IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v8y2016i5p453-d69618.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Efficiency Analysis of Listed Cement Enterprises in China

Author

Listed:
  • Fang Zhang

    (School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 10191, China)

  • Hong Fang

    (School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 10191, China)

  • Junjie Wu

    (Faculty of Business and Law, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS1 3HE, UK)

  • Damian Ward

    (Business School, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9EU, UK)

Abstract

China’s cement production has been the highest worldwide for decades and contributes significant environmental pollution. Using a non-radical DEA model with slacks-based measure (SBM), this paper analyzes the environmental efficiency of China’s listed cement companies. The results suggest that the average mean of the environmental efficiency for the listed cement enterprises shows a decreasing trend in 2012 and 2013. There is a significant imbalance in environmental efficiency in these firms ranging from very low to very high. Further investigation finds that enterprise size and property structure are key factors. Increasing production concentration and decreasing the share of government investment could improve the environmental efficiency. The findings also suggest that effectively monitoring pollution products can improve environmental efficiency quickly, whereas pursuit for excessive profitability without keeping the same pace in energy saving would cause a sharp drop in environmental efficiency. Based on these findings, we proposed that companies in the Chinese cement sector might consider restructuring to improve environmental efficiency. They also need to make a trade-off between profitability and environmental protection. Finally, the Chinese government should reduce ownership control and management interventions in cement companies.

