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AbstractEnforcement officials' coping strategies evolve with changes in job attitudes, work situations, and institutional support. As the institutional context becomes more challenging with stronger performance management and transparency pressures, enforcement officials are less likely to move toward regulatees. Besides, in a more challenging context, officials with higher pay satisfaction and societal support are more likely to move toward regulatees. Yet officials are consistently less likely to move toward regulatees if they receive fewer resources or more government support. These correlations are supported by results from two rounds of surveys with environmental regulatory enforcement officials in China. Our interviews and archival documents helped unearth changes in institutional contexts and enforcement activities between and after our two surveys. This study advances a dynamic view of coping among street‐level bureaucrats by showing how changes in institutional contexts may reshape the motivational bases of coping strategies.

A lack of clear political commitment together with confusing rules and enforcement often characterize the institutional context of policy implementation and regulatory compliance in developing countries. By connecting such contextual features to existing models of policy implementation and regulatory compliance, we examine how regulatory factors are related to basic and proactive corporate environmental management practices in the Pearl River Delta region in China. Drawing on data derived from both a survey and in‐depth interviews, we show that a perception of clear political commitment to environmental protection across multiple government levels and units is positively associated with business efforts in basic environmental practices, regardless of the specific enforcement intensity. Nevertheless, a perception of clear political commitment is not related to proactive environmental practices. Conversely, a perception of policy ambiguity, in the form of confusing regulatory standards and enforcement, is negatively associated with corporate efforts in both basic and proactive environmental practices; yet, intensive inspections mitigate these negative associations with policy ambiguity.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are used for infrastructure projects, but they usually involve risk because of their complexity. The construction and operation stages are the core of successful infrastructure PPP projects. This study analysed the efficiency and determinants of the construction and operation stages of Chinese infrastructure PPP projects conducted by thirty provinces from 2008–2013. During the five years examined, the efficiency of infrastructure PPP projects in the construction stage exhibited a downward spiral, but showed a gradual upward trend in the operation stage. The results showed that government supervision was one of the most significant positive influences on construction efficiency, while risk allocation had a greater positive impact on efficiency during the operation stage. The evidence in this study is impactful because it provides insights for practitioners regarding key determinants for improving efficiency in the construction and operation stages of infrastructure PPP projects.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are used for infrastructure projects, but they usually involve risk because of their complexity. The construction and operation stages are the core of successful infrastructure PPP projects. This study analysed the efficiency and determinants of the construction and operation stages of Chinese infrastructure PPP projects conducted by thirty provinces from 2008–2013. During the five years examined, the efficiency of infrastructure PPP projects in the construction stage exhibited a downward spiral, but showed a gradual upward trend in the operation stage. The results showed that government supervision was one of the most significant positive influences on construction efficiency, while risk allocation had a greater positive impact on efficiency during the operation stage. The evidence in this study is impactful because it provides insights for practitioners regarding key determinants for improving efficiency in the construction and operation stages of infrastructure PPP projects.