Search Results (1,097)

New-quality productive forces provide an important conceptual lens for understanding how innovation-driven development, digital empowerment, and the green transition jointly support sustainable regional development. From a geographical perspective, this study develops a multidimensional evaluation system for new-quality productive forces based on the three elements of productive forces: laborers, means of labor, and objects of labor. Using panel data for 31 provincial-level administrative units in China from 2012 to 2022, we integrate the entropy weight method, standard deviation ellipse, exploratory spatiotemporal data analysis, the obstacle degree model, and the random forest model to examine the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing mechanisms of new-quality productive forces. The results show that: (1) China’s new-quality productive forces increased steadily during the study period, but their overall level remained relatively low and regional disparities continued to widen. Spatially, they exhibited a pronounced “high in the east and low in the west” pattern, with South China and East China maintaining leading positions and Guangdong and Jiangsu forming a dual-core growth structure. (2) The spatial center of gravity remained southeast of the Hu Huanyong Line, and its expansion direction was broadly parallel to this line, indicating a relatively stable spatial configuration. The ESTDA results further reveal significant positive spatial autocorrelation, strong temporal inertia, and marked path dependence in local spatial transitions. (3) High-tech talent supply, innovation and entrepreneurship vitality, and ecological governance capacity constitute the main internal bottlenecks constraining the development of new-quality productive forces. The analysis of external factors indicates that economic scale and population size are the primary predictors of NQPF development, whereas government intervention, openness, urbanization, and industrial structure exhibit varying degrees of nonlinearity and regional heterogeneity. These findings enrich the geographical interpretation of new-quality productive forces and provide empirical evidence for formulating differentiated regional innovation policies and productivity transformation strategies. Full article

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly used in entrepreneurial practice, yet limited empirical evidence explains how sustainability-oriented entrepreneurs appropriate it in relation to Triple Bottom Line (TBL) performance. This study examines the strategic alignment paradox faced by entrepreneurs who pursue accountable sustainability outcomes while using fast-moving, probabilistic, and partly opaque technologies. It investigates whether Sustainability Orientation (SO) is associated with Sustainable Entrepreneurial Performance (SEP) through five theoretically distinct GenAI appropriation dimensions: Adoptive, Customized, Ethical, Integrative, and Interface Appropriation. In this study, Ethical Appropriation is interpreted as ethical-boundary permissiveness because the retained GAIA items capture acceptance of self-serving, improper, or beyond-intended GenAI use rather than broad responsible-AI governance. A cross-sectional survey of 360 GenAI-using entrepreneurs and SME owner-managers in Saudi Arabia was analyzed using PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 4, with a 10,000-resample bootstrapping procedure, MICOM, permutation-based multi-group analysis, and higher-order robustness tests. The empirical results show that SO is positively and significantly associated with Customized, Ethical, and Integrative Appropriation, but has no significant relationship with Adoptive or Interface Adoptive Appropriation or Interface Appropriation. The aggregate model explains 60.8% of the variance in SEP. Mediation analysis indicates that the observed indirect association between SO and aggregate SEP is statistically significant only through the Customized, Ethical, and Integrative pathways. The pillar-specific analysis further shows that the aggregate SEP construct masks important differences across TBL outcomes: Integrative Appropriation is consistently associated with all three pillars; Ethical Appropriation is selectively associated with economic sustainability and should be interpreted as a governance warning rather than as evidence of responsible-AI governance; and Customized Appropriation is associated only with environmental and social sustainability. Finally, multi-group analysis provides no statistically robust evidence of gender-based heterogeneity after Bonferroni correction, suggesting that the SO–GenAI appropriation–SEP relationships are broadly comparable across male and female respondents in this sample. Overall, the findings suggest that GenAI should not be treated as a monolithic adoption construct; its sustainability implications depend on how generative tools are customized for specific tasks, interpreted with attention to ethical-boundary permissiveness, and structurally integrated into business routines. Full article

