of listed companies on the environment, and explore the role of the digitization level's moderating effect.

Lines 22-24 The results show that the size of green M&A listed companies has a negative effect on the development of the rural ecological environment, and the digitization level positively moderates the relationship between them.

Lines 18-20 This study used the entropy method to measure the Rural Ecosystem Index (REI). STATA software conducted OLS, 2SLS, IV-GMM regressions, and regressions on moderating variables.

2. In the Background of the study, no where the term "Green M&A or M& A listed companies was mentioned or explained.

Response: Thanks for your reminder. We have explain the green M&A on lines 99-102.

Lines 99-102 Green M&A is essential for heavily polluting listed companies to seek green development (Liang, Li, Luo, & Li, 2022). The green M&A listed companies in this research belong to 16 heavily polluted industries that carry out M&A for the goal of green and sustainable growth.

3. There is need to give brief information about the method of data analysis used, the tool use for the analysis as well as method used for cleaning the data.

Response: Thanks for your reminder. We added this kind of information on lines 18-20 and 283.

Lines 18-20 This study used the entropy method to measure the Rural Ecosystem Index (REI). STATA software conducted OLS, 2SLS, IV-GMM regressions, and regressions on moderating variables.

Line 283 This study uses Excel to calculate the rural ecological environment index.

4. In the introduction, line 116, the word “Thesis” was mentioned. Why?

Response: Thanks for your reminder. We have deleted this word.

5. the study conclusion need to be improved, by comparing it with other findings in the literature. the result has to be back up by literature.

Response: Thanks for your reminder. We have improved the conclusion part by comparing it with previous literature on lines 711-712, 719-721, 725-727.

Lines 711-712 This result is very similar to that of X. Li et al. (2021), which indicated that the ecological livability index in China is unbalanced and has spatial heterogeneity.

Lines 719-721 Heavily polluted industries harm the ecological environment, and this result has also been confirmed in the study of Qi et al. (2022).

Lines 725-727 Similarly, Xiong, Ning, Wang, and Dong (2021) confirm a significant correlation between a region's ecological carrying capacity and the digital transformation of heavy metal companies.

6. Policy implicationis more of literature review. Why the much citation?

Response: Thanks for your reminder. Policy implication are based on the research findings and are given in more detail about the current research findings. For example, previous research showed that the level of digitalization can enhance the ecological environment, and such research result could be mentioned in the policy implications. We hope that you will understand such citation.

7. The policy implication should have to be based on the outcome of the study (Key findings),and provide policy suggestion based on that.

Response: Thanks for your suggestions. Thanks for your suggestions. As you suggest, the policy implication is based on the key findings of this research. Our research findings, including the level of development of the rural ecology show regional imbalances, the size of green M&A listed companies has a negative impact on rural ecology, and the level of rural digitalization has a positive effect on the relationship between listed companies and rural ecology. The recommendations given in this research are based on these three main findings, improving the regional imbalance of rural ecology, increasing the level of green development of listed companies, and increasing the level of rural digitalization.

8. What is the implication of this study to the firm?

Response: Thanks for your reminder. The implication of this study to the firm, is to Improve the green development capacity of listed companies between regions, and enhance the coordinated, sustainable improvement of heavily polluted enterprises, on Lines 754-755.

9. The key novelty of the study has to be clearly stated.

Response: Thanks for your reminder. We have explained the novelty of this study on lines 135-148, 728-731.

Lines 135-148 Regarding the novelty of this study, compared to previous studies, it constructs a unique evaluation index system for the rural ecological environment. It also exhibits the regional and industrial distribution of green M&A listed companies between 2010 and 2020. It is the first attempt to explore the impact of the size of green M&A listed companies on the rural ecological environment. This study is the first attempt to analyze the moderating effect of rural digitalization level on the rural environment. Regarding the novelty of the research methodology. On the one hand, the choice of instrumental variables is an essential innovation of this study. To avoid endogeneity problems, 2SLS and IV-GMM were used as instrumental variable regression models. Rural road mileage and rural congestion were selected as instrumental variables for the relationship between green M&A listed companies and the rural ecology environment. On the other hand, using the digitalization level as a moderating variable to explore the moderating effect on listed companies and the ecological environment is another methodological innovation in this study.

Lines 728-731 This research attempts to analyze the impact of green M&A listed companies on the rural ecological environment and explore the moderating variables that can improve the rural ecological environment. The analysis of the effect of green M&A listed companies on rural ecology is this study's most significant novelty.

 

Reviewer 3 Report

The article raises an interesting topic, significant for the subject of the journal. I just have a few minor comments. Figure 2 is completely incomprehensible, it should be presented differently. Other ryzumki have many disadvantages, e.g. 4 is practically illegible for the recipient. I recommend analyzing the drawings and paying attention to their readability. A big remark concerns the summary, it is worth trying to prepare the implications not only for politics but also for the society or for the enterprises in question.

Author Response

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article raises an interesting topic, significant for the subject of the journal. I just have a few minor comments. Figure 2 is completely incomprehensible, it should be presented differently. Other ryzumki have many disadvantages, e.g. 4 is practically illegible for the recipient. I recommend analyzing the drawings and paying attention to their readability. A big remark concerns the summary, it is worth trying to prepare the implications not only for politics but also for the society or for the enterprises in question.

Response: Thanks for your suggestions. We will answer your questions turned.

1. The name of Figure 2 is the wind rose diagram, which clearly shows the mean of the ecological index. As you can see, figure 2 clearly shows the average value of the ecological environment index for the 22 rural provinces in China from 2010 to 2020. It would be easier to understand if you could read the explanation on lines 494-518.
2. Figure 4 shows the number of green M&A listed companies in different years. The horizontal bars and numbers indicate the regional distribution of green M&A listed companies in different regions. Such a graph will better indicate the spatial and regional variation in the number of green M&A listed companies. It would be easier to understand if you could read the explanation on lines 549-628.
3. We have been mentioned the implicationsfor the society and for the enterprises on lines 754-755, and 773.

Lines 754-755 Improve the green development capacity of listed companies between regions, and enhance the coordinated, sustainable improvement of heavily polluted enterprises.

Line 773 Enhance the level of digital development in all societies and enterprises.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

no comments

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper is well written, and having responded positively on the key issues raised, it is therefore recommended for checking the cited with the listed references as well as updating them with much recent work. Also, minor typographical and language editing may be required in order to help improve the quality of the paper.