Search Results (125)

This article examines how research-and-development (R&D) expenditure—as a share of GDP—both in total and disaggregated by sector (business enterprise and government)—shapes key socioeconomic outcomes in the EU-27. Drawing on Eurostat panel data for 2013–2022, we estimate fixed- and random-effects models with sector-specific lags. Business R&D expenditure is associated with lower female and male unemployment and faster GDP growth. Government R&D expenditure, by contrast, widens the gender pay gap and dampens GDP per capita after two years, although it attracts foreign direct investment in the short and medium term. The diminishing impact of R&D over time underscores the need for policies that sustain innovation benefits. Full article

Current research has made significant progress in exploring the sustainability efforts made by domestic and foreign firms, respectively, but paid insufficient attention to the interaction of these firms in the form of sustainability practice spillovers. This paper aims to fill this gap by discussing the spillovers of ‘best practices’ of corporate environmental sustainability (CES) from multinational enterprises (MNEs) that have made increasing investment in green production in recent decades to local forms in host developing countries where environmental protection is relatively weak. In line with internalization theory, we contend that MNEs have to internalize CES ‘best practices’ in their affiliates across the globe, and such practices can spill over to local firms in host developing countries with poorer CES practices. The level of development of press freedom in the host developing country conditions the CES practice spillovers. This study tests hypotheses against firm-level data from a large-scale survey and finds robust evidence to support our argument. This study takes a quantitative approach to unveil the existence and boundary conditions of CES practice spillovers and suggests that policymakers need to facilitate the spillovers of such practices and that scholars need to further advance research in this area. Full article

Global value chain (GVC) restructuring has important implications for the transformation of corporate outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), a process that is closely linked to sustainable economic development. Based on panel data from 2007 to 2021, this paper comprehensively applies the fixed effects model, mediation effects analysis, heterogeneity test, and regression analysis to explore how global value chain restructuring promotes the sustainable transformation of corporate OFDI, and it examines the role mechanisms of factor endowment and market scale expansion in the process. The conclusions are as follows: (1) Global value chain restructuring can promote manufacturing enterprises’ OFDI transformation. (2) Global value chain restructuring promotes the transformation of manufacturing OFDI through two channels: factor endowments and market scale. (3) Against countries’ different backgrounds, there are significant differences in the impacts of global value chain restructuring on enterprises’ OFDI. The research results of this paper can provide important insights for relevant government departments and enterprises in formulating management policies. Full article

This study reviews the development of the U.S. maple syrup industry, assesses its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), and derives recommendations for the industry to attain a more sustainable development. While the industry faces the challenges of increasing yield and production volatility, a downward trend in producer prices since 2008, increasing competition from imports, and impacts of trade policies, etc., it needs innovative strategies to turn its weaknesses and threats into strengths and opportunities. Major recommendations, based on a comprehensive review of the industry’s development and trends and a SWOT analysis, include establishing a national or regional producer governance organization, similar to the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP) or the American Honey Producers Association, to advocate for maple syrup producers on issues like trade policies, quality standards and certification, environmental regulations, and to enhance maple syrup producers’ market power, increasing the investment and adoption of climate-resilient technologies, developing more value-added maple syrup products according to consumer preferences and demand, and strengthening the marketing and promotion efforts of industrial organizations, government agents and private enterprises through collaboration for the goal of increasing the demand for U.S. maple syrup in the domestic and foreign markets. Full article

Amid the global trend of green transformation, existing studies have explored the impact of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on economic performance and technological innovation. However, micro-level empirical analyses on how OFDI facilitates green technological innovation through capital and knowledge channels remain insufficient. Drawing on data from China’s A-share listed companies during 2007–2022, this study systematically investigates, for the first time, the pathways through which OFDI influences green innovation, and identifies the mediating mechanisms of financing constraints and R&D investment. Employing fixed effects and mediation effect models, the empirical results reveal that OFDI significantly promotes firms’ green technological innovation, with stronger effects observed among state-owned enterprises, among non-polluting firms, and in the context of invention patent applications. This study enriches the theoretical framework of green innovation and provides empirical evidence and actionable insights for corporate “going global” strategies and green transition policy making. Full article

Research on the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has predominantly examined its implications for climate governance and export trade yet overlooked how enterprises adapt their foreign investment strategies. Using panel data from Chinese listed companies between 2011 and 2022, this study employs the CBAM as a quasi-natural experiment and applies a difference-in-differences (DID) model for analysis. Our findings indicate that the CBAM has a significant positive impact on outward greenfield investments, as robustly validated through a series of rigorous robustness checks. Mechanism analysis reveals two operational channels: trade restructuring effect (reduced export shares) and innovation-driven demand effect (enhanced R&D intensity). Heterogeneity tests further indicate more substantial CBAM responsiveness among eastern coastal firms, non-state-owned enterprises, and those pursuing horizontal production-oriented expansions. This study contributes to the literature on CBAM’s effects and offers practical recommendations for enterprises to mitigate CBAM’s impact via greenfield investments. Full article