Early-stage entrepreneurship involves making decisions under conditions of high uncertainty, which makes risk appetite an important component of the entrepreneurial decision-making process. This paper analyzes the influence of non-financial factors on risk appetite in early-stage entrepreneurship in Romania and their relevance in shaping the entrepreneurial decision-making process. The research uses an exploratory qualitative approach, based on focus groups and semi-structured interviews conducted with entrepreneurs in the early stages of business development. The results highlight that entrepreneurs’ risk appetite is not merely an impulsive reaction or the exclusive result of economic reasoning, but reflects a process of evaluation and adaptation to conditions of uncertainty, influenced by the interaction between psychological and human capital factors, such as previous experience and entrepreneurial education. In the analyzed context, the results suggest a moderate risk appetite of the entrepreneurs participating in the study, which favors the adoption of entrepreneurial decisions oriented towards adaptability, continuity of activity and sustainable business development. Based on the results, the authors propose an integrated conceptual framework that highlights the relationship between entrepreneurial education, previous experience, psychological factors, risk appetite and the entrepreneurial decision-making process, with implications for sustainable business development in the context of an emerging economy. Full article

Cultivated land is the cornerstone of agricultural production, and its green utilization efficiency is directly linked to the sustainable development of the ecological environment. To investigate the impact and mechanisms of rural entrepreneurship and innovation (REI) on the cultivated land green utilization efficiency (CLGUE), this study employs a Super-SBM with undesired output to estimate the CLGUE of 27 provincial-level administrative units in China from 2014 to 2022. Using a fixed-effects model, the study analyzes the impact of REI on CLGUE and reaches the following conclusions: (1) An increase in REI has a significant positive effect on CLGUE across all provinces, and this conclusion remains robust after testing. (2) Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive impact of REI on CLGUE is more pronounced in the eastern and central regions, as well as in areas with lower urbanization rates and higher levels of digital inclusive finance development. (3) Mechanism analysis reveals that REI promotes improvements in CLGUE through three pathways: driving agricultural technological progress, increasing investment in agriculture, and optimizing labor allocation. (4) The impact of REI on CLGUE exhibits a threshold effect; once REI reaches a certain level, its promotional effect is further strengthened. (5) Farm household cultivation scale acts as a negative moderator in the relationship between REI and CLGUE; the higher the proportion of farm households cultivating large-scale cultivated land, the less significant the impact of REI on CLGUE. (6) Stable farmland tenure relationships better facilitate the promotional effect of REI on CLGUE. This study provides theoretical support and practical guidance for optimizing green cultivated land utilization models and improving the quality of cultivated land utilization. Full article

Reconciling pollution–carbon reduction with green growth is a central challenge for sustainable urban transition, yet the role of innovation-oriented financial policy in this process remains insufficiently understood. This study uses China’s sci-tech finance pilot policy (STFP) as a quasi-natural experiment and applies a multi-period difference-in-differences model to panel data for 284 prefecture-level cities from 2008 to 2023. The baseline results show that STFP significantly reduces the pollution–carbon synergistic pressure index (PCSP) and improves the green growth efficiency index (GGEI). Specifically, the policy reduces PCSP by approximately 8.10% and increases GGEI by 0.0350 units. These conclusions hold after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that STFP works through three pathways: stimulating green industrial entrepreneurship, promoting green and digital technological innovation, and inducing the agglomeration of capital, talent, and technology factors. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the policy effect is more pronounced in large cities, cities with stronger collaborative governance capacity, and cities with better innovation environments. Spatial analysis reveals that STFP significantly reduces PCSP in neighboring cities, but has no significant spatial spillover effect on GGEI. Further analysis shows that STFP strengthens the coordinated improvement of pollution–carbon reduction and green growth. Policy-interaction analysis indicates that the Zero-Waste City pilot enhances the effect of STFP, whereas green finance policy exhibits a marginal substitution effect. This study provides city-level evidence on how sci-tech finance can serve as an institutional instrument for coordinating environmental governance and green growth in sustainable urban transition. Full article

