The intensity and severe impact of carbon emissions on the environment has been witnessed globally. This study aims to unravel how environmental factors, personal factors, and entrepreneur outcome expectations affect entrepreneur low-carbon emission behavior (LCB) through the lens of social cognitive theory (SCT). To achieve the aims of this study, we gathered data from 1015 entrepreneurs and small, medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Jiangsu province of China to analyze the predictors of entrepreneur low-carbon behavior. The proposed relationships were tested using the partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. The findings from the study indicate that environmental factors (i.e., climate change (CC), public media (PM), and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have a significant and positive relationship with entrepreneur LCB. Moreover, entrepreneur green production self-efficacy (GPS) is positively associated with entrepreneur LCB. The findings further revealed that entrepreneur personal concepts such as entrepreneur self-monitoring (SM), entrepreneur self-esteem (SE), and entrepreneur self-Preference (SP) significantly and completely affect entrepreneur GPS. Likewise, entrepreneur moral reflectiveness (EMR) substantially moderates the relationship between entrepreneur green production outcome expectation and LCB. This study concludes with recommendations for researchers interested in enhancing knowledge in this field. In summation, this study shows that a behavioral science viewpoint is critical for improving knowledge of low-carbon environment, CC drivers, mitigation strategies, and sustainable transition to our complex environment.

Environmental regulation has become a significant way to achieve sustainable development. Taking the panel data of China’s high-tech industries from 2007–2016 in 30 provinces and cities as a sample, regression models are established to study the impact of three different types of environmental regulations on international competitiveness and the moderating effect of R&D (research & development) investment. The results show that the impact of environmental regulations on the international competitiveness of high-tech industries is related to the type of environmental regulation. There is a significant negative correlation between economic environmental regulation (EER) and the international competitiveness of high-tech industries, and R&D investment has a significant inhibitory effect on the relationship between the two. For both commanding environmental regulation (CER) and participatory environmental regulation (PER), R&D investment plays a significant moderating role in environmental regulation and the international competitiveness of high-tech industries. The impact of all three environmental regulations on R&D investment was positive but not significant. Finally, based on these research conclusions, a few countermeasures and suggestions are discussed for the formulation of China’s environmental regulation policies and the development of high-tech industries.

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