Suggested Citation

  • Fang Zhang & Hong Fang & Junjie Wu & Damian Ward, 2016. "Environmental Efficiency Analysis of Listed Cement Enterprises in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-19, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:5:p:453-:d:69618
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/5/453/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/5/453/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Telle, Kjetil & Larsson, Jan, 2007. "Do environmental regulations hamper productivity growth? How accounting for improvements of plants' environmental performance can change the conclusion," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 438-445, March.
    2. Bi, Gong-Bing & Song, Wen & Zhou, P. & Liang, Liang, 2014. "Does environmental regulation affect energy efficiency in China's thermal power generation? Empirical evidence from a slacks-based DEA model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 537-546.
    3. Oggioni, G. & Riccardi, R. & Toninelli, R., 2011. "Eco-efficiency of the world cement industry: A data envelopment analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2842-2854, May.
    4. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    5. Shen, Lei & Gao, Tianming & Zhao, Jianan & Wang, Limao & Wang, Lan & Liu, Litao & Chen, Fengnan & Xue, Jingjing, 2014. "Factory-level measurements on CO2 emission factors of cement production in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 337-349.
    6. M. Murty & Surender Kumar & Kishore Dhavala, 2007. "Measuring environmental efficiency of industry: a case study of thermal power generation in India," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 38(1), pages 31-50, September.
    7. Zhou, Yan & Xing, Xinpeng & Fang, Kuangnan & Liang, Dapeng & Xu, Chunlin, 2013. "Environmental efficiency analysis of power industry in China based on an entropy SBM model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 68-75.
    8. Kumar Mandal, Sabuj & Madheswaran, S., 2010. "Environmental efficiency of the Indian cement industry: An interstate analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 1108-1118, February.
    9. Cuesta, Rafael A. & Lovell, C.A. Knox & Zofío, José L., 2009. "Environmental efficiency measurement with translog distance functions: A parametric approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(8-9), pages 2232-2242, June.
    10. Costa-Campi, María Teresa & García-Quevedo, José & Segarra, Agustí, 2015. "Energy efficiency determinants: An empirical analysis of Spanish innovative firms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 229-239.
    11. Mandal, Sabuj Kumar, 2010. "Do undesirable output and environmental regulation matter in energy efficiency analysis? Evidence from Indian Cement Industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 6076-6083, October.
    12. Ke, Jing & Zheng, Nina & Fridley, David & Price, Lynn & Zhou, Nan, 2012. "Potential energy savings and CO2 emissions reduction of China's cement industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 739-751.
    13. Fare, Rolf, et al, 1989. "Multilateral Productivity Comparisons When Some Outputs Are Undesirable: A Nonparametric Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(1), pages 90-98, February.
    14. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2008. "Measuring environmental performance under different environmental DEA technologies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-14, January.
    15. Managi, Shunsuke & Kaneko, Shinji, 2009. "Environmental performance and returns to pollution abatement in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1643-1651, April.
    16. Hendrik G. van Oss & Amy C. Padovani, 2002. "Cement Manufacture and the Environment: Part I: Chemistry and Technology," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 6(1), pages 89-105, January.
    17. Woo, Chungwon & Chung, Yanghon & Chun, Dongphil & Seo, Hangyeol & Hong, Sungjun, 2015. "The static and dynamic environmental efficiency of renewable energy: A Malmquist index analysis of OECD countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 367-376.
    18. Golany, B & Roll, Y, 1989. "An application procedure for DEA," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 237-250.
    19. Long, Xingle & Zhao, Xicang & Cheng, Faxin, 2015. "The comparison analysis of total factor productivity and eco-efficiency in China's cement manufactures," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 61-66.
    20. Hasanbeigi, Ali & Morrow, William & Masanet, Eric & Sathaye, Jayant & Xu, Tengfang, 2013. "Energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction opportunities in the cement industry in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 287-297.
    21. Riccardi, R. & Oggioni, G. & Toninelli, R., 2012. "Efficiency analysis of world cement industry in presence of undesirable output: Application of data envelopment analysis and directional distance function," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 140-152.
    22. Apergis, Nicholas & Aye, Goodness C. & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Gupta, Rangan & Wanke, Peter, 2015. "Energy efficiency of selected OECD countries: A slacks based model with undesirable outputs," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 45-53.
    23. Watanabe, Michio & Tanaka, Katsuya, 2007. "Efficiency analysis of Chinese industry: A directional distance function approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6323-6331, December.
    24. Wang, Ke & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2014. "China’s regional industrial energy efficiency and carbon emissions abatement costs," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 617-631.
    25. Atakelty Hailu & Terrence S. Veeman, 2001. "Non-parametric Productivity Analysis with Undesirable Outputs: An Application to the Canadian Pulp and Paper Industry," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(3), pages 605-616.
    26. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    27. Xu, Jin-Hua & Fleiter, Tobias & Eichhammer, Wolfgang & Fan, Ying, 2012. "Energy consumption and CO2 emissions in China's cement industry: A perspective from LMDI decomposition analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 821-832.
    28. Zhou, Peng & Poh, Kim Leng & Ang, Beng Wah, 2007. "A non-radial DEA approach to measuring environmental performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 178(1), pages 1-9, April.
    29. Du, Limin & Mao, Jie, 2015. "Estimating the environmental efficiency and marginal CO2 abatement cost of coal-fired power plants in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 347-356.
    30. Tone, Kaoru, 2002. "A slacks-based measure of super-efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 32-41, November.
    31. Osman Zaim & Fatma Taskin, 2000. "A Kuznets Curve in Environmental Efficiency: An Application on OECD Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 17(1), pages 21-36, September.
    32. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Zhu, Joe, 2002. "Modeling undesirable factors in efficiency evaluation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 16-20, October.
