Search Results (63)

This study explores the internationalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), emphasizing the critical role of competent managerial abilities. Specifically, it investigates the sustainable role of managerial capabilities in directly facilitating SMEs’ entry into international markets, or whether these capabilities first assist in risk management and resource utilization, supporting international expansion. We propose that SMEs with skilled and capable managers are better equipped to manage internal risks and leverage available resources, thereby enhancing their internationalization efforts. Drawing on empirical data from 191 Chinese SMEs, our findings support the proposed model, revealing that managerial capabilities contribute to internationalization indirectly—this relationship is fully mediated by risk management and resource utilization. This study recommends that SMEs prioritize building a sustainable management team capable of navigating internal challenges to successfully pursue international growth. Our research contributes to the resource-based view and the Uppsala model of internationalization by contextualizing the role of managerial capabilities, risk management, and resource utilization in the internationalization processes of SMEs. Full article

As an environmental policy, the Action Plan of Atmosphere Pollution Control in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Surrounding Areas in Autumn and Winter (Action Plan of APC) was implemented in 2017, with the goal of achieving the sustainable growth of the regional economy. This study examines the effect of the Action Plan of APC on green total factor productivity (GTFP) in the Chinese construction industry employing a difference-in-differences (DID) approach. The findings indicate the following: Firstly, the environmental policy of the Action Plan of APC has significantly improved the GTFP of the aforementioned areas, and the result is still valid after robustness testing; secondly, the dynamic effect testing reveals that the influence follows an increasing trend over time; thirdly, due to the different degrees of marketization, the influence of the Action Plan of APC on GTFP in Chinese construction industry exhibits notable regional heterogeneity. From the perspectives of both the government and enterprises, this study offers recommendations for promoting the GTFP of China’s construction industry. It also provides a novel framework for assessing the effect of environmental policies on the GTFP of the Chinese construction industry. Full article

Amid the rapid development of the digital economy, data elements—emerging as a new type of production factor—are gradually becoming a key resource for enhancing corporate efficiency and promoting high-quality development. The marketization of data elements is also steadily progressing and playing an increasingly important role. Based on data from Chinese A-share listed companies spanning 2007 to 2023, this study systematically evaluates the impact of data element marketization on corporate investment efficiency using a Double Machine Learning approach. The findings reveal that data element marketization significantly improves investment efficiency. Mechanism analysis further demonstrates that such improvement is primarily driven by reduced information dispersion, enhanced risk-bearing capacity, and improved operational efficiency. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that these effects are more pronounced for firms in high-tech industries, high growth potential firms, enterprises located in regions with strong digital infrastructure, and firms experiencing overinvestment problems. This study provides empirical evidence on how the marketization of data elements in China enhances economic outcomes, improving corporate investment decisions, which could serve as a reference for other countries undergoing digital transformation. Full article

Whether and how digital transformation affects innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains to be examined. This study aims to answer this question using a sample of SMEs listed on the Chinese National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) market from 2012 to 2023. Employing textual mining techniques, this paper measures the degree of digital transformation through keyword frequency analysis of annual reports, while innovation is measured by the number of patent grants. Panel fixed effects models show that digital transformation significantly enhances corporate innovation in SMEs. This relationship remains robust after comprehensive endogeneity and additional robustness tests. Mechanisms analysis reveals that digital transformation alleviates financial constraints and enhances supply chain diversity, enabling SMEs to allocate more resources toward innovation activities. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive effect of digital transformation on innovation is more pronounced for firms located in cities with higher digital finance coverage, in midwestern regions, and in industries with lower digitalization levels. These findings shed light on the power of digital technology, highlighting how its adoption can significantly bolster the innovation capacity of SMEs and drive their growth in a rapidly evolving digital economy. Full article

In the fast-growing new energy vehicle (NEV) industry, selecting an appropriate technological innovation strategy is vital for enterprises to achieve a competitive market position while effectively coordinating their resources to align with their technical capabilities. This paper integrates ambidextrous innovation theory and the resource-based view to propose a configurational model that examines how the synergy between technological innovation and resources influences NEV firm performance. Using regression analysis and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) for 52 listed Chinese NEV companies, this study uncovered multiple growth paths and mechanisms. The findings include the following: (1) No single factor was a necessary condition for performance, but effective combinations of innovation strategies and resource elements led to multiple success paths. (2) Government subsidies and R&D investment emerged as key drivers of performance. (3) Four distinct configuration paths were identified, with variations across firms with different resource bases. (4) In response to reduced government subsidies, NEV firms must shift from policy-driven strategies to resource- and market-driven innovation approaches. These insights provide strategic guidance for NEV enterprises in selecting innovation strategies suited to their unique resource bases in the evolving post-subsidy market environment. Full article

