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Graphical abstract Highlights • A water Meta-cycle model containing 5 levels is firstly proposed by us in this paper. • The model comprised diverse water consumers and water reuse manners within regional water metabolism. • Indicators are introduced in the model and a typical entreprise is employed to do case study. • A feasible method for helping realize 6th goal of the SDGs in 2030 is introduced. Abstract To address the increasingly grim water environmental crisis and achieve the sustainable development goal in 2030, a fresh water Meta-cycle model and corresponding indicators are proposed to optimize the water resources utilization within a local industrial area. The out-of-date single-track and linear water utilization mode is improved in the Meta-cycle model in which it possesses the characteristics of closed-loop, multiple order and high efficiency. The efficient and ecological utilization, conservation, regeneration as well as recycling of water resources are highly emphasized in the model. The water Meta-cycle model comprises 5 levels: the natural metabolic level (Level 0), the ecological treatment level (Level 1), the wastewater treatment in industrial park level (Level 2), the wastewater pretreatment within enterprise level (Level 3), and the production related water within enterprise level (Level 4). Based on this conceptual model, a series of indicators is presented in the paper, including recycling rate and recycle time, water source diversity index, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, direct water footprint of the model and adaptive evaluation of water treatment. A case of a typical pulp and papermaking enterprise is used to illustrate the proposed model. The results demonstrate the key role of ecological regeneration cycle. It is expected that the Meta-cycle model will be an effective mode for the safe and sustainable management of regional water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A transition to a carbon neutral society will require a shift from fossil to renewable resources. This will affect the conversion of biomass and related industries such as the pulp and paper industry. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to describe and analyse the transformation processes in the Swedish pulp and paper industry and the adoption of biorefinery options, and second, to demonstrate how conceptualisations from strategic management can be used to describe regime destabilisation. The industry''s adoption of biorefinery options has been modest so far, but there is development along two trajectories. The first centres on gasification and the second on separation and refining. Such diverging strategies in response to external pressure can be explained by differences that exist between firms. Signs of increasing firm divergence, or ‘regime fragmentation’, might indicate the entry into a phase of regime destabilisation, and a critical point in a transition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines long-term recovery outcomes of businesses impacted by major natural disasters. Data were collected via two large-scale mail surveys—one administered to Santa Cruz County, California businesses 8 years after the Loma Prieta earthquake and the other administered to businesses in South Dade County, Florida, 6 years after Hurricane Andrew. Based on the results of OLS regression models, we argue that long-term recovery experiences of businesses are affected by various factors, including the economic sector in which a business operates, its age and financial condition, and the scope of its primary market; direct and indirect disaster impacts, including physical damage, forced closure, and disruption of operations; and owner perceptions of the broader economic climate. Previous disaster experience, level of disaster preparedness, and use of external sources of aid were not found to significantly affect the long-term economic viability of businesses in the two study communities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper aims to investigate the peer effects in financial investment of board-interlocked firms from the information sharing perspective. Based on board interlock and financial information of A-share listed nonfinancial firms in China, we construct board interlocking networks where firms share at least one board member in common and conduct an empirical investigation into peer effects in financial investment of board interlocking firms. The results demonstrate that peer effects are noticeably found in nonfinancial firms even after ruling out endogenous concerns by applying peers' peers' characteristics as instrumental variables, and carrying out robustness tests and placebo tests. In addition, the main manifestation of these peer effects is that firms with inferior quality information, i.e., poor financial conditions, low market capitalization, and higher stock idiosyncratic volatility, tend to follow companies that are perceived as having superior quality information in the above-mentioned areas. Firms located in the core position of board interlocking network or with more assets are more likely to be influenced by peers, because they can obtain more high-quality information. Different from existing studies, this paper provides a board interlocking perspective to the study of peer effects, which offers a new explanation for the expansion of financial activities of firms in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper empirically examines the effects of two distinct innovation strategies. • Independent innovation sands firm performance; spillover innovation greases it. • Greasing effect of spillover innovation is amplified by bribing. • Greasing effect of spillover innovation is amplified under poor