Compliance-Oriented or Deep Digitalization? A Tripartite Evolutionary Game Analysis of Carbon Mitigation and Pollution Reduction Digital Collaborative Governance

Abstract

Digitalization is reshaping environmental governance by enabling real-time data collection, information sharing, and coordinated regulatory action. However, how heterogeneous enterprise digitalization modes, compliance-oriented digitalization, and deep digitalization affect multi-actor digital collaborative governance for carbon mitigation and pollution reduction remain underexplored. This study develops a tripartite evolutionary game model involving the government, enterprises, and the public. The model distinguishes enterprises’ digitalization modes and examines how government digital regulation, enterprise carbon mitigation and pollution reduction strategies, and public participation co-evolve under different cost–benefit conditions. Through numerical simulations and theoretical analysis, the study identifies critical factors of stakeholders’ strategies and proposes possible evolution paths for digital collaborative governance. The results show that (1) the system can evolve toward an ideal stable equilibrium: government digital regulation, enterprise carbon mitigation and pollution reduction, and active public participation; there is a high probability that enterprises will adopt a deep level of digitalization. (2) Subsidies for deep digitalization can increase the probability of enterprise deep digitalization, but excessive subsidies may increase fiscal pressure and destabilize government digital regulation. Compared with subsidy intensity, the additional benefits of digital collaborative governance accruing to enterprises are more important in promoting the transition from compliance-oriented to deep digitalization. (3) Public participation and government digital regulation both contribute to the stability of digital collaborative governance. Higher public participation significantly accelerates system convergence, while government digital regulation remains sustainable when digital collaborative governance benefits can offset construction and operating costs. These findings clarify the conditional logic of digital collaborative governance and offer actionable policy implications.