Universities play a pivotal role in preparing future leaders capable of addressing complex sustainability challenges. This study examines how mental wellbeing and academic burnout affect sustainable entrepreneurship attitude (SEA) among university students, with systems thinking acting as a mediating competency. Drawing on a sample of 367 students from three universities in northeastern Mexico, PLS-SEM was applied to test a six-hypothesis model. Results confirm that mental wellbeing positively influences both systems thinking (β = 0.31, p < 0.001) and sustainable entrepreneurship attitude (β = 0.28, p < 0.001), while burnout exerts a detrimental structural association with both dimensions. Systems thinking partially mediates these relationships. The model explains 48% of the variance in SEA. These findings reinforce the importance of integrating psychological support and cognitive training into higher education programs, with direct implications for SDG 3, SDG 4, and SDG 8. Full article

The purpose of this research is to explore how entrepreneurs utilize their entrepreneurial mindset when incorporating activities directed towards sustainability or circularity into their small- and medium-sized enterprises. Two hypotheses are tested in the research. These are operationalized by understanding how internal and external influences affect the entrepreneurs’ perceptions and decision-making, which includes business models, innovation, customers, suppliers, products, services and processes, which can lead to sustainable value, planetary health or sustainable transitions. The methodological approach is a quantitative research method with a questionnaire sent to entrepreneurs in Swedish small- and medium-sized enterprises during the period from March 2025 to November 2025, wherein a total of 64 answers were provided. The findings show that the entrepreneurial mindset is positively related to external activities with customers and suppliers. These findings imply that external influences from customers and suppliers can support sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship. By highlighting how the entrepreneurial mindset relates to internal and external influences, the originality of the study contributes to the understanding of opportunities for small- and medium-sized enterprises to co-create value that supports sustainability, circularity and planetary health. Moreover, a positive relationship between internal influences and external influences is novel in this research and demands more attention in the future. Full article

Rural entrepreneurship is a key driver of rural economic development. However, limited evidence indicates how financial support affects rural households’ entrepreneurship through integrated mechanisms. Using 2109 micro-survey data points from rural Henan Province, Probit and OLS models were used to examine the impacts, moderating effects, and mediating pathways of formal and informal finance on rural households’ entrepreneurial decision-making and performance. This study makes two contributions. First, it differentiates entrepreneurial decision-making and performance as two stages of the entrepreneurial process. Second, it proposes an integrated three-path framework incorporating one moderating effect (the interaction between financial support and financing constraints) alongside two mediating mechanisms (risk-taking willingness and investment scale), which enables a more refined interpretation of the heterogeneous impacts exerted by financial support throughout distinct entrepreneurial stages. Both formal and informal finance can positively facilitate entrepreneurial decision-making, with formal support having stronger marginal effects. Financial support has varied impacts on rural household entrepreneurship, depending on household income, entrepreneurship type, and region. By alleviating financing constraints and optimizing resource allocation, financial support improves rural households’ entrepreneurial probability and business performance. By enhancing households’ risk-taking willingness and expanding asset investment, this support injects endogenous impetus into rural development. This financial empowerment mechanism can remove entrepreneurship barriers, facilitate the expansion of opportunity-based entrepreneurship, drive rural economic resilience, and promote inclusive, sustainable regional development. Full article

