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Background: The advent of Personalized Medicine (PM) holds significant promise in revolutionizing healthcare by tailoring treatments to individual patients based on their data. However, its successful implementation requires the seamless integration of innovative technologies and presents formidable challenges in terms of sustainability. To tackle these challenges head-on, the International Consortium for Personalized Medicine (ICPerMed) was established, and the IC2PerMed project, as part of this consortium, seeks to foster collaboration between the European Union (EU) and China in the field of Personalized Medicine. Based on the results collected by the project, the objective of this study is to discern the key priorities for the implementation of Personalised Medicine concerning Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Big Data and digital solutions, with a particular emphasis on data management and protection. Methods: A Delphi survey was conducted to gather expert's consensus on the main priorities for actions on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Big Data and digital solutions in the field of Personalized Medicine. Results: The survey identified seven priorities in the area of Big Data and digital solutions, including data interoperability, standards, security measures, and international partnerships. Additionally, twelve priorities were identified for the innovation-to-market process, emphasizing cost-effectiveness, need assessment, and value definition in resource allocation. Conclusions: The effective implementation of new technologies in Personalized Medicine research and practice is essential for the advancement of healthcare systems in both the European and Chinese contexts. The identified priorities play a pivotal role in promoting the sustainability of health systems and driving innovation in the implementation of Personalized Medicine. Addressing challenges related to data interoperability, standards, security, international collaboration, cost-effectiveness, and value assessment is of utmost importance in order to propel the progress of Personalized Medicine in healthcare systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strand research of regional branching identifies relatedness as a key driver of new specializations in a region. The purpose of the present paper is to extend the regional branching framework by investigating how a regional knowledge base of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and others (non-ICTs) influences the specialization of financial technology (FinTech) in China at the city level. Accordingly, the empirical analysis focuses on the relationship between relatedness and FinTech diversification using panel data spanning the period 2008–2021 covering 247 China's cities. We obtain that the role of ICTs relatedness is positively relevant in explaining the emergence and development of new FinTech domains. However, non-ICT relatedness is a negative factor in the process of FinTech diversification, which we attribute to the fact that FinTech is less reliant on other knowledge base except ICT sectors. Additionally, the effects of ICTs relatedness are higher in peripheral cities compared to core cities in promoting FinTech diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, China emerged as Africa's main partner in digital development. Sino-African cooperation in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector meets African demand for advanced technologies and know-how while helping China to position itself in the global ICT sector. Albeit crucial for Africa's digital development in the short term, this paper argues that the breadth of Sino-African cooperation carries important long-term consequences that could afford China latent control over Africa's digital development. Drawing on Susan Strange's pillars of structural power, this paper considers how the rollout of fiber-optic network cables underpins Chinese control over production, how the construction of data centers might impinge on security, and how research partnerships enhance norms and standards in future innovation—the knowledge pillar. The paper argues that the enabling force of Sino-African cooperation in these three realms is Chinese finance. To test this claim, I conduct a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of 42 states in Sub-Saharan Africa, showing that Chinese aid and, to a lesser extent, Chinese loans are the main drivers of Sino-African ties in the ICT sector. The paper concludes that Chinese financial support not only promotes Africa's digital development but also paves the way to Chinese structural power in the ICT sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing allocation efficiency is vital for maintaining China’s position as a leading textile producer. The adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) can improve the efficiency of farmers’ input allocation. Nonetheless, limited evidence exists regarding the impact and extent of farmers’ access to digital agricultural extension through subscribing to agricultural WeChat public accounts (WPAs) on allocation inefficiency costs. Using a 2019 farm household survey of cotton farmers in Xinjiang, this paper employs a primal system model to calculate farmers’ allocation inefficiency costs and a two-stage residual inclusion approach model (2SRI) to estimate the effects of agricultural WPAs subscription on allocation inefficiency costs and allocation inefficiency. The empirical findings indicate that the average allocation inefficiency cost is 3.264 Yuan per kilogram, constituting 45.8% of cotton production cost. Our results demonstrate that subscribing to agricultural WPAs can significantly reduce farmers’ allocation inefficiency costs by 19.5% and decrease allocation inefficiency by 0.079. Consequently, promoting smallholder farmers’ access to digital agricultural extension serves as an effective strategy to enhance allocation efficiency and lower costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the integration of new-generation information and communication technology (ICT) in the manufacturing industry, many advanced manufacturing modes have been proposed. Cloud manufacturing (CMfg) is one example which integrates manufacturing resources and the provision of on-demand services using new technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and cloud computing. CMfg has experienced rapid development from its initial theory and technology to its application and has attracted considerable attention since its introduction in 2010. Many scholars in China have conducted significant research on CMfg. Therefore, it is significant to review the achievements from Chinese scholars to examine the current progress of CMfg research in China. This paper presents the definitions of CMfg found in the literature and summarizes the developments regarding eight dimensions of CMfg. Several successful implementations of CMfg in China are discussed and compared. Furthermore, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) method is used to analyze the potential impacts of CMfg on the future development of the China manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become increasingly important worldwide in education. This study aims to recognize the factors that influence the intention to use information and communication technology (ITUICT) and its acceptance in the education sector in China. A literature review was conducted to ascertain the