institution. • Sanding effect of independent innovation is reduced under good institution. While a large body of literature has explored the impacts of bribery on firm performance, particularly in terms of innovation outcomes, a significant gap exists in understanding the effects of innovation strategies on firms' performance as well as the influence of institutional quality on the interaction between innovation strategies and bribery. This paper empirically addresses this gap by investigating the complex effects of bribing and two distinct innovation strategies—independent innovation and spillover innovation. Using global firm-level evidence from the latest Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey, we employ three semiparametric methods to estimate productivity as proxy of firms' performance. Our results show that independent innovation exerts sanding influences on productivity, while spillover innovation and bribery grease the wheels of firm performance. Moreover, bribery and spillover innovation mutually amplify each other's positive effects on firm performance. Further examinations indicate that the impacts of innovation strategies and bribing are significantly moderated by institutional quality. Under poor institutional quality with excessive government control or corruption, the positive influence of spillover innovation and bribing tends to be strengthened. Conversely, good institutional quality mitigates the greasing effects of spillover innovation and bribery. Through multiple robustness tests employing alternative methodologies, firm performance metrics, and institutional quality measures, these findings are consistently confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper proposes a hybrid quantum key distribution (QKD)-based framework for secure enterprise communication using post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and smart cards. The paper discusses the limitations of current PQC implementations and the need for a hybrid approach that combines classical non-PQC algorithms with quantum-resistant PQC algorithms to establish secure communication channels. The proposed framework utilizes point-to-point QKD links between quantum devices to establish a shared secret key, which is then used to encrypt and decrypt data using PQC algorithms. Smart cards are used for authentication and key synchronization to ensure the security of end-user devices. The paper also reviews relevant literature on QKD and PQC and discusses future work. The proposed framework offers a cost-effective and secure way for enterprises to communicate with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• It tests the impact of environmental investment on the productivity of listed firms. • Environmental investment has significant negative impact on the productivity. • The negative impact on the listed firms with high productivity is relatively large. • The nature of state-owned firms hinders the improvement of firm productivity. • Environmental investment affects the productivity of heavily-polluting firms. This paper analyses the impact mechanisms of environmental investment on the productivity of listed firms in China. The empirical results show that, first of all, environmental investment has a significant negative impact on the productivity of listed firms, which confirms that listed firms have a typical compliance cost effect. Moreover, listed enterprises with low productivity and high productivity are less negatively affected by environmental investment than are listed enterprises with moderate productivity. Secondly, the first-order lag term of environmental investment has a significant inhibitory effect on the productivity of listed companies in the eastern region, but has no significant impact on the productivity of listed companies in the central and western regions. Finally, the increase in environmental investment has a great influence on the productivity of listed firms in heavily polluting industries, but it has no obvious influence on non-heavily polluting industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for eco-products due to the exigency of friendly and environmental production could affect the employment of the firms. This paper tests whether product and process eco-innovations boost employment in Spain differentiating by the environmental goals (material and energy efficiency and environment responsiveness), by the level of qualification of the workers, and by the dirtiness of the industries. We apply a Green Harrison model, using the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) for Spain from 2008 to 2016. Results show a positive relationship between all types of product eco-innovations and employment, while the influence of process eco-innovations on employment depends on the environmental goals, the level of skills, and the industry. Specifically, distinguishing by industry there is a labour-saving effect in clean industries and a labour-friendly effect for low-skilled employment in dirty industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of political connections in facilitating access to credit for firms in the Indian corporate sector. This study aims to address gaps in the literature by combining theoretical insights with empirical data. Our model proposes that political connections may reduce risk for firms, thereby enhancing their access to credit. Utilizing a unique dataset of S&P BSE 500 companies from 2001 to 2019, we analyze the extent of these connections and their impact on financial leverage and debt-to-asset ratios. Our findings reveal that politically connected firms, defined by their monetary donations to political parties and the inclusion of Members of Parliament on their boards, exhibit significantly higher financial leverage and debt-to-asset