This study examines the direct effects of R&D transfer and the sufficiency of financing for entrepreneurs on Technological Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TechTEA), as well as the mediating role of financing. The analysis employs a variance-based structural equation modeling approach (PLS-SEM) to explore causal relationships among the variables. Data are drawn from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), specifically the National Expert Survey (NES) and the Adult Population Survey (APS), covering 26 emerging economies. The findings reveal that R&D transfer has a significant positive effect on the sufficiency of financing available to entrepreneurs. However, R&D transfer shows a significant negative direct effect on TechTEA. In contrast, the sufficiency of financing has a positive impact on TechTEA, acting as an inconsistent mediator that neutralizes the negative direct friction of R&D and unlocks its positive indirect potential. The study demonstrates that Resource-Based View (RBV) principles operate in a fundamentally distinct manner within emerging economies. Raw technical knowledge (R&D transfer) and capital injections (sufficiency of financing) are not self-sufficient drivers of high-tech ventures in developing contexts. From a sustainability perspective, this dynamic suggests that institutional and ecosystem frictions can impede the Triple Bottom Line, as technological potential struggles to achieve the economic viability required for long-term societal impact. Consequently, achieving genuine ecosystem sustainability requires policymakers to shift away from isolated, supply-side resource injections. Future strategies must pivot toward comprehensive institutional governance, friction-reduction mechanisms, and cross-sector regulatory coordination to enable technological ventures to successfully scale and survive over time. Full article

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food and beverage industry play an important role in advancing business sustainability in emerging economies. However, many resource-endowed SMEs remain unable to translate their potential into sustainable business outcomes. This study examines the factors influencing the business sustainability of food and beverage SMEs in Northeastern Thailand and explains how organizational capabilities are hierarchically structured to create sustainable competitive advantage. A mixed-methods design was employed. Qualitative in-depth interviews with entrepreneurship-incubation experts and entrepreneurs revealed that SME sustainability problems were closely associated with weak planning practices, limited market knowledge, informal financial systems, and insufficient product development capability. These insights informed the development of the research instrument. Quantitative data were then collected from 401 entrepreneurs in the three highest-GPP provinces: Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen, and Ubon Ratchathani. Structural equation modelling was used to test causal relationships among strategic planning, finance and accounting, leadership, business knowledge, product development, external factors, and business sustainability. The model demonstrated acceptable fit and explained 92% of the variance in business sustainability. Strategic planning emerged as the strongest direct driver, supported by business knowledge and product development as complementary capabilities. Finance, leadership, and external factors showed no significant direct effects. The study proposes a Planning-Centric Sustainability Model and contributes to Resource-Based View, Competency-Based View, and Dynamic Capabilities perspectives in emerging economies. Full article

Promoting the coordinated development of digitalization and greening has become an important pathway for firms to achieve high-quality growth. Using panel data for A-share listed firms in China’s Yangtze River Basin from 2010 to 2022, this study examines the effect of supply chain innovation policy on firms’ digital–green development. We measure the synergy between digitalization and greening using a composite system synergy approach and identify the policy effect through a quasi-natural experiment based on the supply chain innovation policy, combined with a synthetic difference-in-differences model. The results show that the policy significantly improves the coordinated development of firm digitalization and greening, and the findings remain robust across a series of tests. Mechanism analysis indicates that this effect operates through three channels: easing financing constraints, increasing supply chain diversification, and promoting industrial chain modernization. Moderating effect tests further show that supply chain efficiency, supply chain resilience, and entrepreneurship strengthen the policy’s positive effect on digital–green development. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the policy effect varies systematically with firm size, market competitiveness, and information asymmetry. This study provides micro-level evidence on how supply chain innovation policy can promote firms’ digital–green transformation and offers useful implications for policies aimed at improving firm competitiveness and supporting sustainable development. Full article

This study examines the associations among entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial resilience, financial constraints, and sustainable business practices among micro and small women entrepreneurs in the West Bank, Palestine. Drawing on Social Cognitive Theory and Conservation of Resources Theory, a moderated mediation model is proposed and explored in which entrepreneurial resilience mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and sustainable business practices, while financial constraints moderate this indirect pathway. Survey data were collected from 282 micro and small women entrepreneurs through a purposive stratified sample facilitated by microfinance institution and NGO networks, and the model was assessed using partial least squares structural equation modeling via SmartPLS 4. The findings indicate that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is positively associated with sustainable business practices both directly and indirectly through entrepreneurial resilience. Financial constraints significantly weaken the resilience-to-practices pathway, and the moderated mediation analysis reveals that the indirect association diminishes as financial constraints intensify. These findings contribute to sustainable entrepreneurship theory by identifying the sequential psychological pathway through which self-efficacy translates into responsible business conduct and by establishing material resource scarcity as a boundary condition of that pathway in fragile economy contexts. Full article

