Search Results (343)

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

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

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

Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital platforms are increasingly influencing how universities manage experiential learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovation-oriented educational activities. Challenge-based capstone and graduation projects play an important role in this context because they connect technical learning with teamwork, stakeholder engagement, project management, and applied innovation. However, many universities still rely on fragmented and highly manual coordination processes, which can limit scalability, transparency, and effective alignment between project requirements and participant capabilities. This study presents Smart Innovation Hub, an AI-enabled information system developed to support challenge-based innovation and capstone-project coordination in higher education. The platform brings together challenge intake, participant profiling, AI-supported recommendations, mentor coordination, workflow governance, and human review within a shared educational innovation environment. The system operationalizes an Innovation Bridge ecosystem model that connects students, faculty mentors, research centers, and external partners through a data-supported coordination framework. A Design Science Research (DSR) methodology guided the development and pilot evaluation of the platform within a public university environment. The pilot evaluation relied on several evidence sources, including platform logs, coordinator records, stakeholder surveys, milestone documentation, and partner feedback collected during implementation activities. Early pilot observations suggested an approximate 60% reduction in average team-formation cycle time, together with positive stakeholder perceptions regarding workflow usability and recommendation quality. These findings should be interpreted as preliminary implementation indicators within a single-institution pilot environment. The study contributes an AI-enabled educational innovation ecosystem architecture, a hybrid semantic-structured recommendation framework for challenge-based coordination, and a structured workflow model that integrates explainability and human oversight into educational innovation management. The findings further suggest that AI-enabled information systems may improve the transparency and coordination of challenge-based innovation workflows while preserving institutional governance and human decision-making. Full article

Learning agility is considered a key competence for adapting to rapidly changing educational and technological environments. Although entrepreneurial tendencies have been associated with adaptive learning outcomes, the psychological mechanisms underlying this relationship remain insufficiently understood. This study examined whether self-regulation and artificial intelligence (AI) awareness sequentially mediate the relationship between individual entrepreneurial tendencies and learning agility among high school students. The study involved 564 high school students (55% girls, 45% boys; aged 14–19 years, M = 17.02, SD = 1.28) from two public schools in Türkiye. Participants completed validated measures of entrepreneurial tendencies, self-regulation, AI awareness, and learning agility. The hypothesized serial mediation model was tested using PROCESS Macro Model 6. Entrepreneurial tendencies were positively associated with learning agility both directly and indirectly. Self-regulation emerged as a significant independent mediator, and a significant sequential mediation pathway was identified through self-regulation and AI awareness. The findings suggest that entrepreneurial tendencies are associated with higher levels of self-regulation and AI awareness, which are in turn associated with learning agility. The results highlight the importance of self-regulation and AI awareness as factors associated with the relationship between entrepreneurial tendencies and learning agility. Educational practices that foster entrepreneurship, self-regulation, and AI awareness may support students’ adaptability and readiness for rapidly evolving digital learning environments. Full article

The tension between corporate growth and sustainability is a common governance dilemma faced by transitional economies in their green development. This study incorporates corporate ESG performance and its potential influencing factors into the analysis framework and constructs a theoretical model to capture the relationship between China’s National Demonstration Base policy for Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MEI) and corporate ESG performance, based on the framework that integrates resource enablement, reputation accumulation and information governance. Leveraging the quasi-natural experiment provided by China’s National Demonstration Program for Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MEI), this study systematically evaluates the impact of China’s demonstration policy on corporate ESG performance, drawing on data from A-share listed companies spanning 2010 to 2024. The study finds that the demonstration policy significantly improves enterprise ESG performance, which remains robust after a series of robustness tests. The mechanism test reveals that the policy promotes firms’ green technology innovation by lowering innovation costs, facilitates the accumulation of social reputational capital by incentivizing charitable donations, and compels improvements in information disclosure quality by strengthening market-oriented oversight. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the policy effects are more prominent among heavy polluting industries, large-scale enterprises and firms at the mature stage. Moreover, industry competition intensity and digital transformation have a positive moderating effect on the policy effects. This paper enriches the theoretical dialogue between institutional innovation policy and enterprise sustainable development, providing empirical evidence for the development of a collaborative ESG governance mechanism characterized by an active government and an efficient market. Full article