ratios than unconnected firms. This implies a lower perceived borrower's risk and an advantageous position in accessing credit, likely a result of their political ties. The implications of our findings extend to the realms of corporate governance, economic policy, and the broader understanding of emerging market dynamics. • Political connections, as part of non-market strategies of firms, may be crucial in accessing credit. • Our theoretical framework highlights role of risk and donation to political party by a firm in accessing credit. • This study constructs a novel dataset of political connections of Indian companies. • Political connections lead to more favorable borrowing-related outcomes of companies such as, financial leverage and debt-assets ratio. • Political connections specific to a particular political party tend to serve companies more (in terms of the aforementioned outcomes), when that particular party is in power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovativeness is important for the success and performance of firms on both the domestic and international markets. The majority of firms with a solid foothold on the market acknowledge the need for innovation as the driving force of organic growth and the way to distinguish themselves from the competition. This paper is aimed at analyzing both the internal and external factors that support the innovativeness of companies and the impact of these factors on the performance of enterprises. The methodological framework of research is of a deductive nature and the existing theories of innovativeness were availed of for the purposes of research on these particular phenomena. By availing of survey responses from personnel directors, heads of HR departments, while also specialists of the field of HR among 179 enterprises from various sectors, evidence was established in the cases of (1) the positive relation between external factors and the internal processes supporting the innovativeness of companies, while also (2) the positive relation between external and internal factors supporting innovativeness and the market situation, economic efficiency and the development of companies. The herein paper makes a theoretical and empirical contribution in terms of research into the innovativeness of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen increased levels of adoption of Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS) in organisations. However, to date, there are limited in-depth studies that provide empirically derived insights into Adoption Supporting Measures (ASM) in the context of ECS. The aim of the study presented in this paper is to identify, analyse and classify ASM for ECS from the organisational perspective and the company staff responsible for managing the ECS implementation. The study follows a qualitative and interpretative research design based on the analysis of company case studies. Through a process of inductive coding of six industry case studies we identified and described 41 different ASM in the context of ECS. These 41 ASM were further analysed and classified into seven categories and related subcategories. The resulting classification is visualised and discussed. The findings presented in this paper serve as an essential intermediate step for further in-depth investigations to understand contextual variations in ECS adoption and how these may vary over the life of an ECS project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes to explore the existing literature on the impact of transportation infrastructure on firms' location decision. Using three distinct databases (EconLit, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences and Web of Science), the research identifies 338 potential papers, with 52 of them retained for the analysis. The paper presents a complete descriptive analysis of the selected papers, as well as a meta-analysis based on all the reported statistics. From a quantitative perspective, the meta-analysis results suggest a more positive and significant impact of transport infrastructure on finance, insurance, and real estate activities (FIRE). The meta-analysis also highlights the importance of taking into account the spatial and temporal dimensions of location activities when evaluating the impact of transport infrastructure. The omission of one of those dimensions might lead to overestimation of the effect, and therefore bias in the observed results. • The impact of transport on firms' location is studied using a meta-analysis. • In the worst case scenario, no significant impacts of transport are noted on firms' location. • In the better case scenario, results suggest a positive and significant impact. • Results also imply that the omission of spatial or temporal dimensions in the data might lead to biased results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Besides the firm's individual characteristics, knowledge agglomeration in the firm's environment is a clear determinant of receiving public support for business R&D. • This role is heterogeneous depending on the dimension of knowledge agglomeration considered and the level of governance of public agencies. • National and European agencies seem to value technological relatedness in their allocation of subsidies, while regional agencies focus more on firms in sectors in which the region enjoys a competitive advantage. • The level of sectoral and regional concentration of knowledge affects not only the firms' probability of participating in subsidy programs but also the amount of the subsidy awarded to supported firms. In this paper, we study the role played by different dimensions of knowledge agglomeration as determinants of public subsidies to business R&D. For the analysis, we use firm-level information from the Spanish Panel of