potential factors such as perceived awareness, information acquisition, trustworthiness, social influence, and regulatory support that could affect the acceptance and ITUICT. For results, a survey was conducted on a sample of 381 university employees in China using a convenience sampling approach. The collected data were analyzed using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that individual factors such as perceived awareness, information acquisition, trustworthiness, social influence, and regulatory support significantly impact the ITUICT. Additionally, trustworthiness positively moderates the relationship among perceived awareness, information acquisition, social influence, regulatory support, and ITUICT. Policymakers and educators can use the findings of this study to enhance the adoption of ICT in China's education sector. The results of this study suggest that it is important to provide educational sector employees with training and support to increase their use of ICT technology. Furthermore, this paper offers theoretical progression to create a supportive organizational culture and provide the educational sector with the necessary technological resources to facilitate the use of ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovations in precision agriculture continue to increase in both number and significance. Contemporaneously, given their expanding scope and application, the growing pool of technologies is increasingly complex. Although some recent attempts have been made, a knowledge gap remains in respect to the evolution of precision agricultural innovation. Synthesized, such knowledge should inform the untapped opportunities for innovation. This paper narrows this gap by conducting a network analysis of patent applications in areas concerning precision agriculture. Spanning the years from 1960 to 2021, the analysis shows an annual average growth in patent applications of 15.1%. During the last decade, this growth is almost entirely attributable to China and the USA. Priority innovation themes have been dynamic. Its phases can be characterized as 'motorized mechanization' (1960–1999), 'mechanical automation' (2000–2009), 'digital mechanization' (2010–2019), and 'digital automation' (2020–2021). The significance of information communication technology has grown in association with other innovation clusters, but a lag time has persisted in introducing innovations based on such technologies. Opportunities are ripe for speeding transference through economic and other incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology is recognised as one of the most important factors in world economic development, particularly contributing to the trade growth of information and communications technology (ICT) products. The decomposition of export growth has been a popular way to analyse how trade has been influenced since 2000. However, there is little investigation regarding the structure of ICT product trading of China, which is the de facto largest trader of ICT goods export and import. This paper contributes to the existing methods with a non-parametric model. The coefficient estimates which functions of their factors represent a dynamic analysis of the factors' influence on decomposed trade growth. The empirical study shows that China's strategy tends to be conservative, as the growth of trade to developed countries mostly came from the volume increase of existing trade lines instead of the increase of trade varieties. Suggestions include that the trade growth could benefit from resource reallocation in ICT industries and the procedure simplification of exporting ICT products. This paper also provides empirical evidence that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) increased the trading volume and frequency by completing the transportation chain and decreasing the variable trade costs. Furthermore, suggestions are provided on improving the impact on the globalisation of ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the World Bank survey database of Chinese enterprises to investigate the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on Chinese enterprises' innovation performance and the internal mechanism at the micro‐level. The results show that ICTs have significantly improved the innovation performance of Chinese enterprises. This conclusion does not change with the addition of other control variables and dummy variables, showing strong robustness. This study also finds that the impact of ICTs on enterprise innovation performance shows obvious heterogeneity across different industries and regions. We should enhance the transmission effect of ICTs on enterprise innovation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to empirically test and verify the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) capability on environmental performance (EP) of manufacturing, as well as the moderating effect of heterogenous factors and the mediating effect of ambidextrous innovation in the context of the Chinese manufacturing firms. Design/methodology/approach: The data come from the World Bank Enterprise Survey of China conducted from December 2011 to February 2013. The logistic regression is applied with Stata 15, and the robustness test by three methods is employed to verify the reliability of the results in this paper. Findings: The research results suggest that the positive relationship between ICT capability and EP is moderated by two heterogenous factors, including main market and industry attributes. Meanwhile, the positive relationship between ICT capability and EP is mediated by ambidextrous innovation. Originality/value: This work highlights ICT capability as an important, yet underexplored antecedent in improving the EP of manufacturing firms. This research further uncovers the moderating role of main market and industry attributes, as well as the mediating mechanism by introducing ambidextrous innovation in the relationship between ICT capability and EP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Open innovation is regarded as the driven factor for organizational resilience, but open innovation's role and effect mechanism in leveraging organizational resilience has been limited explored. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between two types of open innovation and organizational resilience and the mediating effect of intellectual capital on open innovation and organizational resilience. Design/methodology/approach: After a literature review, a research model including open innovation, intellectual capital and organizational resilience is proposed. Survey data are collected from information and communication technologies (ICT) sector in China and analyzed by using partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and Bootstrapping procedure to present results of each hypothesis test. Findings: Results indicate that inbound open innovation has a significant and direct impact on organizational resilience, while outbound open innovation has not. In addition, all three dimensions of intellectual capital were significantly correlated with organizational resilience and had mediating roles in the indirect effect of inbound open innovation and organizational resilience. Nevertheless, only social capital played a mediating role in the relationship between outbound open innovation and organizational resilience. Originality/value: The study explores the relationships among open innovation, intellectual capital and organizational resilience in a comprehensive