Efficiency Measuring And Evaluation Of Environmental Service Industry In Digital Economy Era

The efficient growth of the environmental services sector is a major guarantee force for attaining the strategic goal of "double carbon" and fostering high-quality economic development at this crucial juncture in China’s economy’s transition from high-speed growth to high-quality development.The interactive integration with traditional industries is the key to the digital economy’s sustainable growth,which is also flourishing and has grown to be a significant contributor to the national economy and a growth engine.In this context,the state comprehensively promotes the digital transformation of ecological environment protection,accelerates the integration of various elements of environmental service industry and digital economy,encourages environmental service enterprises to expand the application scope of digital technology and digital mode,and intensifies the research and development of related technologies and products,so as to realize the transformation and upgrading of environmental service industry.However,due to the lack of understanding of the law of industrial development and the scientific guidance and experience of digital transformation,the environmental service industry often encounters the dilemma of "not turning","not daring to turn" and "unwilling to turn" in the process of transformation.Therefore,it is of great practical significance to explore the development characteristics of China’s environmental service industry,the law of integration with digital economy and the significance of digital transformation in the efficient growth of environmental service enterprises to promote the digitalization of ecological environment protection and achieve the strategic goal of "double carbon".In view of this,based on total factor productivity,coupling coordination theory and endogenous growth theory,this paper focuses on answering the following questions: regional differences in the efficiency of environmental services in China’s provinces and the sources of growth drivers? Coupling coordination mechanism and development characteristics of environmental service industry and digital economy? What is the impact of the digital transformation of environmental service enterprises on efficiency?Firstly,this paper analyzes the basic facts of the development of environmental service industry under the background of digital economy and puts forward research questions;Then,the SBM-DEA model and the global DEA-Malmquist index model are constructed to measure the efficiency of environmental service industry in China’s provinces from2010 to 2020 from the static and dynamic perspectives in order to analyze its regional differences,evolution trends and driving factors.Then,the coupling mechanism and process of environmental service industry and digital economy are depicted,and the coupling coordination degree correction model based on DEA method is constructed to measure and analyze the coupling coordination development degree of environmental service industry and digital economy in China;Finally,Python is used to mine the annual reports of environmental service-oriented listed companies,and the degree of digital transformation of environmental service-oriented enterprises is constructed,and the mediating effect model is used to test the impact mechanism and path of digital transformation on efficiency.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)From 2010 to 2020,the average level of environmental service industry efficiency in China is relatively high,and there is a small increase on the whole.However,five provinces in the eastern coastal areas showed a downward trend,with a decline ranging from 0.01 to 0.2.Technological progress is the key factor affecting the efficiency growth of China’s environmental service industry and after 2016,pure technical efficiency has become an obstacle to its sustained efficiency growth.(2)The coupling degree of environmental service industry and digital economy in various regions of China shows a fluctuating upward trend,and only the eastern region shows a benign coupling interaction.From 2010 to 2020,the coordinated development of environmental service industry and digital economy in China has been upgraded from the type of being on the verge of imbalance and recession to the type of coordinated development,and the interaction has been deepening.The coupling coordination types of environmental service industry and digital economy have obvious regional differences,and the eastern,central and western,and northeastern regions respectively show fluctuation synchronization type,derivative convergence type,and single industry dominant type.(3)Digital transformation has multiple impacts on the efficiency of environmental service enterprises,and the impacts offset each other,resulting in the total impact of the degree of digitalization on efficiency is not significant.First,the degree of digitalization affects the efficiency of enterprises through the operating cost rate,and shows an inverted U-shaped relationship with the operating cost rate.When the degree of digitalization is relatively low,the enterprise is in the "painful period" of transformation,that is,with the deepening of digitalization,the operating cost rate increases,thus reducing the efficiency of the enterprise;with the degree of digitalization rising to the inflection point,the enterprise transformation enters the "dividend period",that is,with the deepening of digitization,the operating cost rate decreases,thereby improving the efficiency of the enterprise.Most environmental service-oriented enterprises in China are in the "painful period" of digital transformation.Secondly,the degree of digitalization affects the efficiency of enterprises by improving their innovation capability,and there is a significant positive relationship between digitalization and innovation capability.The digitalization of environmental service-oriented enterprises can significantly enhance innovation capability,but the innovation capability enhanced by digitalization can not be transformed into the driving force of efficiency growth.On the contrary,it has a negative impact on efficiency.(4)Macro means can effectively regulate the multiple impacts of digital transformation on the efficiency of environmental service-oriented enterprises,which are embodied in the following aspects: government subsidies can effectively expand the intermediary effect of operating cost rate between digital transformation and enterprise efficiency,and for enterprises in the "dividend period" of digital transformation,government subsidies can enhance the efforts of digital transformation to improve enterprise efficiency;Enterprises in high-tech industrial parks are facing less innovation pressure than those in non-high-tech industrial parks,and high-tech industrial parks can play an important role in promoting the process of digital transformation of enterprises.