Technological Innovation (PITEC) and combine these data with information from other sources at the sectoral–regional level, obtaining an unbalanced panel of 28,082 observations of Spanish firms. Our results suggest that knowledge agglomeration affects both the probability of participation in subsidy programs and the subsidy amount awarded to supported firms. This effect is heterogeneous depending on the dimension of knowledge agglomeration considered (technological relatedness, regional specialization, intrasectoral or upstream knowledge pool, technological cooperation) and the level (regional, national, or European) of governance of public agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strengthening environmental regulation (Reg) is an important measure to solve energy and environmental problems, then to realize the profit sustainable growth (Gro). Taking 116 listed renewable energy enterprises in China from 2010 to 2019 as samples, this paper uses FE and SYS-GMM models to examine the moderating effect of three types of Reg in the relationship of factor market distortions (Dist) and the Gro. The conclusions are as follows: For the direct impact, capital and labor market distortions (DistK and DistL) hinder the Gro. Specifically, the absolute value of the coefficient of DistK in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is greater than that of the DistL, which indicates that the inhibitory effect of DistK in SOEs is more significant. For the indirect impact, the coefficients of economic and supervised environmental regulation (RegE and RegS) are positive and significant, and promote the Gro of SOEs and non-SOEs, while legal environmental regulation (RegL) is the opposite, which shows that Reg has significant "cost effect" and "rebound effect". Moreover, Reg has a positive moderating effect, which is mainly reflected in SOEs, and alleviates the inhibitory effect of DistK and DistL on Gro to a certain extent. Finally, this paper puts forward some targeted policy suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's regional market segmentation weakens the market mechanism, creates convenience for enterprises with high market share to obtain market power, and will eventually reduce the effectiveness of market competition. However, infrastructure such as high-speed rail (HSR) can break the market segmentation and improve the effectiveness of market competition. In this end, based on the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2019, this paper constructed a quasi-natural experiment model to examine the relationship between the opening of high-speed railway and the effectiveness of market competition. This paper finds that: (1) the opening of HSR can help restrain the market power of enterprises with high market share; (2) the opening of HSR has a more significant effect on spatially dispersed industries, low capital-intensive enterprises, non-eastern enterprises, manufacturing industries and non-heavy asset industries; (3) the opening of HSR will inhibit the advantages of enterprises with high market share in expanding sales and R&D innovation, thus reducing their market power. The conclusion still holds after considering important factors such as city administrative level, traditional transportation capacity, company stock price crash risk and merger and reorganization (M&A). The findings of this paper mean that the space-time compression effect brought by the opening of HSR will reduce the market power of enterprises brought by market segmentation, and then improve the effectiveness of market competition. Therefore, we should fully tap the value of HSR to help high-quality economic development. • A theoretical framework of " HSR Opening, Market Segmentation, and Enterprise Market Power " is built. • Market segmentation weakens advantages of cross-regional operations and distort market competition. • The infrastructure such as HSR can break the market segmentation and improve the effectiveness of market competition. • Opening of HSR can help restrain the market power of enterprises with high market share. • Opening of HSR will inhibit the advantages of enterprises with high market share in expanding sales and R&D innovation, thus reducing their market power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high cost of financing is one of the reasons that restrict the development of the real economy. The soundness and development of the capital market can help reduce the cost of corporate financing. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the margin financing and short selling system, this paper takes A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2020 as research samples, and uses a difference in difference model to study the impact and internal mechanism of relaxation of short selling on the cost of equity financing of enterprises. The research indicates that the reduction of short-selling control is significantly negatively related to the company's equity financing cost, and the relaxation of short selling can reduce the cost of equity financing by improving the company's transparency. Further research indicates that the relaxation of short selling restrictions has a more significant effect on reducing the cost of equity financing in private companies and companies with a high level of analyst coverage. This paper enriches the literature in related fields such as margin trading and short selling, equity financing cost, and also provides some theoretical references for government department to strengthen the supervision of financial markets and promote financial system reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation of transmission and distribution cost rationality of power grid enterprises enables governments to scientifically approve power transmission and