model, which is the first known study to highlight that open innovation can enhance organizational resilience through intellectual capital, and provides valuable suggestions for improving organizational resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) system becomes a significant part of urban transportation network system based on the information and communication technologies, but rarely received attention in tourism transport. This paper explored the impact of travel mode preferences on habitual choice behavior for MaaS in tourism, and an online survey and stated preference experiments were designed and carried out. Respondents were divided into three categories including strictly preference (SP) group, weak preference (WP) group, and no preference (NP) group, accounting for 25.09%, 72.24%, and 2.67% respectively. Estimation results of the mode choice random parameter logit (RPL) models indicate that explanatory variables of the alternatives (e.g., the total travel time, in-vehicle cost, and walking distance) only affect the travel mode choices for WP group, which are insensitive to the SP group and NP group. Marginal effect analysis shows that mode choice preferences for MaaS are influenced as tour experience and daily travel habits change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing literature mainly focuses on the impact of information communication technologies on carbon emissions, but little attention has been paid to the role of the digital economy in transporting carbon emissions. This paper calculates the index of the digital economy through the entropy weight Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method and constructs the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2017. By extending the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology model, this study explores the potential linear and non‐linear relationship between digital economy and carbon emissions in the transport sector. Empirical results show that the digital economy has the alleviating effect on carbon emissions in the transportation sector, and a change in the digital economy of one unit standard deviation resulted in a 6.14% reduction in carbon emissions. In terms of sub‐regions, the digital economy has a significant negative impact on transport carbon emissions in the eastern and central regions, while it is insignificant in the western regions. This paper further investigates the threshold effect of urbanization on the relationship between the digital economy and transportation‐related carbon emissions. The digital economy accelerates the transport sector's carbon emissions in the low urbanization stage, while it reduces the carbon emissions in the high urbanization stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the social public resource digital sharing system (SPRDSS) has been accelerated with the evolution of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs). This paper analyzes the dissipative structure features and formation process of SPRDSS in China. Combined with the Brusselator model and its transformation, this paper empirically analyzes the dissipative structure of SPRDSS using panel data collected from 30 Chinese provinces (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) from 2015 to 2019. The results show that the SPRDSS in China has pre-conditions to form a dissipative structure. At present, the SPRDSSs in most Chinese provinces have not yet formed the dissipative structure, but they are gradually evolving into it. The global orderliness of the sharing system is greater in eastern China than in central China and greater in central China than in western China. The potential for improving global orderliness is greater in western China than in central China and is greater in central China than in eastern China. Therefore, proper policies and measures should be adopted to accelerate the construction of SPRDSS based on the evolution of dissipative structure and to promote the sustainable development of the digital sharing economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Review of Policy Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

China's digital economy experienced a rapid development over the past two decades. How can we systematically measure the contribution of the digital economy to China's economic growth? Has the digital economy contributed to an increase in China's total factor productivity? This paper analyzes the impact of the information and communication technology (ICT) development on China's economic growth since its WTO accession in an aggregate production possibility frontier framework. Our empirical analysis shows that the digital economy has been the most significant contributor to China's economic growth and productivity improvements over the past two decades. Nevertheless, due to severe capital misallocation across industries and persistent inefficient performance of some non-ICT industries, industries with high investment growth have not been matched by industries with high TFP growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demand and supply still remain the main instruments in determining the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in gross domestic product growth. There is an increasing body of research, investigating the determinants of economic growth in China. Most studies have focused on technology, which has resulted in increased demand for new products and services. This demand on the supply side naturally accounts for the increase in efficiency in production of services, goods and infrastructure. The market forces of demand and supply depend on: knowledge spillovers, triadic patents, and people employed in the high-tech sectors. Although increases in innovation stemming from R&D activities are palpable, the extent of economic growth is contingent on the market size (IMF, 2004). This paper investigates the relationship between exogenously-determined growth, proxied by ICT imports, and endogenous drivers of economic growth, by employing ICT exports. The paper verifies the hypothesis by employing a machine learning approach to Pearson's correlation and employs the Augmented Dickey- Fuller test to test for multicollinearity. The study postulates evidence-based policy recommendations that facilitate transition of the Chinese economy towards innovation-driven and consumer-led economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is gradually changing its pursuit of rapid economic growth into a pursuit of economic development quality. In this context, whether "cyberpower" and "digital China" strategies are truly conducive to China's sustainable development still needs to be further tested. This paper constructs China's provincial information and communication technology (ICT) comprehensive development level index from the four dimensions of penetration, coverage, information resources, and business and then innovatively undertakes a theoretical framework integrating ICT, environmental regulations, and green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) for the analysis. Using panel data from China's 30 provincial administrative regions from 2006 to 2017, this study explores the direct impact, moderating effect, nonlinear relationship, and regional differences of ICT development on GTFEE. It is indicated that ICT development plays a positive role in promoting GTFEE and that this role is moderated by environmental regulations. The regression results of the dynamic threshold model indicate that diverse environmental regulation intensities lead to different influences of ICT development on GTFEE. Moreover, the impact of ICT development on GTFEE is heterogeneous among different regions. Specifically, the western region may gain more benefits from ICT development by virtue of the late‐mover advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers on an increased use of internet and information & communication technologies (ICT) in rural China is presented.