Despite the growing literature on entrepreneurial ecosystems and Industry 4.0, few studies systematically link ecosystemic dynamics to structural transformation in the Global South; even fewer compare BRICS Plus economies with G7 benchmarks using a unified econometric framework. This study addresses that gap. Its objective is to assess how the configuration of such ecosystems shapes the trajectory of sustainable industrialization, comparing the BRICS Plus group with the G7 economies over 2002–2021, a period determined by the most recent harmonized data available across all panel countries from the World Bank, UNIDO and OECD. Methodologically the study employs a balanced panel applying panel unit root and cointegration tests, Vector Error Correction Models, Generalized Method of Moments estimation and Granger causality analysis applied to manufacturing value added (MVA), GDP excluding manufacturing (GDPNOTMVA), industrial employment and productivity indices. The results indicate a long-run interaction between manufacturing and non-manufacturing output in BRICS Plus economies that is consistent with—though not a direct measurement of—entrepreneurial ecosystem dynamics, whereas G7 economies show no cointegration and only a weak unidirectional Granger causality from non-manufacturing to manufacturing (significant at the 10% level), consistent with post-industrial ecosystemic autonomy driven by AI and knowledge-intensive services. The contribution of this work is threefold: (i) theoretically, it operationalizes entrepreneurial ecosystems as macro-structural outcomes within a unified econometric framework; (ii) empirically, it identifies a systematic divergence between BRICS Plus and G7 ecosystemic regimes; and (iii) for policy, it shows that industrial upgrading in emerging economies depends on the coherent integration of industrial policy, digital infrastructure, and entrepreneurship, rather than on manufacturing scale alone. Full article

The accelerating energy transition and digital transformation have increased the importance of understanding the drivers of energy-related entrepreneurship and investment across countries. This study aims to investigate how digitalisation and entrepreneurial ecosystem development influence the number and funding of energy-related start-ups, with particular attention to stage-specific effects, lagged dynamics, and non-linear relationships in a cross-country panel setting. The analysis is based on panel data from the European Commission (DESI), the International Energy Agency, and StartupBlink, covering 25 countries (2017–2022) and a global sample (2019–2023), and is estimated using Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood models with fixed effects, lagged variables, and non-linear specifications in R. The findings show that digitalisation has a limited, selective relationship with energy-related entrepreneurship, whereas entrepreneurial ecosystem development plays a more consistent role. Digital connectivity is associated mainly with improved early-stage funding conditions, whereas broader digitalisation indicators do not systematically explain start-up formation. Stronger entrepreneurial ecosystems are linked to both higher green start-up activity and a shift in investment from early-stage ventures to more mature digital energy firms. The non-linear results further suggest diminishing returns to ecosystem development in later-stage green funding, indicating potential saturation effects in highly developed ecosystems. These findings suggest that policies aimed at accelerating sustainable energy entrepreneurship should go beyond general digitalisation strategies and focus more directly on strengthening inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems, improving access to finance across the start-up lifecycle, and preventing excessive investment concentration in already mature ventures. Full article

In the context of revitalizing rural development, farmer entrepreneurship has emerged as a significant driver of rural economic growth. However, existing research has not sufficiently examined the specific mechanisms or heterogeneous effects through which digital skills influence farm household entrepreneurial behavior. This gap is the focus of the present study. Utilizing micro-level survey data collected from 936 farm households across Shandong, Shaanxi, and Henan provinces in 2021, we construct a digital skills index using factor analysis. We then employ a Probit model and an Interaction term model to examine the impact of digital skills on entrepreneurial behavior among Chinese rural households and its underlying mechanisms. Additionally, we explore heterogeneity across different household types. The results show that digital skills are positively associated with entrepreneurial decision-making. Further analysis provides suggestive evidence that this relationship may operate through three channels: shaping risk preferences, expanding relational networks, and improving access to credit. Heterogeneity tests reveal that the promoting effect of digital skills is stronger among disadvantaged households, households with a head younger than 45, and those engaged in opportunity-driven or online entrepreneurship. Theoretically, this study contributes by empirically validating a multi-pathway mechanism framework and identifying relevant boundary conditions. Practically, it offers targeted insights for policymakers to design skill-based interventions and foster inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems in rural areas. Full article

