Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the direct and indirect relationships between the determinant factors of good governance (such as accountability, transparency, rule of law, responsiveness, effectiveness, and legitimacy), green technological innovation, environmental policy enforcement, and sustainable environmental development. The thesis strives to examine the mediating effects of green technological innovation in the relationship between the determinant factors of good governance (such as accountability, transparency, rule of law, responsiveness, effectiveness, and legitimacy) and sustainable environmental development. Furthermore, the thesis attempts to explore the moderating influence of environmental policy enforcement on the relationship between green technological innovation and sustainable environmental development.
Design/Methods: This thesis used panel dataset from the World Bank Data Bank website of 21 Asian countries for the period ranging between 1996 and 2022 using world development indicators (WDI) and worldwide governance indicator (WGI). Statistical analysis software SmartPLS 4.0 version for structural equation modeling and SPSS 23 version for Hayes process modeling were employed to investigate the hypothesized relationships.
Findings: The findings of this thesis suggest that overall good governance, transparency, rule of law, and responsiveness significantly influence sustainable environmental development, but environmental policy enforcement impacts sustainable environmental development weakly. Additionally, this thesis found that overall good governance, accountability, transparency, rule of law, responsiveness, effectiveness, and legitimacy have significant positive impact on green technological innovation. Furthermore, green technological innovation significantly mediates in the relationship between overall good governance, accountability, transparency, rule of law, responsiveness, effectiveness, legitimacy, and sustainable environmental development. Finally, the finding indicates that environmental policy enforcement does not significantly moderate the relationship between green technological innovation and sustainable environmental development.
Implications: This thesis provides practical and theoretical implications.
Originality: This thesis contributes to the existing literature by investigating the mediating impact of green technological innovation in the relationship between good governance determinants and sustainable environmental development. Moreover, this thesis examined the moderating role of environmental policy enforcement on the relationship between green technological innovation and sustainable environmental development.