Copyright of EurAmerica is the property of EurAmerica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Understanding the effect of freight structure (FS) on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is significant for policymakers in the transport sector. However, few studies have investigated fully how the freight structure influences transport CO2 emissions. In the paper, a comprehensive freight structure index is proposed to assess the freight structure in 16 provinces of China during 2005–2019. Then, the heterogeneous effect of the freight structure and other factors on CO2 emissions are quantified by the quantile regression model developed. The mediating effect between freight structure and CO2 emissions is further examined. And the panel causality test is used to explore the directions of causality among variables. The main results indicate that (1) the level of freight structure shows a distribution of increase from western and central regions to eastern regions in 16 provinces. (2) Freight structure has a positive effect on transport CO2 emissions, and its effect is significantly heterogeneous in all quantiles. (3) Freight structure has an indirect impact on CO2 emissions through the scale effect. (4) The bidirectional causality is confirmed between economic growth, industrial structure, and information and communication technology with carbon emissions. A unidirectional causality from CO2 emissions to freight structure is also found. Finally, some policy recommendations are proposed for sustainable transport development in China. The results facilitate the formulation of the regionally tailored carbon emission reduction strategy in the transport sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmers' adoption of green agricultural technologies (GATs) could reduce the negative environmental impacts of traditional agriculture in China. Despite the benefits of GATs, their adoption rate has not been high. While previous studies have examined the information and communication technologies that influence the adoption of GATs, most have selected only one of the GATs and have not distinguished between public and private channels of knowledge acquisition. In this paper, based on a sample of 732 rural households from Hubei Province, we used a negative binomial model to examine the role of knowledge acquisition channels on GATs adoption. Overall, we found that radio and the government (through its face-to-face channels) are positively associated with farmers' adoption of GATs; however, farmers adopted more GATs when they had acquired knowledge from the government than from radio. A possible explanation and a policy implication is that direct communication with farmers and practical demonstration of the benefits of GATs are preferred to passive reception of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs the dynamic panel threshold model to estimate the industrial upgrading effect of information and communications technology (ICT) investment in view of the role of marketization. Based on provincial-level data from 2008 to 2016 in China, the empirical results show that under a better institutional environment of marketization, ICT investment has an increasing marginal effect on the upgrading of the industrial structure. This implies that the diminishing marginal effect of ICT investment is compensated by the promotion of marketization. Overall, with higher-quality development of the market economy, ICT investment will play a more active role in upgrading the industrial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An era of rapid changes in the technological and economic aspects of developing and developed countries can have detrimental extortions on the environment around the world. From the perspective of globalization, the rapid development and growth can reroute to enhance the interaction between people, organizations, and countries across the globe including China through the usage of information and communication technology which in turn contributes to the economic growth of one side, whereas on the other side, it affects the environmental quality. Referring to this aspect, this study is focused to inspect the link between information and communication technology, and globalization with the facets of degradation in the environment that as CO2 emission and ecological footprint by keeping the view of economic growth prospects as well via using the EKC hypothesis. In our study, time-series data was employed from 1987 to 2020 for China using the Dynamic ARDL approach. Grounded on the findings of the study, economic growth from the sight of GDP fallouts in rising the emission of CO2 and EFP in the short and long run whereas GDP sqr cause decrease in the CO2 emission and EFP. Thus, this authorizes the presence of inverted U-shaped existence among GDP sqr, CO2 emission, and EFP. Therefore, this provides provision for the EKC hypothesis in China. Furthermore, ICT and globalization cause a decline in the emission of CO2 and EFP in the short and long run respectively. In combatting challenges linked to the environment, globalization, as well as ICT, is seen as a crucial factor based on the pieces of evidence in our study while the policy implications are also proposed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has been conducted on the multiple possible future environmental effects of different types of information and communication technology (ICT) investment. This paper innovatively calculates the ICT productive capital stock (PCS) in China from 2007 to 2018 and explores the multiple effects of ICT PCS on carbon emissions. The results show that (1) ICT PCS is conducive to carbon emission reduction; furthermore, ICT software PCS has a significant carbon emission reduction effect, while ICT hardware PCS has the opposite outcome. (2) The spatial effect demonstrates that ICT and its hardware and software PCS can significantly reduce carbon emissions in surrounding areas. (3) The ICT PCS indirectly affects carbon emissions through the digital economy and energy efficiency, but the role of the influence mechanism varies according to the type of ICT PCS. (4) There is a nonlinear relationship between all ICT PCS and carbon emissions due to differences in green productivity and ICT PCS levels. Finally, this study provides valuable references for optimizing ICT investment and promoting low-carbon development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Railway Standard Design is the property of Railway Standard Design Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have received increasing attention in recent years as a promising means to address poverty challenges in rural China. This paper uses a unique three-wave panel data set of household surveys, collected from seven officially recognized poor counties in rural China during 2012–2018, to examine the effect of ICT adoption on poverty. The results show that ICTs contributed positively to poverty reduction in the sampled counties, which may have been primarily achieved through increased migration and off-farm income, instead