The demand for agriculture finance and investment for sustainable agriculture development has long been a concern for many years. However, the insufficient integration of the agricultural technology innovation chain and technology transfer impedes the enhancement of collaborative innovation capability in evolving total factor productivity. This paper utilizes Chinese agricultural companies’ investment in the Lancang-Mekong River region as an example to scrutinize key configuration factors fostering the integration of technical collaboration within agricultural industry chains. The results indicated that Chinese agricultural companies can be classified into two categories based on their approach to technical collaboration. The first category is strength-oriented, and companies in this category have the capability to transform technological investments, yielding relatively high returns. They also have optimistic expectations regarding favorable policies in the host country. This category accounts for about one-third of the companies studied. The second category is potential-oriented, in which firms possess the potential for technological investment transformation, with lower investment returns. They require effective contextual management and tax incentives from the host country to thrive. The impact of foreign direct investment decision-making diminishes, introducing new imperatives for the current host country’s market environment and the management of FDI enterprises in the host country. This study makes contributions to advance the exploration of technology’s impact on agricultural companies’ cross-border investment, stipulating new requirements for the transformative development of regional foreign direct investment, particularly for private enterprises. Full article

The core of high-quality development lies in achieving long-term sustainability. In the context of China’s high-quality economic development and high-standard opening-up of the service industry, it is of great theoretical value and practical significance to study how service enterprises can effectively absorb foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers to realize high-quality development and enhance sustainable value creation capability. Based on the panel data of A-share non-financial listed service enterprises in China, this study explores the impact of FDI on the high-quality development of service enterprises in China through various spillover channels, as well as the role of enterprise absorptive capacity in the relationship between FDI and high-quality development. The results show that horizontal and backward spillovers have a significant positive impact on the high-quality development of service enterprises, while forward spillovers have a significant negative impact. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the promotion effect of horizontal spillovers is more pronounced on enterprises in the eastern region, capital-intensive enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and producer service enterprises. The promotion effect of backward spillovers is particularly evident for enterprises in the central and western regions, capital-intensive enterprises, SMEs, non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs), and producer service enterprises. The further threshold regression model finds that service enterprises with higher absorptive capacity benefit more through horizontal and vertical spillovers for their high-quality development. Full article

The Chinese government encourages enterprises participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to improve their ESG performance to better align the BRI with sustainable development. This paper reveals the heterogeneous treatment effect of the BRI on the ESG performance of enterprises using time-varying DID and DDD models, powerfully validating that the BRI promotes the ESG performance of participating enterprises. According to our mechanism analysis, the BRI promotes the ESG performance of enterprises involved in international infrastructure projects and the development of trade routes. However, it has no significant impact on enterprises involved in outward foreign direct investment, exploring international markets, and providing support services and others. According to our heterogeneity analysis, the BRI promotes the ESG performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) more than that of non-SOEs, the ESG performance of non-manufacturing enterprises more than that of manufacturing enterprises, and the ESG performance of enterprises on the Main Board more than that of enterprises on other boards. These findings can provide policymakers and enterprise managers with guidance on improving ESG performance and clarify the micro-level empirical evidence of the performance of the BRI in implementing sustainable development. Full article

Within globalization, the significance of urban innovation cooperation has become increasingly evident. However, urban innovation cooperation faces challenges due to various factors—social, economic, and spatial—making it difficult for traditional methods to uncover the intricate nonlinear relationships among them. Consequently, this research concentrates on cities within the Yangtze River Delta region, employing an explainable machine learning model that integrates eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), and Partial Dependence Plots (PDPs) to investigate the nonlinear and interactive effects of multidimensional factors impacting urban innovation cooperation. The findings indicate that XGBoost outperforms LR, SVR, RF, and GBDT in terms of accuracy and effectiveness. Key results are summarized as follows: (1) Urban innovation cooperation exhibits different phased characteristics. (2) There exist nonlinear and interactive effects between urban innovation cooperation and multidimensional factors, among them, the Scientific and Technological dimension contributes the most (30.59%) and has the most significant positive promoting effect in the later stage after surpassing a certain threshold. In the Social and Economic dimension (23.61%), the number of Internet Users (IU) contributes the most individually. The Physical Space dimension (20.46%) generally exhibits mutation points during the early stages of urban development, with overall relationships predominantly characterized by nonlinear positive trends. (3) Through the application of PDP, it is further determined that IU has a positive synergistic effect with per capita Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), public library collections per capita (LC), and city night light data (NPP), while exhibiting a negative antagonistic effect with Average Annual Wage of Staff (AAS) and number of Enterprises above Designated Size in Industry (EDS). (4) For cities at different developmental stages, tailored development proposals should be formulated based on single-factor contribution and multifactor interaction effects. These insights enhance our understanding of urban innovation cooperation and elucidate the nonlinear and interactive effects of multidimensional influencing factors. Full article