The role of externalities generated by enterprise digital transformation in advancing SDGs 8 and 9 has been largely overlooked in existing research. Taking Lighthouse Factory certification (LFC) as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper uses China’s county-level panel data from 2016 to 2023 and adopts the DID model to investigate the impact of leading enterprises’ digital transformation on regional digital entrepreneurship (RDE). The findings show that LFC promotes RDE by facilitating digital technology transfer, deepening digital technology cooperation, accelerating digital knowledge accumulation, and enhancing local digital industrial competitiveness. Moreover, this effect is more pronounced in regions with stricter environmental regulations and a stronger green transformation climate, yet is less constrained by local digital infrastructure. Interestingly, LFC exerts positive spillover effects on surrounding cities within 50–150 km and those beyond 250 km, whereas it exerts a significant siphon effect on cities within 50 km. Furthermore, LFC generates network spillovers among economically connected cities through regional digital technology transfer and cooperation networks. This paper provides empirical evidence for leveraging the demonstration effect of leading enterprises to promote the coordinated implementation of SDG 8, SDG 9, SDG 10, SDG 12 and SDG 13. Full article

This research investigates how green entrepreneurship, green innovation, and domestic credit to the private sector, contribute to environmental sustainability in Turkey from 1990 to 2022. Environmental sustainability is proxied by ecological footprint. The methods used include Wavelet Quantile Regression (WQR) and Wavelet Quantile Correlation (WQC). This research also ascertained if interacting domestic credit and green entrepreneurship and domestic credit and green innovation could contribute to environmental sustainability using the Multivariate Wavelet Quantile Regression (MWQR) approach. The WQR and WQC outcomes confirm the following: (1) green entrepreneurship reduces ecological footprint across all quantiles and periods; (2) green innovation reduces ecological footprint in the short and medium term, while in the long term, it increases ecological footprint; (3) domestic credit increases ecological footprint across all quantiles and periods. The MWQR results confirm that domestic credit and green entrepreneurship interaction reduces ecological footprint, while domestic credit and green innovation interaction reduces ecological footprint in the short term. Policies are recommended for implementation. Full article

The aim of this study is to analyse the factors associated with sustainable entrepreneurship in Spain from a systemic perspective, highlighting the interaction between economic, cognitive, occupational and axiological factors that shape innovation and sustainability in digital environments. Using microdata from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Spain 2021, a Probit model is estimated to identify which variables are associated with TEA environmental consideration (TEA-EC), defined as the probability that early-stage entrepreneurs report considering environmental implications when making decisions about the future of their business. The results show that age, certain occupations (particularly part-time work, unemployment and self-employment), self-perceived entrepreneurial skills and values associated with social impact are the main factors associated with environmentally oriented entrepreneurship. Conversely, education, income, innovation, internationalisation and technological intensity are not significant, while gender is statistically associated with TEA environmental consideration (TEA-EC) in a context-dependent manner, particularly through its interactions with sectoral affiliation and social-impact orientation. Significant sectoral differences are also observed. The variables most strongly associated with TEA-EC are concern with social impact and the prioritisation of socio-environmental outcomes over profitability, each of which is associated with a higher likelihood of environmentally oriented decision-making among early-stage entrepreneurs by more than 23 percentage points. The study concludes that sustainable entrepreneurship in Spain is primarily associated with internal capabilities and pro-environmental values, rather than with structural incentives, offering key implications for the design of policies aimed at sustainable entrepreneurial systems. Full article