of through improved agricultural production and farm income. This suggests that ICT development facilitated households escaping poverty by helping them diversify their livelihood strategies away from agriculture in remote mountainous areas. The findings highlight the importance of creating incentives to complement the opportunities brought by ICTs for local development. It is important to strike a balance between poverty reduction and food security objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several scholars have recently recommended a transition from focusing on Internet access (access divide) and Internet use (use divide) to the tangible outcomes of Internet use (outcome divide). This study evaluates the utility of this perspective in China for investigating digital inequalities across provinces. Despite having the world's largest ICT market, digital disparities persist at the provincial, city, and county levels. This paper establishes an explanatory conceptual model of the digital divide (DD) at the provincial level and applies mapping through ArcGIS software to investigate spatial agglomeration. Spatial autocorrelation (Moran-i) is used to reveal high significance and multivariate analysis is used to investigate the key correlates. Among the provinces, a significant DD was found, which shows that provinces that are administratively sophisticated (such as Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Shandon, and Zhejiang) having a high digital development index score (IDI). Concomitantly, poverty-stricken regions and rural areas, mostly in southwest, central, and western China, have low IDI values. The factors found by this study to be most influential for improved ICT usage and outcomes are residential income (urban), e-government, literacy rate (secondary gross enrollment), and the working-age population. This indicates that socio-economic problems should be addressed first instead of institutional and innovational considerations. This study is the first to develop a conceptual model of the third-level digital divide (3-LDD) (ICT outcome) at the provincial level and utilize spatial analysis and mapping to supplement traditional methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart City is a new concept that uses Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to promote the smartification of urban construction, planning and services. Currently, a number of countries and cities have conducted studies on Smart City, but they mostly focused on the conceptual connotations analysis and applications in specific domains, lacking a common, shareable and integrated framework understanding, which led to significant barriers among individual Smart City projects. By analyzing the framework connotations and application domains of Smart City, this paper proposed a common, shareable and integrated conceptual framework for smart city. Then based on this framework, a unified portal platform that is suitable for multiple domains, including the government, citizen and business, as well as common, custom and other application modes, is further proposed. Finally, Smart Weifang was implemented based on this platform. The application outcomes indicate that this common and shareable platform can effectively eliminate the data and technological barriers between different smart city systems, while also avoiding redundant financial investments. The investigation of the proposed framework and platform is of key significance to the unified construction of Smart City and the intensification of the hardware environment, thus representing a true achievement in the transition from "information island" to "information sharing and interconnection" for urban informatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose a new metric of supply chain exposure to network concentration risk: the pass-through frequency (PTF). • The PTF measures the frequency that a supply chain engages with the industrial sectors in a particular region of analytical concerns (natural hazards, geopolitical risks). • The PTF as a frequency-based indicator is compared with "trade in value-added" as a volume-based indicator, so that the supply chain exposure is evaluated in two analytical dimensions. • An empirical analysis using multi-country input-output tables shows that the US ICT equipment sector is highly skewed towards frequency-based concentration in China's production system, raising likelihood of getting caught by any contingency in the country. • The analysis of mutual risk positions for the US and China's supply chains reveals a notable asymmetry in the dependence structure between the two countries. In this paper, we present new referential statistics for the degree of supply chain exposure to network concentration risk. The study's contribution rests on the development of a metric that indicates network concentration in terms of the frequency of supply chain engagement with the regions of analytical concern, alongside the traditional approach based on volume measurement of value-added concentration. Japan, a country with a high propensity to encounter natural hazards, and China, under mounting geopolitical tension with the United States, are chosen as the target regions for the assessment of network concentration. In addition, the highly asymmetric structure of mutual economic dependency in the US-China relations is identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a two-stage analysis framework, this paper investigates how information communication technology can improve the sustainable performance of smart tourism destinations. It analyzes the impact of online attention (in the form of activity on a search engine) and the level of the digital economy on sustainable performance of smart tourism destinations, measured using an advanced data envelopment analysis model. The empirical results from 50 key smart tourism destinations in China show that: (1) the average value of smart destination performance from 2008 to 2019 is 0.74; (2) both online attention and digital economy have significant positive impacts on sustainable performance; (3) digital economy positively moderates the impact of online attention on sustainable performance; (4) undesirable outputs (air pollution) and tourist satisfaction are two factors that can be considered in measuring the sustainable performance of a destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the export growth of China's information communication technology (ICT) products in two major markets Japan and the US from 1995 to 2008 and its competition with six East Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Korea. The analysis shows that China has emerged as the largest single supplier of ICT products to both markets. By 2008, China's exports accounted for 44 and 38% of total Japanese and the US ICT imports respectively. On the other hand, market shares of the six East Asian countries either remained stagnant or decreased substantially. The analysis by destination markets and by product categories indicates that, there exist significant negative correlations between market shares of China and that of the six East Asian countries, implying that the rapid expansion of China's ICT exports crowded out exports of its East Asian competitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While online dispute resolution (ODR) and online courts have become a global phenomenon, China is unique in its way of constructing a "smart-courts" system. This paper argues that the Chinese smart courts are embedded in