    33. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Kaoru Tone, 2007. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-45283-8, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karambu Kiende Gatimbu & Maurice Juma Ogada & Nancy Budambula & Samuel Kariuki, 2018. "Environmental sustainability and financial performance of the small‐scale tea processors in Kenya," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1765-1771, December.
    2. Junfeng Zhang & Jianxu Liu & Jing Li & Yuyan Gao & Chuansong Zhao, 2021. "Green Development Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors in China’s Iron and Steel Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Jie Zhang & Zhencheng Xing & Jigan Wang, 2016. "Analysis of CO 2 Emission Performance and Abatement Potential for Municipal Industrial Sectors in Jiangsu, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Hongxing Tu & Wei Dai & Xu Xiao, 2022. "Study on the Environmental Efficiency of the Chinese Cement Industry Based on the Undesirable Output DEA Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-13, May.
    5. Karambu Kiende Gatimbu & Maurice Juma Ogada & Nancy L. M. Budambula, 2020. "Environmental efficiency of small-scale tea processors in Kenya: an inverse data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 3333-3345, April.
    6. Xiaoling Wang & Manyin Zhang & Jatin Nathwani & Fangming Yang, 2019. "Measuring Environmental Efficiency through the Lens of Technology Heterogeneity: A Comparative Study between China and the G20," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-12, January.
    7. Hongxing Tu & Wei Dai & Yuan Fang & Xu Xiao, 2022. "Environmental Regulation, Technological Innovation and Industrial Environmental Efficiency: An Empirical Study Based on Chinese Cement Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-15, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mardani, Abbas & Zavadskas, Edmundas Kazimieras & Streimikiene, Dalia & Jusoh, Ahmad & Khoshnoudi, Masoumeh, 2017. "A comprehensive review of data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach in energy efficiency," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1298-1322.
    2. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Goto, Mika, 2017. "A literature study for DEA applied to energy and environment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-124.
    3. Long, Xingle & Wu, Chao & Zhang, Jijian & Zhang, Jing, 2018. "Environmental efficiency for 192 thermal power plants in the Yangtze River Delta considering heterogeneity: A metafrontier directional slacks-based measure approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3962-3971.
    4. Ramli, Noor Asiah & Munisamy, Susila, 2015. "Eco-efficiency in greenhouse emissions among manufacturing industries: A range adjusted measure," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 219-227.
    5. Xionghe Qin & Yanming Sun, 2019. "Cross-Regional Comparative Study on Environmental–Economic Efficiency and Driving Forces behind Efficiency Improvement in China: A Multistage Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-21, March.
    6. Sun, Jiasen & Li, Guo & Wang, Zhaohua, 2018. "Optimizing China’s energy consumption structure under energy and carbon constraints," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 57-72.
    7. Miao, Zhuang & Chen, Xiaodong & Baležentis, Tomas, 2021. "Improving energy use and mitigating pollutant emissions across “Three Regions and Ten Urban Agglomerations”: A city-level productivity growth decomposition," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    8. Halkos, George E. & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2013. "A conditional directional distance function approach for measuring regional environmental efficiency: Evidence from UK regions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 227(1), pages 182-189.
    9. Harald Dyckhoff & Rainer Souren, 2023. "Are important phenomena of joint production still being neglected by economic theory? A review of recent literature," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(6), pages 1015-1053, August.
    10. Zhou, Yan & Xing, Xinpeng & Fang, Kuangnan & Liang, Dapeng & Xu, Chunlin, 2013. "Environmental efficiency analysis of power industry in China based on an entropy SBM model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 68-75.
    11. Woo, Chungwon & Chung, Yanghon & Chun, Dongphil & Seo, Hangyeol & Hong, Sungjun, 2015. "The static and dynamic environmental efficiency of renewable energy: A Malmquist index analysis of OECD countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 367-376.
    12. Gómez-Calvet, Roberto & Conesa, David & Gómez-Calvet, Ana Rosa & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2014. "Energy efficiency in the European Union: What can be learned from the joint application of directional distance functions and slacks-based measures?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 137-154.
    13. Ma-Lin Song & Ron Fisher & Jian-Lin Wang & Lian-Biao Cui, 2018. "Environmental performance evaluation with big data: theories and methods," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 270(1), pages 459-472, November.
    14. Víctor Giménez & Claudio Thieme & Diego Prior & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2014. "An international comparison of educational systems: an application of the global Malmquist-Luenberger index," Working Papers 2014/18, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    15. Víctor Giménez & Claudio Thieme & Diego Prior & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2019. "Comparing the Performance of National Educational Systems: Inequality Versus Achievement?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 581-609, January.
    16. Zhang, Chunhong & Liu, Haiying & Bressers, Hans Th.A. & Buchanan, Karen S., 2011. "Productivity growth and environmental regulations - accounting for undesirable outputs: Analysis of China's thirty provincial regions using the Malmquist–Luenberger index," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2369-2379.
    17. Chen, Nengcheng & Xu, Lei & Chen, Zeqiang, 2017. "Environmental efficiency analysis of the Yangtze River Economic Zone using super efficiency data envelopment analysis (SEDEA) and tobit models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 659-671.
    18. Víctor Giménez García & Diego Prior Jiménez & Emili Tortosa-Ausina & Claudio Thieme, 2016. "Una comparación internacional de la eficiencia de sistemas educativos. Un enfoque dinámico para el periodo 2003-2012," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 11, in: José Manuel Cordero Ferrera & Rosa Simancas Rodríguez (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 11, edition 1, volume 11, chapter 36, pages 653-670, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    19. George Halkos & Nickolaos Tzeremes, 2014. "Measuring the effect of Kyoto protocol agreement on countries’ environmental efficiency in CO 2 emissions: an application of conditional full frontiers," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 367-382, June.
    20. Trinks, Arjan & Mulder, Machiel & Scholtens, Bert, 2020. "An Efficiency Perspective on Carbon Emissions and Financial Performance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:5:p:453-:d:69618. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.