Construction, like any other economic activity, can contribute to national income by creating employment opportunities, and raising gross domestic product (GDP). Several researchers have studied the challenges of various aspects of the construction industry (CI), ranging from sustainability, the industrial revolution, small and medium enterprise, building information modelling, and intelligent construction, but this research examines the state of the CI in conflict-affected regions by evaluating the challenging factors impacting this sector of the economy. A total of 150 industry experts participated in this survey across three regions (Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East). In total, 35 challenging factors were identified and classified using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Using version 4 of Smart Partial Least Squares (PLS), structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to build the model, which produced seven constructs: economic, environment and education, government, industrial, sustainability, technology, training and support. 31 challenging factors were outlined under these constructs, with economic challenges such as high inflation, high-interest rates, and foreign direct investment (FDI) being the most critical of those observed. This study will be of great importance to the governments of nations in the formulation of policies for the CI. At the same time, stakeholders in the CI will collaborate in the advancement of the sector in the affected region. Full article

Despite the recognized importance of green total factor productivity (GTFP) in the literature, there remains a scarcity of studies examining the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on GTFP at the level of service enterprises, particularly regarding the role of DT in this relationship. To address this gap, we utilize data from listed service enterprises in China to examine the impact of FDI on enterprise GTFP and the role of digital transformation (DT) in this link. The results indicate that enhanced FDI significantly decreases GTFP. Moreover, the negative impact of FDI on GTFP is primarily attributable to the decline in green technological innovation. Additionally, enterprise DT alleviates the detrimental effect of FDI in services on enterprise GTFP. Furthermore, moderated mediation tests reveal that DT exerts a moderate mediating effect in the latter segment of the mediation pathway linking FDI to GTFP. These insights offer valuable guidance on harnessing FDI in services for higher enterprise GTFP, informing practical policy recommendations. Full article

Innovation ecosystems use R&D inputs to generate innovation outputs first and innovation impacts later. But some countries show a relatively low transmission, such as in the case of Kazakhstan, the largest economy in Central Asia. This article analyzes the transmission from R&D into innovation outputs and impacts through a framework for which different factors matter, such as the company size, education and skills, competition, exports, and foreign ownership. Transmission is conceptually understood in two steps: from R&D into innovation outputs, and from innovation output into innovation impacts. The main hypothesis is that the high endowments of these company factors should lead to the better transmission of results and improved performance in terms of outputs and impacts. We test this using new evidence from Kazakhstan and the ECA region (Europe and Central as defined by the World Bank) as benchmarking, and data are from the Global Innovation Index (descriptive section) and the World Bank Enterprise Surveys (analytical section). The econometrics are a Crépon–Duguet–Mairesse (CDM) model in three steps: factors for propensity to invest in R&D, then to innovate, and, finally, innovation impacts on productivity. Results confirm the positive roles of factors, such as exports and education, in positive transmissions and uneven or insignificant results on productivity impacts from characteristics, such as age, size, and foreign ownership. The specifics for Kazakhstan suggest a potential for business innovation growth in the country. The paper concludes by suggesting key policy measures to unlock the potential for business innovation at a country level. Full article

Digital transformation has become a crucial strategic decision for enterprises to strengthen international competitiveness and achieve sustainable development. This study aims to investigate the impact of digital transformation on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) performance and the conditions that influence this relationship using the ordinary least-squares regression estimation method and the data of Chinese A-share listed enterprises. The results show that digital transformation improves OFDI performance. The mechanism analysis verifies that digital transformation enhances OFDI performance by promoting corporate reputation and innovation. The moderating analysis demonstrates that the host country’s digital infrastructure negatively moderates the positive relationship between digital transformation and OFDI performance, while diplomatic relations between home and host countries play a positive moderating role. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that state-owned, labor-intensive, and technology-intensive enterprises and enterprises investing in non-Belt-and-Road countries benefit more from digital transformation to promote OFDI performance. This study extends the OFDI theory of emerging market enterprises in the context of digital transformation and provide practical implications for improving the OFDI performance of multinational enterprises. Full article

This study explores how Myanmar’s sustainable business environment influences entrepreneurs’ performance, focusing on the mediating role of knowledge spillover effects of foreign direct investment (KFDI). Data were gathered from 308 entrepreneurs across micro, small, medium, and large enterprises in Myanmar using online surveys via Google Forms and Microsoft Forms. The analysis employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with SPSS 29 and SmartPLS 4. The results reveal that (i) the economic environment exerts a substantial positive influence on entrepreneurs’ performance; (ii) access to credit and the social environment show no discernible impact on entrepreneurs’ performance; (iii) both economic and social environments positively influence KFDI; (iv) access to credit has no effect on KFDI; and (v) KFDI partially mediates the relationship between the economic environment and entrepreneurs’ performance while fully mediating the relationship between the social environment and entrepreneurs’ performance. However, KFDI does not mediate the effect of access to credit on entrepreneurs’ performance. These findings underscore the critical role of sustainable economic and social environments in enhancing entrepreneurs’ performance and attracting foreign firms. Policymakers should prioritize these dimensions of the business environment to foster growth, maximize KFDI, and support long-term entrepreneurial success. This approach will not only ensure the economic vitality of Myanmar’s entrepreneurial ecosystem but also contribute to broader social and environmental sustainability. Full article