The issue of the green development of industrial enterprises has become the focus of attention of all parties. However, the driving factors of green development behavior and performance in industrial enterprises remains unexplored. What are the driving factors of green development behavior and performance in industrial enterprises? How does the theoretical model of green development behavior and performance in industrial enterprises work? In order to reveal the driving factors of green development behavior and performance in industrial enterprises, this paper develops a theoretical model and tests the model through the evidence of Chinese industrial enterprises. Based on the further study of in-depth interview materials from 52 employees in industrial enterprises, this paper takes industrial enterprises as the research object and constructs a theoretical model by using a grounded theory method. The results show that 40 initial concepts, 10 initial categories, four main categories and three core categories are obtained through the coding step of grounded theory. The study found the following three conclusions: (1) The green development of industrial enterprise exists in the organization in the form of specific behavioral expressions; (2) The green development of industrial enterprise caused the occurrence of green development behavior of industrial enterprises. The external factors of industrial enterprise green development consist of the environment of policy and institutional, market environment and public supervision. The internal factors of industrial enterprise green development are composed of tangible and intangible resources of enterprises; (3) The occurrence of industrial enterprise green development behavior has led to the consequence of green development of industrial enterprises. The consequence is embodied in the green development performance of industrial enterprises, including corporate financial performance, corporate environmental performance and corporate social performance. In addition, some management implications are presented based on the research findings. This research enriches the field of green development theory, business development theory and green behavior research. This study also provides a reference for exploring theoretical models of industrial enterprise green development in other countries and regions of the world.

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Industrial enterprises have provided outstanding contributions to economic development in countries around the world. The green development of industrial enterprises has received widespread attention from researchers. However, existing research lacks the tools to scientifically measure the green development behavior and performance of industrial enterprises. According to the theory of green development behavior and performance of industrial enterprises (GDBP-IE), the aim of this paper is to provide a tool for scientifically measuring such behavior and performance. This paper determined the initial scale through literature analysis and expert discussions and obtained valid samples from 31 provincial administrative regions in China through field and online surveys (N = 853). The exploratory factor analysis method was used to test the reliability and validity of the scale. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The reliability and validity of the GDBP-IE scale are good; (2) the GDBP-IE scale, with a total of 70 items, comprises four sub-scales: The internal factors sub-scale, the external factors sub-scale, the green development behavior of industrial enterprises sub-scale, and the green development performance of industrial enterprises sub-scale. Among them, the internal factors sub-scale, with a total of 13 items, consists of two dimensions: Corporate tangible resources and corporate intangible resources. The external factors sub-scale, with a total of 23 items, consists of three dimensions: Market environment; public supervision; policy and institutional environment. The green development behavior of industrial enterprises sub-scale, with a total of 18 items, consists of two dimensions: Clean production behavior and green supply chain management practice. The green development performance of industrial enterprises sub-scale, with a total of 16 items, comprises three dimensions: Corporate social performance, corporate financial performance, and corporate environmental performance. The findings enrich the research on corporate organizational behavior, green behavior, and green development system theory, and provide tools for further empirical testing. The development and verification of green development behavior and performance of industrial enterprises can help guide various types of industrial enterprises in transforming to green development and can provide a reference for the government to formulate targeted green development policies.

Although the theory of green development behavior and performance of industrial enterprises (GDBP-IE) reveals that the green development behavior (GDB) of industrial enterprises is affected by internal and external factors and produces performance, it lacks a clear mechanism. This paper aims to verify the theory of GDBP-IE and reveals the mechanism of GDBP-IE in the Chinese context. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to analyze valid samples of Chinese industrial enterprises (N = 615). The empirical conclusions are as follows. (1) Corporate tangible resources, corporate intangible resources (CIR), market environment, public supervision and policy and institutional environment (PIE) have a significant positive effect on GDB (i.e., green supply chain management practice and clean production behavior). (2) Compared with other factors, the positive effect of CIR on GDB is the strongest. (3) The level of positive effect of PIE on GDB is not as significant as other factors. (4) GDB has a significant positive effect on green development performance (i.e., corporate social performance, corporate financial performance and corporate environmental performance). This paper provides effective evidence for researchers to use other methods to further verify the theory of GDBP-IE in the Chinese context. This paper also provides an opportunity for cluster analysis of GDBP-IE in different countries or regions. In addition, this paper not only gives a targeted reference for the government to formulate guidelines concerning the green development of industrial enterprises but also encourages industrial enterprise managers to formulate green development strategies, which is a way to help industrial enterprise managers and workers to participate in and comply with GDB.