Chen QianYing, Chen Pengyu, Chu Zhongzhu
School of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia University, Inner Mongolia, 010021, China.
School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, China.
J Environ Manage. 2025 Jun;385:125662. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.125662. Epub 2025 May 8.
Institutional isomorphism provides a framework for latecomers to learn from successful organizations. However, some scholars highlight the drawbacks of mimetic isomorphism, such as the inability to consider unique characteristics. This study uses the 2018 zero-waste city pilot program in China as a natural experiment, evaluating its performance in waste utilization and economic efficiency. We employ the super-efficient SBM-DEA model to estimate the circular economy performance of 269 Chinese cities, uncovering the relationship between zero-waste city pilots and the circular economy from 2002 to 2022. The findings are as follows: 1) Zero-waste city pilots inhibited circular economy. 2) Financial development and technological innovation can mitigate this negative impact, with resource misallocation being a potential pathway. 3) Zero-waste city pilots focused heavily on waste utilization while neglecting governance costs. 4) The negative impact of zero-waste city pilots on the circular economy was more pronounced in heavy industrial cities, non-agricultural cities, and cities with low traffic density. These findings provide unique policy recommendations for improving policy-making models based on institutional isomorphism and for transitioning zero-waste cities to circular economy cities.
制度同构为后来者提供了一个向成功组织学习的框架。然而，一些学者强调了模仿同构的缺点，比如无法考虑独特特征。本研究将中国2018年的零废弃城市试点项目作为一项自然实验，评估其在废物利用和经济效率方面的表现。我们采用超效率SBM-DEA模型来估计269个中国城市的循环经济绩效，揭示2002年至2022年零废弃城市试点与循环经济之间的关系。研究结果如下：1）零废弃城市试点抑制了循环经济。2）金融发展和技术创新可以减轻这种负面影响，资源错配是一条潜在途径。3）零废弃城市试点严重侧重于废物利用，而忽视了治理成本。4）零废弃城市试点对循环经济的负面影响在重工业城市、非农业城市和交通密度低的城市更为明显。这些发现为改进基于制度同构的决策模型以及将零废弃城市转变为循环经济城市提供了独特的政策建议。
