Search Results (54)

Collaborative business ecosystems (CBEs) are increasingly exposed to disruptive events (e.g., pandemics, supply chain breakdowns, cyberattacks) that challenge organizational adaptability and value creation. Traditional approaches to resilience and robustness often fail to capture the full range of systemic responses. This study introduces a unified mathematical framework to evaluate four crisis response modes—plasticity, resilience, transformative resilience, and antifragility—within complex adaptive networks. Grounded in complex systems and collaborative network theory, our model formalizes both internal organizational capabilities (e.g., adaptability, learning, innovation, structural flexibility) and strategic interventions (e.g., optionality, buffering, information sharing, fault-injection protocols), linking them to pre- and post-crisis performance via dynamic adjustment functions. A composite performance score is defined across four dimensions (Innovation, Contribution, Prestige, and Responsiveness to Business Opportunities), using capability–strategy interaction matrices, weighted performance change functions, and structural transformation modifiers. The sensitivity analysis and scenario simulations enable a comparative evaluation of organizational configurations, strategy impacts, and phase-transition thresholds under crisis. This indicator-based formulation provides a quantitative bridge between resilience theory and practice, facilitating evidence-based crisis management in networked business environments. Full article

Prior research often portrays Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a coercive institutional force compelling firms to passively conform for legitimacy. More recent studies, however, suggest firms actively pursue CSR to gain sustainable competitive advantages. Yet, how and when CSR buffers firms against adverse shocks of crises remains insufficiently understood. This study addresses this gap by using multiple regression analysis to examine the buffering effects of CSR investments during the COVID-19 crisis, which severely disrupted capital markets and firm valuation. Drawing on signaling theory and CSR literature, we analyze the stock market performance of China’s A-share listed firms using a sample of 2577 observations as of the end of 2019. Results indicate that firms with higher CSR investments experienced significantly greater cumulative abnormal returns during the pandemic. Moreover, the buffering effect is amplified among firms with higher debt burdens, greater financing constraints, and those operating in regions with stronger social trust and more severe COVID-19 impact. These findings are robust across multiple robustness checks. This study highlights the strategic value of CSR as a resilience mechanism during crises and supports a more proactive view of CSR engagement for sustainable development, complementing the traditional legitimacy-focused perspective in existing literature. Full article

This paper examines how artificial intelligence (AI) can be strategically deployed to enhance urban planning and environmental livability in Riyadh by generating data-driven, people-centric design interventions. Unlike previous studies that concentrate primarily on visualization, this research proposes an integrative appraisal framework that combines AI-generated design with site-specific environmental data and native vegetation typologies. This study was conducted across key jurisdictional areas including the Northern Ring Road, King Abdullah Road, Al Rabwa, Al-Malaz, Al-Suwaidi, Al-Batha, and King Fahd Road. Using AI tools, urban scenarios were developed to incorporate expanded pedestrian pathways (up to 3.5 m), dedicated bicycle lanes (up to 3.0 m), and ecologically adaptive green buffer zones featuring native drought-resistant species such as Date Palm, Acacia, and Sidr. The quantitative analysis of post-intervention outcomes revealed surface temperature reductions of 3.2–4.5 °C and significant improvements in urban esthetics, walkability, and perceived safety—measured on a five-point Likert scale with 80–100% increases in user satisfaction. Species selection was validated for ecological adaptability, minimal maintenance needs, and compatibility with Riyadh’s sandy soils. This study directly supports the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 by demonstrating how emerging technologies like AI can drive smart, sustainable urban transformation. It aligns with Vision 2030’s urban development goals under the Quality-of-Life Program and environmental sustainability pillar, promoting healthier, more connected cities with elevated livability standards. The research not only delivers practical design recommendations for planners seeking to embed sustainability and digital innovation in Saudi urbanism but also addresses real-world constraints such as budgetary limitations and infrastructure integration. Full article

