Search Results (393)

The Artificial Intelligence Pilot Zone Policy is an important strategic initiative for building artificial intelligence (AI) innovation hubs. It provides new opportunities to enhance manufacturing firm resilience and promote the sustainable development of the manufacturing sector. The creation of the National New-Generation Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Development Pilot Zones (AI Pilot Zones) is viewed in this study as a quasi-natural experiment. Using data from Chinese A-share-listed manufacturing firms from 2015 to 2023, we employ a staggered DID model to evaluate the impact of the policy on manufacturing firm resilience. We find that the AI Pilot Zone policy increases manufacturing firm resilience by an average of 0.0282 units. The analysis of potential mechanisms shows that the policy significantly promotes digital talent agglomeration, stimulates urban innovation vitality, and improves firm-level supply chain efficiency. These findings are consistent with the theoretical expectations and provide supportive evidence that these factors may constitute potential mechanisms associated with the policy’s effect on manufacturing firm resilience. The heterogeneity analysis reveals a pronounced “weakness-compensating” effect. At the regional level, the resilience-enhancing effect is stronger for manufacturing firms located in areas with relatively weak digital infrastructure. At the industry level, the effect is more pronounced among firms in low-technology manufacturing industries. At the firm level, the effect is stronger for firms with lower levels of human capital, weaker innovation capacity, and lagging digital transformation. Overall, this study provides micro-level evidence on the resilience effects of the AI Pilot Zone policy and offers policy implications for integrating AI more effectively with the real economy. Full article

This paper examines how innovation heterogeneity is associated with employment structure among firms in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). While innovation is often promoted as a pathway to job creation, its employment implications remain contested, particularly in contexts marked by resource constraints, weak infrastructure and uneven skills supply. Using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey and the Innovation Follow-up Survey, the study investigates five types of innovation (product, process, organisational, incremental and radical) across five employment outcomes, including total, permanent, temporary, skilled and unskilled employment. Kernel propensity-score matching is used to reduce observable selection bias, with nearest-neighbour matching applied as a robustness check. The findings show that innovation is not uniformly related to employment. While product innovation is mainly linked to permanent and total employment, process innovation is associated with broader employment outcomes. Organisational innovation is more strongly connected to structured, skill-oriented employment than to unskilled employment. Incremental innovation shows the most inclusive employment pattern, whereas radical innovation is largely skill-selective and does not translate into broad-based employment gains. These empirical findings suggest that employment-oriented innovation policy in Sub-Saharan Africa should support adaptive innovation, while complementing advanced innovation with skills development. Full article

How does consumer engagement shape a firm’s technology adoption strategy? Based on the knowledge-based perspective, this paper explores the impact mechanism of consumer engagement on corporate technology for good using survey data from medium–high R&D intensity manufacturing firms within China’s industrial clusters. The research sample covers five industries with medium-to-high R&D intensity, categorized according to the OECD classification. The findings suggest that consumer engagement positively affects knowledge co-creation and corporate technology for good, and knowledge co-creation plays a mediating role in the relationship between consumer engagement and corporate technology for good. Further analysis reveals that knowledge absorption ability positively moderates the relationship between consumer engagement and knowledge co-creation, and the mediating effect of knowledge co-creation on the relationship between consumer engagement and corporate technology for good is positively moderated by knowledge absorption ability. The study expands the research on the driving factors of corporate technology for good from the stakeholder theory perspective, providing insights for firms to facilitate consumer value co-creation. Full article

This study proposes a conceptual model of smart innovation to examine internationalization processes in traditional, territorially embedded industries, with a focal empirical focus on Sogrape, Portugal’s leading wine company, situated within the Vinho Verde wine sector. While digital transformation is increasingly recognized as a driver of competitiveness, its role in shaping internationalization strategies within regional agri-food systems remains insufficiently theorized. To address this gap, the study adopts a modified Delphi-based qualitative approach involving a panel of experts composed mainly of Sogrape managers and complemented by independent producers from the Vinho Verde wine sector. Through two iterative rounds of structured expert inquiry, the research identifies key mechanisms linking digital transformation, organizational capabilities, territorial identity, and international market expansion. The findings are synthesized into an integrative conceptual model that articulates how smart innovation, understood as the strategic alignment of digital capabilities, organizational processes, and territorial assets, may support internationalization processes in territorially embedded settings. The model emphasizes the role of digital platforms, data-driven decision-making, and narrative-driven place positioning in translating territorial identity into competitive value in global markets. Importantly, the study does not claim to provide representative evidence of the Vinho Verde wine sector as a whole. Rather, it develops a focal-case-based analytical architecture, grounded primarily in Sogrape’s organizational context and qualified by complementary insights from independent producers. The study contributes to the literature by bridging digital transformation, internationalization, and territorial value creation within a unified conceptual framework. From a managerial perspective, it offers analytically grounded insights that may inform strategic reflection in wine firms and other territorially embedded agri-food sectors, subject to contextual adaptation and further empirical validation. Full article