distribution prices. To depict the impact of environmental differences of power grid enterprises on the evaluation of operational efficiency, we measured and calculated meta-frontier efficiency and group-frontier efficiency of 25 provincial-level grid enterprises in China, from 2016 to 2019, by building a meta-frontier-based super-efficiency DEA model, and ranked them based on meta-frontier efficiency, in this paper. The measurement results show that there are pronounced differences in the operational efficiency levels of power grid enterprises, which are not only related to objective differences in economic development level, geographical environment, and historical burden, but also related to technology and management levels of individual enterprises. The cost rationality evaluation method proposed in this paper lays a foundation for introducing "cost benchmarking" in future power transmission and distribution pricing, providing reference for perfecting the transmission and distribution prices regulatory mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of economic cycle, this paper describes the failure mechanism of the associated credit risk contagion among enterprises by constructing a cascade effect model, and further simulates and analyses the anti-credit risk capability of the enterprise network. It is found that the anti-credit risk capability of the associated enterprise network is enhanced with the increase of enterprises redundant resources. In the process of the prosperity and development of the economic cycle, the credit risks encountered by large enterprises are more likely to cause cascade effect in the enterprise network. This paper expands the application scope of the cascade effect model, and provides a new perspective for enterprises to manage and control credit risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The informal sector can play a role in sustainable development. • Competition from the informal sector can significantly improve the energy efficiency of formal firms, and this result is robust. • Instrumental variable and property score matching method are used to address possible endogeneity issues. • Innovation has a significant mediating effect. Based on micro-evidence, this paper investigates the role of the informal sector in sustainable development. In particular, this paper examines the impact of competition from the informal sector on the energy intensity of firms based on Chinese manufacturing enterprise data. The results indicate that firms reduce their energy intensity in the face of fiercer competition from the informal sector. Competition from the informal sector has a more obvious effect on reducing energy intensity especially for firms with higher energy intensity. The subsample regression results imply prominent regional and enterprise ownership heterogeneity. The mechanism test indicates that competition from the informal sector reduces firm energy intensity by promoting the product innovation, production cost innovation, R&D (Research and Development) activities of formal firms. However, there is no evidence of a crowding-out effect, that is, competition from the informal sector has not been found to squeeze out firms' output and reduce energy intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of firms' digital transformation on labor income share utilizing a large sample of Chinese-listed enterprises from 2003 to 2020, and we find a negative correlation between digital transformation and enterprise labor income share. The results are robust to changing variable indicators, instrumental variable approach, and Difference-in-Difference method. The impact of enterprise digital transformation on labor income share is more pronounced for industrial industry, technology-intensive, and state-owned firms. Product market competition, employee wage bargaining power, and market size are essential in the relationship between enterprise digital transformation and labor income share. This study reveals that protecting employee rights and maintaining fair competition help weaken enterprise digital transformation's negative impact on labor income share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The company's innovativeness is largely influenced by external factors, which is influenced by the increasing demand for new products, pressure from competition, or accelerating the processes of europeanization and globalization. An enterprise described as innovative is considered to be better and more desirable. Businesses recognize that they need to understand where the market is heading and create products and services that fit with it. The entrepreneurs understand that they need to innovate so as not to be left behind. The aim of the paper was to show the importance of the issues of sustainable development in relation to the innovativeness of Polish enterprises. The paper presents the idea of sustainable development, the concept of innovation and sustainable innovation in business. The theoretical considerations have been extended to the presentation of selected projects for sustainable innovations in enterprises in Poland and around the world. The considerations were also enriched with the results of research conducted among the managerial staff of selected Polish enterprises located in the Silesian Voivodeship. The research was conducted in the period November 2021 - March 2022 among companies that were known to have experience in activities related to sustainable development. The aim of the research was to get to know the awareness of management staff about sustainable development and to find out what importance is given in companies to issues related to sustainable development and sustainable innovation, how it affects their company and what actions are taken to further take