Ningxia has emerged as a strategic hub for China’s photovoltaic (PV) industry by leveraging abundant solar energy resources and geoclimatic advantages. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal expansion trends and microclimatic impacts of PV installations (2015–2024) using Gaofen-1 (GF-1) and Landsat8 satellite imagery with deep learning algorithms and multidimensional environmental metrics. Among semantic segmentation models, DeepLabV3+ had the best performance in PV extraction, and the Mean Intersection over Union, precision, and F1-score were 91.97%, 89.02%, 89.2%, and 89.11%, respectively, with accuracies close to 100% after manual correction. Subsequent land surface temperature inversion and spatial buffer analysis quantified the thermal environmental effects of PV installation. Localized cooling patterns may be influenced by albedo and vegetation dynamics, though further validation is needed. The total PV site area in Ningxia expanded from 59.62 km² to 410.06 km² between 2015 and 2024. Yinchuan and Wuzhong cities were primary growth hubs; Yinchuan alone added 99.98 km² (2022–2023) through localized policy incentives. PV installations induced significant daytime cooling effects within 0–100 m buffers, reducing ambient temperatures by 0.19–1.35 °C on average. The most pronounced cooling occurred in western desert regions during winter (maximum temperature differential = 1.97 °C). Agricultural zones in central Ningxia exhibited weaker thermal modulation due to coupled vegetation–PV interactions. Policy-driven land use optimization was the dominant catalyst for PV proliferation. This study validates “remote sensing + deep learning” framework efficacy in renewable energy monitoring and provides empirical insights into eco-environmental impacts under “PV + ecological restoration” paradigms, offering critical data support for energy–ecology synergy planning in arid regions. Full article

Background/Objectives: Academic stress is a major factor affecting university students’ psychological well-being and overall functioning. This study examined whether three active coping strategies—positive reappraisal, social support seeking, and strategic planning—mediate the relationship between academic stressors and self-reported stress responses. Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional, non-experimental design was employed. The sample comprised 1014 students from the University of Extremadura (M_age = 20.56, SD = 3.50). Three subscales of the Academic Stress Questionnaire (CEA) were administered: Academic Stressors (E-CEA), Stress Responses (R-CEA), and Coping Strategies (A-CEA). Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, and a multiple mediation model using structural equation modeling (SEM) tested direct and indirect effects, controlling for gender, study year, and academic field. Results: (1) Academic stressors were inversely related to positive reappraisal (β = −0.34, p < 0.001), planning (β = −0.12, p < 0.001), and social support seeking (β = −0.09, p < 0.01). (2) All three coping strategies were significantly associated with fewer stress symptoms, with positive reappraisal showing the strongest effect (β = −0.13, p < 0.001), followed by social support seeking (β = −0.06, p < 0.05) and planning (β = −0.03, p < 0.05). (3) Stressors had a strong positive direct effect on stress responses (β = 0.54, p < 0.001). (4) Coping strategies partially mediated the stressor–symptom link (total indirect effect: β = 0.12, p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.08, 0.16]). Conclusions: Active coping partially buffers the negative effects of academic stressors on perceived distress. Findings underscore the importance of enhancing students’ coping skills and implementing institutional policies that reduce structural stress and support psychological well-being. Full article

Warehouses are vital in linking production to consumption, often using a forward–reserve layout to balance picking efficiency and bulk storage. However, replenishing the forward area from reserve storage is prone to delays and congestion, especially during high-demand periods. This study investigates the strategic use of buffer areas—intermediate zones between forward and reserve locations—to enhance flexibility and reduce bottlenecks. Although buffer zones are common in practice, they often lack a structured decision-making framework. We address this gap by developing an optimization model that integrates demand forecasts to guide daily replenishment decisions. To handle the computational complexity arising from large state and action spaces, we implement an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) approach using certainty-equivalent control within a rolling-horizon framework. A real-world case study from an automotive spare parts warehouse demonstrates the model’s effectiveness. Results show that strategically integrating buffer zones with an ADP model significantly improves replenishment timing, reduces direct picking by up to 90%, minimizes congestion, and enhances overall flow of intra-warehouse inventory management. Full article

This paper investigates the impact of global EPU and China’s EPU on China’s FDI inflows, examining whether financial development and political stability moderate these relationships. Using panel data from 212 countries spanning 2009 to 2022, we first establish causal direction through Granger causality tests, then employ instrumental variable estimation to address endogeneity concerns, while conducting heterogeneity analysis across development levels and Belt and Road Initiative participation. We find that both global and domestic EPU significantly reduce China’s FDI inflows, with a 1% increase in China’s EPU leading to a 0.083% decrease in FDI inflows. However, political stability and financial development serve as effective moderators, reducing EPU’s negative impact by up to 60% and 70%, respectively. The effects vary substantially across investor countries: non-developed countries show ten times stronger sensitivity to EPU than developed countries, while Belt and Road Initiative countries demonstrate 86% lower sensitivity than non-BRI countries. This research advances EPU–FDI theory by demonstrating how institutional quality creates “policy buffers” against uncertainty and provides policymakers with evidence that strengthening political stability and financial development can maintain investor confidence during uncertain periods, while strategic international partnerships can insulate investment flows from policy volatility. Full article