China's larger strategy of capturing new opportunities offered by the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution. Adoption of cutting-edge ICT by courts is not an initiative taken by the courts themselves; rather, it is a call from the party-state with strong policy push. The paper also makes two observations on the nature of smart courts in China. One is that Chinese courts are using ICT, especially artificial intelligence, both to enhance hierarchical control and to improve the formal quality of law. Another is that the "Internet courts" are established to solve disputes arising from online transactions, rather than serve as piloting courts with general implications for the shape of future courts in China. Therefore, while boldly experimenting new technologies (such as blockchains) in the judicial process, Internet courts in China are also charged with the responsibility of developing legal doctrines in cases within their jurisdictions. The case of China thus shows the profound interaction between law and technology. Whether technology is disruptive depends on human design and efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: While the rapid adoption of information communication technologies (ICT) in organizations has been linked with a higher risk of cyberbullying, research on the influence of cyberbullying on interpersonal behaviors in the workplace remains limited. By drawing on the ego-depletion theory and the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, this research investigates how, why and when workplace cyberbullying may trigger interpersonal aggression through ICT. Design/methodology/approach: The authors collected data from 259 employees and 62 supervisors working in large ICT organizations in China through a multi-wave survey. The authors performed multilevel analysis and used hierarchical linear modeling to test the proposed moderated mediation model. Findings: The results revealed that workplace cyberbullying has a significant and positive influence on interpersonal aggression in the workplace via ego depletion. The authors found that differentiation in LMX processes at group level moderates the indirect relationship between workplace cyberbullying and interpersonal aggression (via ego depletion). Furthermore, the positive indirect effect of workplace cyberbullying was found to be stronger in the presence of a high LMX differentiation condition in comparison to a low LMX differentiation condition. Research limitations/implications: The data were collected from Chinese ICT organizations, which may limit the generalization of this study's findings to other cultural and sectoral contexts. Originality/value: This paper provides the first step in understanding how, why and when workplace cyberbullying triggers interpersonal aggression by investigating the role of ego depletion as a mediator and LMX differentiation as a boundary condition. This is the first study to empirically examine the relationships between workplace cyberbullying, ego depletion, LMX differentiation and interpersonal aggression in ICT organizations using multi-level modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel data from National Rural Fixed Point Survey and a supplementary survey about rural ICT projects, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of ICTs on rural households' income and income disparity in China. The results show that ICTs promotes the growth of total income and wage income of rural households, and has an inhibitory effect on agricultural income, but this inhibitory effect gradually disappears in the process of rural ICT development. The positive effect of ICTs on rural households' total income is enduring. The heterogeneous analysis further indicates that the income-increasing effect of ICTs is more pronounced for higher-income and higher-educated farmers, which exacerbates the income disparity in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employing China's provincial panel data covering period 2001–2016, the present study empirically investigates the impact of ICT on CO2 emission intensity. Specifically, this paper utilizes Internet penetration and mobile phone penetration as proxies to measure ICT respectively and employs quantile regression method to estimate the benchmark model at five quantiles (0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 0.9). It is demonstrated that Internet penetration at the national level has a significant negative effect on the CO2 emission intensity for all quantiles. In addition, Internet penetration has a significant negative effect on CO2 emission intensity at all quantiles except for 0.1 quantile for China's eastern provinces and has a significant negative effect on CO2 emission intensity at all quantiles for China's central provinces, whereas Internet penetration has no significant negative impact on CO2 emission intensity at all quantiles for China's western provinces. By comparison, the reduction effect of Internet penetration on CO2 emission intensity in China's eastern and central provinces is more obvious and in contrast with the reduction effect of Internet penetration on CO2 emission intensity in China's eastern provinces, it is greater in China's central provinces. Finally, the impact of mobile phone penetration on CO2 emission intensity is generally consistent with the impact of Internet penetration. This study provides further evidence that developing countries can simultaneously achieve economic development and reduce carbon emissions through ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As information and communication technologies gain prominence in rural areas, rural e-commerce has emerged as a crucial mechanism for fostering agricultural and rural development. While the economic impact of rural e-commerce is widely studied, its effects on carbon emissions remain underexplored. Utilizing a multi-period DID model and Chinese county-level panel data from 2011 to 2017, this paper examines the impact of rural e-commerce on carbon emission reduction, employing the "comprehensive demonstration of e-commerce into villages" policy introduced by the Chinese government in 2014 as a quasi-natural experiment. Our findings show that e-commerce demonstration counties experienced a 10.6% reduction in carbon emissions compared to the control group, indicating a significant emission reduction effect. Further analysis reveals that rural e-commerce drives carbon reduction through decreased fertilizer usage, altered cropping structures, and enhanced transportation efficiency. Notably, rural e-commerce's emission reduction effect is more pronounced in major grain-producing regions and areas with higher digitalization levels. This study has crucial theoretical and practical implications for achieving carbon emission reduction and sequestration in agriculture and advancing green agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of the "information age" ushered in renewed expectations of systematic urban spatial structure transformation. However, few studies have quantitatively assessed these changes, especially the decentralisation of manufacturing employment. This paper tests hypotheses regarding the decentralisation–centralisation effect of information and communication technology (ICT) on manufacturing. Further, the work employs an IV‐GMM estimation technique to estimate the models, to alleviate potential bias brought by endogeneity. The results suggest that the adoption of ICT is highly related to the decentralisation of manufacturing