Despite substantial AI technology investment, many firms fail to translate isolated AI applications into integrated capabilities that deliver strategic returns and drive business model changes. Grounded in service-dominant logic (SDL), this study proposes and empirically tests a theoretical framework that positions AI capability (AIC) as a key antecedent in the nomological network of business model innovation (BMI). Drawing on a three-wave, two-week-interval longitudinal survey of 193 Chinese digital-intensive firms across IT, technical services, and digital leasing industries, and employing PLS-SEM, we examine associations among focal constructs, specifically, the mediating role of customer responsiveness (CR) and the moderating effect of digital organizational culture (DOC). This design mitigates common method bias and establishes temporal causal ordering. Empirical results indicate that AIC positively relates to BMI both directly and indirectly through CR, and that DOC significantly enhances the indirect effect of AIC on BMI via CR, particularly under high levels of AI-enabled sensing and interpretation. However, causal inference is limited by the cross-sectional nature of the data and self-reported measures. This study makes three key theoretical contributions. First, we identify CR as a market-oriented mechanism linking AIC to BMI, shifting focus from prior internal efficiency-focused mechanisms to customer-centric value co-creation. Second, we extend SDL to the AI context by clarifying how DOC shapes the strategic transformation of ambiguous probabilistic AI outputs into market-oriented actions. Third, we introduce DOC as an internal boundary condition for AIC, complementing prior research on external environmental moderators. These findings provide actionable guidance for managers seeking to unlock the strategic value of AI investments. Findings reflect statistical associations rather than confirmed causal effects, and results are based on perceptual survey data from Chinese digital firms. Full article

This study examines whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance enhances firm value in China’s A-share market, how this relationship operates, and under what conditions it becomes stronger. Drawing on stakeholder theory, the natural resource-based view, and the dynamic capabilities perspective, this study develops a moderated mediation framework in which green innovation mediates the ESG–firm value relationship and digital transformation strengthen the ESG–green innovation link. Using panel data for 4423 Chinese A-share listed firms comprising 27,254 firm-year observations from 2009 to 2023, the hypotheses are tested using two-way fixed-effects models, mediation and moderated mediation analyses, robustness tests, and instrumental-variable estimation. The results show that overall ESG performance is positively associated with firm value, although its dimensions exhibit heterogeneous effects: environmental performance is negatively associated with firm value, whereas social and governance performance show positive associations. Green innovation partially mediates the ESG–firm value relationship, indicating that ESG creates greater economic value when sustainability commitments are translated into substantive green innovation. Digital transformation further strengthens the indirect effect of ESG performance on firm value through green innovation. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that the value relevance of ESG varies across firm size, ownership type, and industry pollution intensity. The findings suggest that ESG does not create firm value automatically; rather, its economic value depends on firms’ ability to transform sustainability commitments into innovation, with digital transformation enhancing this process. By identifying both the mechanism and the boundary condition of ESG value creation, this study provides new evidence on how and under what conditions ESG contributes to firm value in an emerging market. Full article

The digital transformation of “Specialized, Refined, Distinctive, and Innovative” (SRDI) firms is a vital indicator of high-quality development within the digital economy and has attracted considerable attention. This study empirically examines the effect of digital transformation on enterprise value, employing big data text recognition techniques on panel data from Chinese A-share-listed SRDI firms from 2009 to 2023 to measure the intensity of corporate digital transformation. The empirical results reveal a significantly positive correlation between digital transformation and firm value for SRDI firms, a conclusion that remains robust after endogeneity and sensitivity analyses. Mechanism tests further indicate that digital transformation is significantly and positively associated with four dimensions of technological innovation, all of which are closely linked to firm value: innovation input, innovation density, innovation capability, and innovation performance. Additionally, we recognize supply chain concentration, the extent of informatization, and government subsidies as critical moderators that enhance the association between digital transformation and firm value. This study offers detailed empirical evidence about the transformation and innovation behaviors of SRDI firms, clarifying the underlying mechanisms and contingent elements that influence value creation in the digital age. Full article