As freshwater scarcity becomes increasingly severe under climate change, physical water risk has emerged as a critical financial concern for firms in water-intensive industries. This study explores whether and how physical water risk influences firms’ cost of equity, and whether corporate social responsibility (CSR)—both its overall level and structural differentiation—modulates this relationship. Using panel data from 849 Chinese listed companies in water-intensive sectors between 2011 and 2022, we find that physical water risk significantly elevates equity capital costs. While a strong CSR performance buffers this effect, CSR differentiation—reflected in uneven CSR engagement across different domains—undermines or even reverses this moderating role. Additional heterogeneity analyses show that these patterns are more pronounced in large and non-state-owned enterprises. These findings deepen our understanding of how environmental risks are priced in capital markets and offer strategic insights for firms seeking to manage sustainability-related financial exposures. Full article

Applying the resource-based view and dynamic capability theory, this study employs panel data analysis to examine how financial flexibility influences corporate innovation efficiency from an integrated resource-capability perspective. Analyzing data from Chinese A-share listed companies during 2013–2022, we discovered three key results. First, as an organizational liquidity buffer, financial flexibility reduces transaction costs, enhances incentives for technical talent retention, and better aligns executive compensation with innovation objectives. Second, as a manifestation of financial dynamic capabilities, financial flexibility significantly boosts a firm’s overall dynamic capabilities, thereby increasing innovation efficiency. Third, institutional investor engagement positively moderates this relationship through enhanced governance oversight. These investors strengthen governance oversight and reduce information asymmetry. Our findings advance the financial flexibility literature and offer actionable strategies to optimize innovation resource allocation and sustain R&D competitiveness. Companies should strategically build financial reserves to enhance innovation efficiency and achieve sustainable development. Full article

The formulation of biosimilar products critically determines their stability, safety, immunogenicity, and market accessibility. This article presents a novel integrative framework for biosimilar formulation that balances scientific, regulatory, and intellectual property dimensions, offering a holistic perspective rarely unified in the literature. It highlights the growing trend toward buffer-free, high-concentration systems that leverage protein self-buffering to improve patient comfort and formulation stability. The article also addresses regulatory flexibility from the FDA and EMA, which allows scientifically justified deviations from reference formulations to ensure pharmaceutical equivalence and minimize immunogenicity. A novelty of this article is its comprehensive analysis of how digital innovations, such as Quality-by-Design, Process-Analytical-Technology, and AI-based in silico simulations, are transforming formulation design and bioprocess optimization to reduce immunogenic risks and enhance bioequivalence. Two important key takeaways emerge: (1) strategic innovation in formulation, especially using buffer-free and high concentration systems, improve product stability and patient tolerability while complying with regulatory standards; and (2) intellectual property challenges, including patent thickets, strongly influence formulation decisions, making early legal-strategic alignment essential for market entry. The article confirms that practical recommendations for the selection of recombinant therapeutic protein formulations can effectively guide developers and regulators toward safer, more efficient, and commercially viable biosimilar products. Full article

The multifunctionality of green infrastructure (GI) can be enhanced through intentional planning that promotes synergies among various functions while minimizing trade-offs. Despite its significance, methodologies for implementing this approach remain underexplored. This paper presents an application-oriented framework for GI planning that emphasizes the relationship between GI functional performance and the provision of ecosystem services. By reframing the issues of multifunctional synergies and trade-offs as quantifiable and spatially explicit problems associated with ecosystem services, the framework offers both a conceptual foundation and technical protocols for practical application. This framework was implemented in the Qinling–Daba Mountain Area (QDMB) in China to evaluate its practicality and identify potential challenges. The planned GI system aims to fulfill multiple functions, including biodiversity maintenance, water and soil conservation, eco-farming, and ecotourism development. Additionally, 73 wildlife corridors were established to connect GI elements, thereby enhancing habitat services for biodiversity. Furthermore, the analysis identified 245 townships and 273 sites as strategic areas and points requiring targeted intervention to mitigate potential multifunctional trade-offs. These locations are characterized by their location within protected areas, protected buffer zones, or wildlife corridors, or at the intersection of wildlife corridors with existing transportation infrastructure. The findings validate the framework’s practicality and highlight the necessity for additional research into the capacity of GI to support diverse human activities and the approaches to enhance GI elements’ connectivity for multifunctionality. Full article