Corporate sustainable development, as a critical component of Chinese-style modernization, is essential for achieving high-quality economic growth, yet the influence of institutional cross-ownership—a prevalent phenomenon in stock markets—on corporate sustainability performance remains contested. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2023, this study innovatively employs micro-level data on the degree of the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to measure corporate sustainability performance and investigate the influence of institutional cross-ownership on corporate sustainability performance. This study presents the following findings: (1) Institutional cross-ownership undermines corporate sustainability performance, a finding that remains robust to a series of endogeneity and robustness tests. (2) Mechanism analysis reveals a triple erosion effect: short-termism driven by institutional investors’ preference for immediate financial returns, market power through cross-ownership that dampens competitive pressures, and reduced green innovation investments that weaken sustainability. (3) This negative effect is more pronounced in firms located in high-productivity regions or central and eastern China, in firms facing lax environmental regulations, and in state-owned enterprises. (4) The impact of cross-ownership on sustainability performance varies across dimensions, with the negative effects concentrated in the economic and social dimensions. This study enriches the literature on the factors influencing corporate sustainability performance, providing new empirical evidence for governments to guide institutional investors in long-term value investment and firms to implement effective sustainable development strategies. Full article

Amid global economic transformation, a persistent productivity gap exists between developed and developing nations in agriculture sector, shaped by technological advancements and shifting resource allocation patterns. Agricultural socialized services (ASS), defined as organized systems providing technical support, mechanization assistance, information services, market linkages, and resource optimization to farmers, have emerged as critical mechanisms for agricultural development. In developing economies, these services catalyze gains in agricultural labor productivity through the integration of advanced technologies and the mechanization of farming practices. Using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces during 2011 to 2022, this study investigates the relationship between ASS and ALP, focusing on regional heterogeneity, threshold effects, and spatial spillovers. The combination of spatial econometric methods and threshold analysis was selected for its unique capacity to capture both the geographic interdependencies and nonlinear relationships that characterize agricultural development processes. These thresholds at 5.254 and 8.478 represent critical points where the impact of ASS on ALP significantly changes in magnitude, revealing a nonlinear relationship that evolves across different stages of agricultural development. The study highlights notable regional disparities in the impact of ASS. Specifically, ASS is more effective on ALP in eastern, central and key food-producing regions, while its impact is relatively weak in western and non-food-producing regions. Spatial spillover analysis indicates that advancements in ASS create positive externalities, extending beyond their immediate implementation zones and facilitating inter-provincial agricultural cooperation and development. These findings provide crucial guidance for policymakers and agricultural service providers to optimize resource allocation and service delivery strategies. By identifying critical development thresholds and regional variations, this research offers evidence-based support for government officials designing targeted agricultural policies and enterprises developing region-specific service models to foster sustainable agricultural growth across diverse regional landscapes. Full article

The proper allocation of corporate capital is critical to sustainable business development, and misallocation of resources can impede sustainable economic growth and competitive markets. This study investigates the relationship between market power and capital misallocation in Chinese A-share listed companies, with a novel focus on the mediating role of total factor productivity (TFP). Using a comprehensive dataset of 20,818 firm-year observations from 2009 to 2021, we employ linear regression analysis to elucidate the mechanisms through which market power influences capital allocation efficiency. The results reveal a significant positive correlation between market power and capital misallocation, with TFP partially mediating this relationship. Specifically, a one-unit increase in the market power index is associated with a 1.106 unit decrease in TFP, and a 0.028 unit increase in the capital misallocation, indicating potential threats to long-term sustainability. This effect is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, firms located in eastern regions, and those without shareholdings in financial institutions. These results contribute to the literature on market structure and resource allocation by providing empirical evidence of the detrimental effects of market power on capital allocation efficiency, operating through the channel of reduced productivity. Our findings have important implications for policymakers and firm managers, suggesting the need for targeted antitrust measures, promotion of market competition, and strategies to enhance TFP. This research advances our understanding of the complex interplay between market power, productivity, and capital allocation in emerging economies, offering valuable insights for addressing market failures, improving allocative efficiency and actively promoting sustainable business and sustainable socio-economic development in the Chinese context. Full article