Regional digital–real integration (RDRI) refers to the deep integration of digital technologies into the real economy, through which digital technologies reshape industrial production, organizational processes, and value creation. Amid global industrial restructuring and increasing economic uncertainty, RDRI has become a key driver of high-quality economic development in China. Using A-share listed manufacturing firms, this study constructs a multidimensional index of enterprise resilience (ER) covering resistance, recovery, development, and innovation. It then applies the entropy weight method and the coupling coordination model to examine the impact of RDRI at the city level on ER. The results show that RDRI significantly improves ER, and the conclusion remains robust after endogeneity checks and robustness tests. Moreover, the results show that the positive effects of RDRI are stronger for firms in eastern China, capital-intensive firms, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), and high-tech firms. RDRI also enhances ER by optimizing resource allocation, improving firm productivity, and easing financing constraints. The paper provides theoretical insight and empirical evidence for deepening RDRI and strengthening ER. Full article

This study investigates the impact of environmental factors, financial conditions, and trade-related policy on Thailand’s textile and clothing exports under the ASEAN–China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) and the WTO’s Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC), focusing on export performance and trade creation between 1990 and 2024, using strong panel data across 31 countries from 11 ASEAN–China member countries and 20 non-member countries. This study has been guided by Porter’s competitive advantage theory and the gravity trade framework. The analysis was conducted using STATA 18 to analyze the fixed-effects regression alongside a robust Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation. The results indicate that (1) improvements in environmental, trade, and financial conditions are associated with higher export performance, (2) the results do not support trade creation under ACFTA, with the estimated ACFTA coefficient being negatively associated with export volume, and (3) the post-ATC effect is not consistently supported across model specifications and is not statistically significant in the combined specification. The findings suggest that export performance is jointly influenced by these dimensions rather than by trade liberalization and the post-ATC agreement alone. We recommend that policymakers support firms in managing the transition costs associated with green production, strengthen international trade cooperation, and maintain macroeconomic stability to enhance the long-term export performance of Thailand’s textile and clothing industry. These findings provide evidence that environmental sustainability and macro-financial conditions remain important determinants of export performance under changing global trade conditions. Future research may incorporate additional variables, broader datasets, and alternative econometric approaches to further validate the robustness of the findings. Full article

A This study examines the interplay between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, and financial performance within Saudi Arabia’s financial sector. It investigates whether AI adoption moderates the ESG–performance relationship, reflecting the sector’s ongoing digital transformation under Vision 2030. Drawing on 224 firm-year observations across banks, diversified financials, real estate investment trusts (REITs), and insurance companies, the study employs content analysis of annual reports to identify AI implementation. Panel regression models are used to test the effects of ESG practices on both accounting-based (ROE) and market-based (Tobin’s Q) performance measures, while examining AI’s moderating role. The results reveal that ESG practices significantly enhance accounting-based performance, particularly return on equity, while board size exerts a positive and board independence a negative influence. However, ESG does not significantly affect market-based valuation (Tobin’s Q). Notably, AI adoption negatively moderates the ESG–financial performance link, suggesting short-term challenges in integrating digital transformation with sustainability strategies. This study contributes to literature in three key ways. First, it provides new evidence from financial institutions in a developing economy—Saudi Arabia—where ESG and AI integration remains underexplored. Second, unlike previous research that proxies AI adoption through R&D expenditure, this study captures actual deployment of AI tools in operational activities. Third, it extends the ESG–performance debate by introducing AI adoption as a novel moderating factor. The findings offer actionable insights for managers and policymakers in emerging markets, underscoring the importance of developing organizational capabilities that harmonize AI-driven innovation with ESG principles to foster sustainable long-term value creation. Full article

This study examines the relationship between financial flexibility and firm performance, and the moderating role of corporate-governance mechanisms, using a large panel of Chinese A-share non-financial listed companies over 2017–2024. Financial flexibility reflects a firm’s capacity to access and deploy financial resources under uncertainty and is increasingly viewed as central to corporate resilience and value creation. Employing panel regressions with firm and year fixed effects, this study finds that financial flexibility is positively and significantly associated with Tobin’s Q and return on assets as measures of firm performance. Further analysis shows that this relationship is contingent on governance structures: ownership concentration and CEO duality weaken the positive association, while board independence is associated with a marginally significant strengthening of it. Marginal-effect analyses indicate that governance mechanisms systematically condition the value of financial flexibility. A dynamic system-GMM specification qualifies these findings: once persistence and reverse causality are modeled, the unconditional flexibility coefficient turns negative, underscoring that the fixed-effects estimates should be read as associations whose sign and magnitude depend on governance and on how endogeneity is treated. These findings contribute to the literature by integrating financial flexibility and corporate governance in a single analytical framework, highlighting governance as a key boundary condition for the effective use of financial slack. The results carry implications for managers, investors, and policymakers, emphasizing balanced ownership structures, leadership separation, and independent boards in enhancing the performance benefits of financial flexibility in emerging markets. Full article