employment on the city‐proper scale in China. The conclusion drawn is that ICT has shaped the manufacturing decentralisation of cities in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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After nearly three decades of "ICT for development", the rollout of ICT backbone infrastructure remains challenging throughout Africa. African states do not only depend on the technology of foreign companies but must also seek external finance to pay for it. This dual dependency puts African governments in a vulnerable position, leading us to inquire: to what extent does the dual dependency on foreign finance and technology affect African agency in ICT infrastructure provider choice? The paper proposes a model that distinguishes between the agency of higher and lower income countries. Elaborating on the latter, the model assumes that the source of foreign ICT-related finance (i.e., China, World Bank, both, internal) determines whether the recipient state can exercise a weak, medium, or strong degree of agency in its ICT infrastructure provider choice. The paper further argues that the link between foreign finance and degree of agency is shaped by the digital development agenda of the donor. For instance, the model predicts that countries which predominantly received Chinese ICT finance possess weak agency when choosing an ICT infrastructure provider because China's digital development agenda ties the provision of finance to hiring a Chinese contractor. By examining the ICT-related financial inflows and geographical distribution of network equipment providers in African states, the paper shows that the source of finance affects the degree of agency and, subsequently, the choice of ICT infrastructure provider. However, the analysis also suggests a divide in African agency along former colonial lines. In fact, the model holds only for countries without colonial ties to France whereas former French colonies all contracted Huawei, regardless of ICT finance flows. • Proposes a model for African agency in choice of network equipment provider. • Development finance determines African agency in ICT infrastructure provider choice. • Digital development agendas of donors affect ICT infrastructure provider choice. • Geospatial mapping of fiber-optic cables sets Francophone states apart from others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the functionality of mobile applications (apps) in flood disasters in China, their usefulness in flood emergency management, and their ability to enable coproduction between participating parties. By conducting a tri-fold analysis on twenty-three mobile apps used nationwide and within Zhejiang province during the 2020-21 flood seasons, this paper finds that mobile apps have established an interconnected, multi-layered, and multi-functional information infrastructure for flood emergency management in China. Mobile apps have the potential to contribute in their respective ways to the core elements and phases of emergency management. In addition, these apps are found able to create the conditions for coproduction across sectors, which was corroborated by some good practice examples from media reports. However, governmental apps are found less ready to engage in cross-sector coproduction although they show signs of cross-department coproduction within the sub-nation government units. It implies a tension between the current way the government facilitates mobile apps in emergency management and the citizen empowerment by the mobile apps. This research contributes to the fields of information and communication technologies (ICT), emergency management communication and collaboration as one of the few studies examining mobile apps in China from the standpoint of emergency management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives a brief introduction to the project called Education Technology Capacity Building Plan for All Primary and Secondary Teachers now being implemented in China. Because information and communication technology skills training cannot match the demand of teachers' professional development, the Chinese Ministry of Education established the education technology standard for teachers and launched the project. This paper introduced the features of standard training and testing, and discusses the output and influence of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show that, since China's accession to the WTO in 2001, standards have emerged as an effective means to protect and promote domestic industries, especially in the ICT sector China has made several attempts to set its own technological standards - different from international standards - within its own territory and world-wide. This paper seeks to examine two cases of China's attempts to set its own standards in the ICT sector. By comparing similarities and differences in these cases, it aims to identify motivations and strategies of China's standards-setting attempts in the lCTsector. Design/methodology/approach - The paper examines the cases of wireless LAN security (WAPI) and 3G mobile communications (TD-SCDMA). It draws on a set of concepts from the study of national technological innovation systems: techno-nationalism and techno-globalism. Data were collected from media and standards-related institutions. Findings - Despite similarities, each case has a distinguished orientation in terms of techno- nationalism and techno-globalism: WAPI is aligned with techno-nationalism and TD-SCDMA with techno-globalism. Research limitations/implications - China's recent attempts regarding its own standards in the ICT sector are not one-off occasions, but China's standards policy towards international standards will continue. This research will be a foundation for further inquiry in this increasingly important area of study A longitudinal follow-up study tracking the development of each standard over time is required. Originality/value - Despite the significance of these standard-setting attempts for China's trade, technology policy and economic development, on the one hand, and for the world economy, on the other hand, there has been little research in this area. The paper offers an enhanced understanding of China's standards policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an extended three-step CDM model, this paper addresses the impacts of research and development (R&D) and information and communication technology (ICT) on firm productivity for the World Bank innovation survey data of China. The study includes ICT investment and R&D as the two main inputs into innovation and productivity. We find that R&D and ICT investments positively affect product innovation and process innovation, with R&D being more important for innovation and productivity, and ICT being more important for innovation and no direct effect on productivity. We conclude that R&D and ICT investments increase the probability of product innovation and process innovation, which increase firm's productivity, suggesting that R&D and ICT investments indirectly affect productivity through innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As information and communication technologies (ICT) continue to impact and shape modern society, and e-justice has gained momentum in recent years. China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) set up a trial management information system that connects all courts in China. Designed to be online, transparent, and intelligent, China's Smart Court development began in 2016. In