This paper establishes a theoretical framework for understanding the connotations of industrial basic capacity. It employs models from economic growth theory to derive indices for assessing industrial basic capacity and exploring the economic correlations among its influencing factors. Additionally, it measures the industrial basic capacity indices of 17 subsectors across 9 major industrial countries from 2000 to 2020 using OECD data. The findings reveal that from 2000 to 2020, the Chinese manufacturing industry has surpassed the United States, becoming the global leader. Specifically, within the 17 subsectors, 9 are globally ranked first, with 7 nearing advanced levels, and only 1 facing relative backwardness. Chinese manufacturing industry’s enhanced basic capacity is attributed to advantages in cost competitiveness and scale. However, significant disparities persist in technological input and industrial linkages with advanced nations. The decline in basic capacity among developed countries stems primarily from diminished value chain profitability due to inadequate investment. Sustainable improvement in industry basic capacity necessitates concurrent advancements in value chain profitability, fixed asset investment, technological levels, industrial linkages, and market scale. Overreliance on cost advantages or advanced technology poses substitution risks. Moreover, this paper underscores the limitations of exclusively relying on current data to assess global industrial basic capacity, advocating for a greater historical perspective. To strengthen the Chinese manufacturing industrial basic capacity within the global value chain, the Chinese manufacturing industry must enhance technological inputs, reduce the operational costs of enterprises, and elevate the degree of openness. Full article

This paper examines the relationship between the voluntary disclosure of intangible assets and financing constraints using a sample of 2850 listed companies from 2017 to 2021. Additionally, we examine the moderating effects of prudence in accounting and the attention given to the disclosures by analysts from both an internal and an external perspective. The results show that voluntarily disclosing intangible assets helps to alleviate a firm’s financing constraints, with more significant effects observed in state-owned enterprises and companies listed on the Growth Enterprise Market index than for private enterprises and those listed on the main board of the Chinese capital market. Further, conservatism in accounting and attention given by financial analysts both positively moderate this relationship. The theoretical and empirical insights provided by this study should help listed companies in China to enhance the quality of their voluntary intangible asset disclosures, while also helping to mitigate financing constraints. Full article

This study employs the economic policy uncertainty index to gauge the level of economic policy uncertainty in China. Utilizing textual data from the growth enterprise market internet community, we construct the growth enterprise market investor sentiment index by applying the deep learning ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration) model, thereby capturing investors’ sentiment within the growth enterprise market. The dynamic interplay between economic policy uncertainty, investor sentiment, and returns of the growth enterprise market is scrutinized via the TVP-SV-VAR (time-varying parameter stochastic volatility vector auto-regression) model, and the asymmetric response of different industries’ stock returns within the growth enterprise market to economic policy uncertainty and investor sentiment shock. The findings of this research are that economic policy uncertainty exerts a negative influence on both investor sentiment and returns of the growth enterprise market. While it may trigger a temporary decline in stock prices, the empirical evidence suggests that the impact is of short duration. The influence of investor sentiment on the growth enterprise market returns is characterized by a reversal effect, suggesting that improved sentiment may initially boost stock prices but could lead to a subsequent decline over the long term. The relationship between economic policy uncertainty, investor sentiment, and returns of the growth enterprise market is time-variant, with heightened sensitivity observed during bull markets. Lastly, the effects of economic policy uncertainty and investor sentiment on the returns of different industries within the growth enterprise market are found to be asymmetric. These conclusions contribute to the existing body of literature on the Chinese capital market, offering a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics and the factors influencing market behavior. Full article

The existing literature on government debt has predominantly focused on its influence on economic growth, with relatively limited attention paid to its ecological implications. Government debt, as an important financial tool, plays an essential role in improving the quality of economic development, yet its impact on sustainable governance remains underexplored. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates the relationship between government debt and carbon reduction using a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2023. After excluding missing and financial firm data, our final sample includes 26,535 observations. We obtained these data from the China Security Market Accounting Research (CSMAR) database and the Wind database. This study utilizes ordinary least squares (OLS) as the baseline regression and identifies a significant positive impact of government debt on carbon emissions. Further, the moderating analysis suggests that the positive impact of government debt on carbon reduction is particularly stronger in state-owned (SOEs) and heavily polluting enterprises. To ensure the robustness of these findings, we also use fixed-effects models and the generalized method of moments (GMM), validating the consistency of the findings. This research provides critical practical and theoretical insights for regulators and adds to the prevailing body of literature on emissions reduction. Full article