Tourism education is central to human capital development under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, yet the extent to which curricula align with emerging industry requirements remains underexplored, particularly in developing economy contexts. This qualitative study examines student and faculty perspectives on curriculum alignment at the University of Ha’il’s Tourism and Antiquities Department. Twenty participants were purposively recruited and interviewed; data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings reveal four interconnected challenges: a persistent theory–practice gap sustained by lecture-based pedagogies, insufficient integration of digital and smart tourism technologies, weak industry–academia partnerships, and structural barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration. In response, this study proposes an interdisciplinary integration model structured around five domains: digital technology, sustainability and environment, business and entrepreneurship, cultural and creative industries, and social sciences and community engagement. The model provides a progressive framework for cross-departmental collaboration and represents the study’s primary practical contribution. Theoretically, the study demonstrates that curriculum misalignment operates through mutually reinforcing institutional constraints rather than discrete correctable deficits. Recommendations address curriculum reform, technology investment, structured partnership development, and administrative conditions enabling interdisciplinary implementation. Full article

Opera Out of Opera 2 (OOO2) is a Creative Europe cooperation project that experiments with digital, participatory strategies to reconnect opera with younger audiences and to reshape professional capacity for conservatory students. Rather than treating opera as a fixed repertoire to be transmitted, the project frames it as a site of co-creation, where youth and emerging professionals share agency in how the art form is presented, mediated and discussed. This article has two related aims. First, it examines how OOO2’s digital-first Audience Engagement Strategy (AES) may contribute to audience development among 18–25-year-olds, focusing on reach, participation patterns and perceived accessibility. Second, it investigates how participation in the project appears to affect conservatory students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and their understanding of their potential social role as musicians. Methodologically, the study combines a participatory action research (PAR) framework with an embedded single-case design. Quantitative data include pre- and post-intervention questionnaires with 132 higher music education students. An audience survey completed by 1256 spectators, complemented by social media and web analytics, is also embedded. Qualitative material derives from semi-structured interviews (n = 30), focus groups with project stakeholders and direct observation of workshops, rehearsals and performances. Results indicate a marked digital reach among younger audience and suggest that shorter formats, informal settings and second-screen mediation can lower perceived barriers to opera attendance for first-time or occasional spectators. Among students, mean scores for entrepreneurial self-efficacy increased from 3.2 (SD = 0.8) to 4.1 (SD = 0.7), corresponding to a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.20, p < 0.01), a pattern broadly consistent with research on self-efficacy and capacity creation in music and arts-based entrepreneurship education. The discussion connects these findings with a bibliometric mapping of audience development in opera, conducted on 147 Scopus-indexed documents, and argues that OOO2 occupies a still under-theorized intersection between youth-centred cultural participation and entrepreneurial capacity-building in higher music education. While the single-case design and the use of self-constructed survey items limit generalizability, the project may offer a useful reference point for institutions seeking to rethink opera’s approach as a digitally mediated, socially engaged and educationally meaningful practice. Full article

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has been studied mainly as a financial and technological system, while the role of digital entrepreneurial capability in shaping sustainable user traction remains underexplored. This study repositions DeFi as a digitally mediated entrepreneurial ecosystem and examines whether retention-oriented user behavior is associated with three capability dimensions—entrepreneurial visibility, network embeddedness, and organic acquisition efficiency—together with ecosystem-finance conditions such as total value locked and decentralized-exchange activity. Using an exploratory, correlational design with monthly aggregated data from five incumbent DeFi platforms during the post-FTX recovery period (October 2022–September 2023), the analysis combines canonical correlation analysis, partial least squares regression, and ridge regression. Results indicate a significant multivariate association between ecosystem-finance conditions and the entrepreneurial-capability block, and show that returning-visitor behavior is more coherently linked to the predictor set than broad visitor inflow. Entrepreneurial Visibility Capital and Network Embeddedness emerge as the most stable positive correlates of user retention, while Organic Acquisition Efficiency shows a directionally mixed pattern. Because the sample is small, the findings are interpreted as preliminary evidence rather than confirmatory claims. Overall, the study offers an integrative framework that connects DeFi, digital entrepreneurship, and sustainability-oriented business-model research, and identifies the joint configuration of digital capability and financial conditions as a promising direction for future, larger-scale investigation. Full article