practice, SPC promoted modernization of the trial systems to improve the flow of information between courts throughout China. However, significant investments in ICT e-justice services have caused some to question whether these investments have achieved the expected ends. Thus, how to evaluate e-justice services becomes an urgent theoretical and policy issue in the process of e-justice construction in China. E-justice value is not clearly defined in theory in China, nor is easy to measure in practice. Because of the sensitive and complex nature of such evaluation, little research has been conducted in this regard. The objective of this paper is to fill this gap. Relevant literature is reviewed before the article moves on to describe various approaches withe regard to e-government and e-justice evaluation, as well as the characteristics of China's Smart Court. Evaluation factors and constructs are found based on the Chinese circumstances. This study contributes to the development of a holistic evaluation framework for e-justice system. It also adds the Chinese case to the existing literature. Evaluation factors found in this article can also serve as a foundation for future development and study of e-justice services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A thorough understanding of how ICT support provided by teacher preparation programmes influences preservice teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) has become increasingly essential. This study aimed at exploring the mediating role of ICT perception, perceived ICT competence and ICT self‐efficacy between university ICT support and preservice teachers' TPACK. Data were collected through an online self‐assessment questionnaire translated and adapted from existing studies and verified with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A total of 298 preservice teachers, who were senior students studying at three different normal universities in China, participated in this study. Structural equation modelling revealed the following: (a) university ICT support significantly predicted preservice teachers' ICT perception, perceivedICT competence and ICT self‐efficacy, but had no significant direct effects on their TPACK; (b) ICT self‐efficacy was a strong predictor of preservice teachers' TPACK and ICT perception was a weak one, while perceived ICT competence did not predict TPACK at all; and (c) among three potential mediators, ICT self‐efficacy mediated the most effects of university ICT support on preservice teachers' TPACK. These findings demonstrate strong positive effects of institutional support on preservice teachers' TPACK development, which was strongly underestimated in previous studies. Findings suggest normal universities should create practical opportunities for preservice teachers to perceive the power of technology, especially opportunities that could improve preservice teachers' self‐efficacy while applying technology into instruction. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topicICT support from schools is an essential precondition while enhancing in‐service teachers' motivation to apply ICT into instruction.Research revealing how ICT support provided by teacher preparation programmes affects preservice teachers' TPACK is absent.What the paper addsThis study adds to the previous literature by exploring the mediating role of ICT perception, perceived ICT competence and ICT self‐efficacy in the relationship between university ICT support and preservice teachers' TPACK.This study found that university ICT support significantly predicted preservice teachers' ICT perception, perceivedICT competence and ICT self‐efficacy, but had no significant direct effects on their TPACK.Among the three potential mediators, ICT self‐efficacy mediated the most effects of university ICT support on preservice teachers' TPACK.Implications for practice and/or policyNormal universities need to provide effective and professionally targeted ICT support to meet preservice teachers' needs.The mediating role of ICT self‐efficacy should be highlighted on the path from university ICT support to TPACK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A considerable number of empirical studies have explored the effects of information & communication technologies (ICT) on travel in recent years. In particular, the most attention has been paid to whether the use of ICT increases or decreases trip frequency (i.e., substitution or complementarity effects). However, the subject of whether or how travel distance and mode choice are altered by ICT (i.e., modification effects) has almost been ignored. Against this background, using data collected in Beijing, China, this paper aims to explore how purchasing intangible services (e.g., eating out at restaurants, hairdressing, and visits to zoos and movie theatres) online alters the distance and mode choice of the travel to consume these services. The results suggest that due to online purchases of intangible services, people tend to travel farther to consume these services. Consequently, 25.4% of online buyers change their travel mode choices from walking or cycling (i.e., nonmotorized modes) to public transit, private cars, or taxis (i.e., motorized modes). These findings confirm the existence of modification effects of ICT on travel. Additionally, a stepwise multinomial logistic regression model and a stepwise binomial logistic regression model are used to detect the factors influencing changes in travel distance and mode choices, respectively. The regression outcomes suggest that people who have lower living costs or feel more satisfied with online purchases are more likely to increase their travel distances and to change from nonmotorized modes to motorized modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel method for measuring the utilization of information resources (IRs) in order to provide a complementary index for existing information development indices and to reveal the links between the use of IRs and the readiness of ICT. Design/methodology/approach – This research mainly employs three types of research methodologies: literature study was conducted for defining the term of IRs and for finding the common features of the relevant indices; methods to construct composite indicators are used for developing a theoretical framework, selecting variables, imputation of missing data, normalization of data, weighting and aggregation of the novel index; a case study is carried out to provide a typical application for the index and to reveal the underlying links between the use of IRs and the readiness of ICT. Findings – This paper for the first time proposes a method to measure the utilization of IRs from a Chinese perspective and provides its theoretical foundations, conceptual frameworks, main steps and curial techniques. Further, correlations between the use of IRs and the readiness of ICT in China between 2009 and 2011 are also descried. Practical implications – Measuring the utilization of IRs provides the authorities with an alternative tool to monitor the evolutions a country toward information society. In addition, the novel index presented in this paper can also serve as a method to indentify the gaps among regions in deploying their IRs. Originality/value – This is the first paper to introduce a new measure for utilization of IRs and is also the first paper to reveal links between the use of IRs and the readiness of ICT as well as Gross Domestic Product in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]