Transnational environmental governance: Chinese businesses as policy entrepreneurs in Cambodia under the Green Belt and Road Initiative

Globalization has complicated the relationship between economic activity and environmental governance. This article seeks to foreground this relationship by examining the actions taken by a Chinese environmental engineering firm in Cambodia under the Green Belt and Road Initiative. Based on in-depth stakeholder interviews, we found that the firm adopted many policy entrepreneurship strategies—improving the government's environmental monitoring capacity, fostering partnerships and networks with local and international businesses, and disseminating credible information about environmental regulations. These policy entrepreneurship strategies are embedded in the logic of (for-profit) eco-entrepreneurship—to allow the company to achieve market penetration and overcome policy barriers. This study also draws attention to the contributions of private actors in realizing the vision of the Green Belt and Road Initiative.