Digital and intelligent transformation reshapes manufacturing ecosystems, and the synergy between technological innovation and sustainable business upgrading drives high-quality industrial development. Based on knowledge interaction theory, this paper adopts a longitudinal single-case design and the Gioia analytical framework to study BYD covering the period 2003–2025. With data triangulation realized through internal corporate archives, public industrial materials and five semi-structured interviews, this paper explores the staged evolution and value allocation mechanism of sustainable business model innovation driven by firms’ proprietary core technologies. Three sequential phases of technological value circulation are summarized: value creation enabled by single-point core technologies, value addition realized through generic product technologies, and cross-industry value sharing facilitated by industrial technology openness. The traction, utilization and recombination of knowledge generate synergistic advantages of core technologies across the innovation chain, industrial chain and value chain, reconstructing a new value operation logic centered on value creation, value addition and cross-boundary value sharing. The extant literature decouples technological evolution and business model innovation, resulting in prominent theoretical gaps. This study improves relevant theoretical explanations and proposes operable industrial strategies, offering references for manufacturing enterprises to achieve long-term sustainable development relying on core technological capabilities. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but its role in sustainable business transformation remains unclear, especially in emerging economies where adoption is often fragmented and experimental. This study examines how AI use is associated with Sustainable Value Creation through Entrepreneurial Reconfiguration Capability (ERC) and Business Model Innovation (BMI). ERC refers to a firm’s capability to interpret AI-enabled opportunities, recombine existing resources, govern experimentation with new value configurations, and decide which AI-related initiatives should be scaled. Using survey data from 385 SMEs in four Ecuadorian sectors and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the study tests a sequential model linking AI use, ERC, BMI, and Sustainable Value Creation. The findings show positive associations between AI use and ERC, ERC and BMI, and BMI and Sustainable Value Creation. The results suggest that AI adoption alone is unlikely to be associated with sustainable value unless SMEs develop entrepreneurial capabilities that connect AI use with business model innovation. The study contributes by shifting the focus from AI adoption to AI-enabled entrepreneurial transformation in SMEs from an emerging-economy context. Future research should examine moderating factors related to digital maturity, institutional support, environmental dynamism, firm size, and sectoral conditions. Full article

This study explores the nonlinear impact of digital-intelligent transformation on enterprise value co-creation. It examines the mediating role of organizational agility and investigates the influence of network embeddedness on the effectiveness of digital-intelligent transformation. This article draws on a sample of 418 manufacturing enterprises and employs a questionnaire survey and hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses. It divides digital-intelligent transformation into two dimensions: digital-intelligent technology level and digital-intelligent application scope. Organizational agility is used as the mediating variable, and network embeddedness is used as the moderating variable. This study reveals an inverted-U relationship between digital-intelligent transformation and value co-creation. The impact of digital-intelligent technology level and digital-intelligent application scope on value co-creation is mediated through organizational agility. Network embeddedness is associated with a wider range over which digital-intelligent transformation relates positively to value co-creation before returns diminish. The findings indicate that firms reporting excessive digital-intelligent transformation tend to report lower value co-creation. This research enriches the literature on digital-intelligent transformation. It points out that digital-intelligent transformation has a nonlinear impact on value co-creation. The study uses organizational agility as the mediating mechanism and network embeddedness as the boundary condition. These findings provide a reference for enterprises seeking to implement digital-intelligent transformation in a balanced and sustainable way. Full article

As a core support for ecosystem service functions, biodiversity profoundly affects corporate resource acquisition and long-term value creation. Based on data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2023, this paper constructs a biodiversity attention dictionary using textual analysis and measures corporate biodiversity attention by the number of sentences containing biodiversity-related terms in annual reports. It empirically examines the impact of corporate biodiversity attention on sustainable development performance and its underlying mechanisms. This study demonstrates that corporate biodiversity attention significantly enhances sustainable development performance. Mechanism analysis reveals that corporate biodiversity attention primarily promotes sustainable development performance through three pathways: alleviating financing constraints, fostering green technology innovation, and accelerating digital transformation. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that this positive effect is more pronounced in heavily polluting industries, non-high-tech enterprises, regulated industries, and firms with a high market share. Economic consequence analysis shows that improvements in corporate sustainable development performance significantly enhance corporate resilience, enabling stable operations and rapid recovery under external shocks. Therefore, firms should strengthen biodiversity disclosure, integrate biodiversity into strategic decision-making frameworks, and promote the coordinated advancement of green technology innovation and digital transformation. Regulatory authorities should accelerate the development of unified disclosure standards and implement differentiated policy guidance to facilitate the high-quality development of enterprises in the process of green transition. Full article