In the context of China’s strategic push toward high-quality development, the concept of new quality productive forces (NQPF)—which emphasizes technological innovation, green transformation, and digital upgrading—has received a lot of attention. However, the increasing volatility and ambiguity in climate-related policymaking present a serious institutional challenge. This study addresses the underexplored question of how climate policy uncertainty (CPU) affects the regional development of NQPF in China. Unlike traditional productivity, NQPF relies on long-term innovation and sustainable investment, which are highly sensitive to external policy signals. Drawing on panel data from 30 Chinese provinces between 2013 and 2021, this paper uses fixed-effects regressions to empirically assess the influence of CPU on NQPF. The findings reveal that CPU significantly suppresses the development of NQPF, but this effect is mitigated by financial inclusion, carbon market participation, and strong local government sustainability performance. This paper provides new insight into the risks posed by climate uncertainty to economic development and highlights institutional tools that can buffer its negative effects. Full article

The incorporation of climate refugia concepts in large-scale protection efforts (e.g., 30% protected by 2030, 50% by 2050) is needed to forestall the global extinction crisis. The 8.19 M ha Northern Rockies Ecoregion (NRE) of western Montana, northeastern Washington, and northern Idaho, USA, includes the 159,822 Yaak River Watershed (YRW) in northwest Montana, a proposed climate refugium that may buffer extreme climate change effects. Climate projections show temperature increases along with reduced summer precipitation, lowered spring snowpack, and increased wildfire susceptibility across the NRE but to a lesser extent in the YRE under an intermediate emissions scenario. Overall protection levels were quite low in the NRE (2.2% in GAP 1 or 2) and even lower in the YRW (1% of national forests; the USDA Forest Service manages most of the area). Approximately 32% of forests are mature but only 2.4% and 0.25% are protected (GAP 1 or 2) within the NRE and YRW, respectively. Habitat protection levels for eight focal forest species selected to reflect conservation priorities were generally low, with only wolverine (Gulo gulo) meeting conservation targets if roadless areas were better protected. Most (~75%) Forest Service fuel reduction treatments were >1 km from structures despite congressional funds aimed at the wildland–urban interface/intermix. Increased roadless area protections would close the lower bound (30%) target for most ecosystem types and focal species but still fall short of upper targets. We recommend coupling conservation targets with strategic investments in fuel reductions aimed at the innermost buffer around structures, while reducing logging and roadbuilding in priority areas and refugia. Full article

Under the strategic objectives of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, it is inevitable for large-scale integration of renewable energy into thermal power units. Nevertheless, improving the capacity of these units for flexible peak shaving is necessary on account of the intermittent and instability of renewable energy. As a novel combustion technology, self-preheating combustion technology offers enormous merits in this aspect, with increasing combustion efficiency (η) and controlling NO_x emissions simultaneously. Considering production and operation cost, installation difficulty and environmental pollution, this study innovatively proposed a compact fluidized modification device (FMD) on the basis of this technology and explored the influences of buffer tank and operation load on operation stability, fuel modification, combustion characteristics and NO_x emissions on an MW grade pilot-scale test platform. Afterwards, the comparative analysis on performance disparities was further launched between FMD and traditional self-preheating burner (TSB). Adding the buffer tank enhanced operation stability of FMD and improved its modification conditions, and thus promoted NO_x emission control. Optimal modification efficiency was realized at medium and high loads, respectively, for high-volatile and low-volatile coals. As load increased, η increased for high-volatile coal, but with NO_x emissions increasing. In comparison, this condition reduced NO_x emissions with high η for low-volatile coal. Compared to TSB, FMD demonstrated more conspicuous advantages in stable operation and fuel modification. Simultaneously, FMD was more conducive to realizing clean and efficient combustion at high temperatures. In industrial applications, appropriate FMD or TSB should be picked out grounded in diverse application requirements. By optimizing burner structure and operational parameters, original NO_x emissions decreased to a minimum of 77.93 mg/m³ with high η of 98.59% at low load of 30%. Full article

The digital transformation of manufacturing through OT, IoT, and AI integration has created extensive networked sensor ecosystems, introducing critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities at IT-OT interfaces. This might particularly challenge the detection component of the NIST cybersecurity framework. To address this concern, the authors designed a diverse machine learning-based intrusion detection system framework for industrial control systems (DICS). DICS implements a sophisticated dual-module architecture. The screening analysis module initially categorizes network traffic as either unidentifiable or recognized packets, while the classification analysis module subsequently determines specific attack types for identifiable traffic. When unrecognized zero-day attack traffic accumulates in a buffer and reaches a predetermined threshold, the agile training module incorporates these patterns into the system, which enables continuous adaptation. During experimental validation, the authors rigorously assess dataset industrial relevance and strategically divide the datasets into four distinct groups to accurately simulate diverse network traffic patterns characteristic of real industrial environments. Moreover, the authors highlight the system’s alignment with IEC 62443 requirements for industrial control system security. In conclusion, the comprehensive analysis demonstrates that DICS delivers superior detection capabilities for malicious network traffic in industrial settings. Full article