Drawing on the implantation of organizational sustainable strategies, enterprises can effectively manage and recycle resources, reduce resource waste, improve market competitiveness, better respond to changes in the market and environment, and create long-term economic benefits. Although a large number of prior studies have emphasized the importance of improving sustainability and proposed various strategies and practical approaches, relatively few studies have explored the inhibitors of sustainability. Against such a research background, this study differs from previous research that has simply focused on ways to increase sustainability; we instead explore negative variables that reduce sustainability. We assess the variable that reduces organizational sustainability, that is, work withdrawal behavior that reduces employees’ enthusiasm for their jobs, hinders employee performance, causes financial losses, and limits organizational growth and sustainability. This directly affects the organization’s long-term growth and sustainability goals and damages the organization’s overall sustainability image. Therefore, understanding the reasons behind this behavior is important. This study examines how coworker incivility leads to work withdrawal behavior and validates relevant research models. Data from 294 Chinese SME employees show that coworker incivility positively affects workplace loneliness and work withdrawal behavior. Workplace loneliness mediates the impact of coworker incivility on work withdrawal behavior, while resilience negatively moderates these relationships. Based on these findings, this study offers recommendations for reducing work withdrawal behavior and improving workplace environments and employee mental health. Full article

This study examines the impact of energy-related uncertainty on idiosyncratic volatility (IVOL) in Chinese firms, leveraging data from the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges between 2007 and 2022. Utilizing the Energy-Related Uncertainty Index (EUI) and the Fama–French five-factor model, we analyze a comprehensive dataset of 20,998 firm-year observations to understand how macroeconomic uncertainties specific to the energy sector influence firm-specific risk. Our findings reveal that a one-unit increase in the EUI is associated with a 5.1% rise in idiosyncratic volatility across all firms, underscoring the significant impact of energy-related uncertainty on firm-specific risks. The effect is more pronounced in energy-related firms, where a one-unit increase in the EUI leads to a 6.4% increase in IVOL, compared to a 3.7% increase in non-energy-related firms. By incorporating industry-wise, heterogeneity, and phase-based analyses, our findings reveal significant variations in the EUI’s impact across energy and non-energy sectors. State-owned enterprises, firms with high ownership concentration, and smaller firms are more vulnerable to energy uncertainties. Additionally, the effect of the EUI on IVOL is more pronounced during periods of high uncertainty. These insights have important implications for sustainable investment strategies, risk management, and policymaking, providing a deeper understanding of the intricate dynamics of energy markets in fostering sustainable economic growth and development. Full article

Seed enterprises are crucial for ensuring national food security, the driving force behind the seed industry’s advancement, and the core entity in constructing a modern seed industry system. At the micro and macro levels, agricultural seed enterprises face challenges and pressures in earning excess profits, enhancing their competitive edge, and resisting the incursion of multinational seed enterprises. This article selects panel data from 49 listed seed enterprises in China from 2015 to 2022 and uses methods such as global principal component analysis (GPCA) and Q-type cluster analysis to measure and evaluate the competitiveness of Chinese seed enterprises. Research has found that: (1) From 2015 to 2022, the overall competitiveness of listed Chinese agricultural seed enterprises has shown an upward trend. The competitiveness of agricultural seed enterprises can be further decomposed into operational capabilities, growth capabilities, production efficiency, technological innovation capabilities, etc. (2) The top ten agricultural seed enterprises in China have obvious advantages in operational and technological innovation capabilities, but their growth capabilities and production efficiency are insufficient. (3) Regarding the vertical comparison of the seed industry, the ranking of the competitiveness of Chinese listed agricultural seed enterprises from strong to weak is wheat seed enterprises > other seed enterprises > melon and vegetable seed enterprises > corn seed enterprises > rice seed enterprises. (4) Compared with international seed industry giants, there are various reasons why China’s top agricultural seed enterprises have weaker competitiveness, specifically reflected in research and development investment, scale and market share, industrial layout, and other aspects. The findings of this research offer empirical evidence to bolster the competitiveness of seed enterprises and advance the seed industry, while also aiding in fortifying the nation’s strategic oversight of the seed sector, bearing profound implications for safeguarding food security. Full article