With the continuous development of rural digitalization, digital literacy has gradually become an important factor affecting farmers’ entrepreneurial behavior. Based on microdata from the China Family Tracking Survey (CFPS) from 2014 to 2022, this paper systematically evaluates the influence and mechanisms of digital literacy on farmers’ entrepreneurial behavior. This paper constructs a comprehensive evaluation system of digital literacy in three dimensions: digital equipment operation literacy, digital technology application literacy, and digital knowledge learning literacy. The entropy weight method is used to determine the index weight, and kernel density estimation and the Moran index method are used to analyze the temporal evolution and spatial agglomeration characteristics of digital literacy. The results show the following: (1) From 2014 to 2022, the overall level of farmers’ digital literacy in China improved significantly, but regional differences remained evident. (2) Digital literacy significantly promotes farmers’ entrepreneurial behavior, both directly and indirectly by alleviating financing constraints and enhancing social capital, while policy accessibility further strengthens this positive relationship. (3) The promotion effect of digital literacy is more significant among young people and among farmers with higher levels of education and better health. The research conclusions enrich the theoretical foundations of the digital economy and rural entrepreneurship, and provide a policy reference for promoting high-quality rural development and enhancing farmers’ entrepreneurial capacity. This study contributes to the literature by conceptualizing digital literacy as a multidimensional form of human capital and empirically demonstrating its effects on rural entrepreneurial behavior and the mechanisms underlying these effects. The findings enrich the theoretical understanding of the digital economy and rural entrepreneurship, and provide policy implications for promoting high-quality rural development and strengthening farmers’ entrepreneurial capacity. Full article

In the context of the digital economy as a driver of economic transformation, digital enterprises have become pivotal actors in value creation and innovation. A conducive business environment is essential for enhancing productivity, competitiveness, and the long-term resilience of entrepreneurial ecosystems. However, the mechanisms through which this environment influences the entry of newborn digital enterprises, a core indicator of sustainable economic activity, remain inadequately explored. This paper develops a government-led business environment index based on three dimensions: the legal environment, the governmental affairs environment, and public services. Using panel data from 35 major Chinese cities spanning 2016 to 2020, we employ a negative binomial regression model to examine how both the overall business environment and its sub-dimensions affect the entry of newborn digital enterprises. The findings reveal that an overall improvement in the urban business environment significantly promotes the entry of newborn digital enterprises and that all three sub-dimensions, namely the legal environment, governmental affairs environment, and public services, collectively facilitate this process. The principal implication is that local governments should focus on the balanced optimization of all business environment elements. Such policies not only stimulate digital startup formation but also contribute to high-quality, resilient, and economically sustainable urban development. Full article

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies and information technology (IT) systems in entrepreneurship education has accelerated alongside the digital transformation of higher education. With a particular focus on gender-related disparities, this study examines how digital business modeling tools influence students’ entrepreneurial intentions. It conceptualizes digital tools along a continuum, ranging from non-AI solutions to AI-embedded and fully AI-driven systems. Data from 440 students taking part in entrepreneurial workshops using the AI-enabled digital tool KABADA served as the basis for empirical investigation. Changes in entrepreneurial intention and its key antecedents—attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control—are examined by comparing the pre-workshop and post-workshop groups using structural equation modeling. According to the findings, the KABADA workshop has a statistically significant positive indirect effect on entrepreneurial intention, which is mainly mediated by perceived behavioral control. Significant gender differences are revealed by multi-group analysis: for female students, the main factor influencing entrepreneurial intention is perceived behavioral control, while for male students, the main factor is attitude toward entrepreneurship. These results emphasize the significance of IT systems that integrate guided user engagement with AI-based analytics to improve entrepreneurial self-efficacy, especially among women. Full article