Performance-Influencing Factors and Improvement Paths of Third-Party Governance Service Regarding Environmental Pollution—An Empirical Study of the SEM Based on Shanghai Data

Abstract

By employing ecological economics involving performance-influencing factors and third-party governance services that have the aim of reducing environmental pollution, a theoretical framework which includes object, subject, process that measures the performance of such services is analyzed on the basis of the idea of sustainability science (2.0). The research hypotheses regarding the relationships among service performance, multi-stakeholder subjects’ satisfaction, and the effect of process management are put forward; then, a three-dimensional performance measurement model, which includes performance, stakeholders, and the process of providing third-party governance services for addressing environmental pollution, is constructed based on the pressure–state–response (PSR) driving force model. At the same time, based on empirical data of the Shanghai municipality, the structural equation model (SEM) is used to empirically test the nine proposed research hypotheses. The empirical test results show that, except for the research hypotheses in regard to regulating variables and controlling variables, all of the research hypotheses passed the test. It means the direct performance, single subjective satisfaction, process management effects are performance-influencing factors. However, the stakeholders’ cooperation satisfaction partially influences the performance of third-party governance services regarding environmental pollution. Finally, through theoretical and empirical research, this paper proposes countermeasures and suggestions for improving the performance of third-party governance services regarding environmental pollution in Shanghai focusing on two aspects: one is the market governance mechanism innovation, and the other is regulations and standards innovation.