into account the principles of sustainable development in their activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of green credit policies in the context of sustainable economic development imposes financing constraints on heavily polluting enterprises, placing greater pressure on such enterprises to transform and upgrade. This has become the external driving force behind the diversification of heavily polluting enterprises. Through a sample of listed Chinese companies from 2009 to 2015, this paper uses the implementation of the Green Credit Guidelines in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment and constructs a difference-in-differences model. The empirical evidence shows that the implementation of this green credit policy significantly increased the tendency of heavily polluting enterprises to diversify, and this effect was more obvious among heavily polluting enterprises that are large in scale, have weak governance, are in regions with high marketization levels and whose operating units have already been involved in non-heavily polluting industries. Furthermore, this paper verifies the type and degree of the diversification of heavily polluting enterprises through logistic and Poisson regressions. The results indicate that heavily polluting enterprises tend to enter non-heavily polluting industries by means of business diversification and that this behaviour is not for speculative purposes but is rather an in-depth strategic investment. Therefore, green credit policies help propel the transformation and upgrading of heavily polluting industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamics of superstar firms, introduced by Rosen's seminal work on talent's role in success. The traditional viewpoint posits that technological advancements drive market dominance by highly talented individuals, creating a 'superstars' landscape. The paper challenges this perspective, introducing luck as a crucial and overlooked factor in shaping the success of superstar firms. Using an agent-based model, the study simulates the emergence of superstars in twelve countries. The results suggest that while talent and technology are essential, luck also plays a significant role in the 'rich get richer' phenomenon observed in superstar firms, emphasizing the multifaceted nature of success and suggesting opportune policy strategies to foster true meritocracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms achieve their competitive advantage quickly through the concept framework of open innovation by integrating external inspiration with internal endowment when facing hyper-competition in the digital era. This paper deploys open innovation into building platform blocks by modular operators. These eight modular operators are splitting, augmenting, deleting, substituting, inversing, porting, configuring, and integrating. By means of case studies of two Taiwan Internet vendors, the results depict the manipulation strategies between eight modular operators to fit seven functional requirements for weaving social media, which are presence, identity, sharing, reputation, groups, conversations, and relationship. Finally, this paper advances propositions about the deployment of modularization strategies to develop a competitive platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Community enterprises may play pivotal roles in sustainability transitions, yet are under-researched. • A conceptual framework of the upscaling processes of community enterprises is proposed. • As community enterprises scale up, institutional complexity may arise between the community, market, and corporate logics. • We formulate nine propositions on the sources of institutional complexity and possible managing mechanisms. • The framework is supported by empirical cases from carsharing and renewable energy. Community enterprises may play pivotal roles in sustainability transitions but have received limited attention in the transitions literature. This paper proposes a framework for theorising the challenges that community enterprises face as they scale up due to the rising institutional complexity of their organisational model, combining the institutional logics of community, market, and corporation. We conceptualise the upscaling processes of community enterprises by distinguishing between the community volunteerism phase, the niche creation phase and the niche expansion phase. We formulate nine propositions on how institutional complexity arises and on possible mechanisms to manage it in each phase of the upscaling process. Our theoretical framework is supported by empirical research on carsharing and renewable energy initiatives in Western Europe. The paper concludes with some avenues for further research on community enterprises in sustainability transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to investigate the impact of ESG factors on the performance of information technology (IT) companies. The paper analyzes the position of IT companies in the ESG rating relative to other industries, highlights the key strengths and weaknesses in their ESG components. It is shown that IT companies are not currently the leaders in terms of ESG rating, which leads to the conclusion that IT companies have the opportunity to develop their ESG practice, if its development will improve the position of the company and will have a positive effect on its performance. On the basis of the studied literature, the author formulated that market value of the company is the most suitable as an indicator for assessing the influence of ESG factors on it. In addition, the paper formulates hypotheses that can be used to test the influence of ESG on the market value of IT companies, developed a model to assess such an influence and provide recommendations for data sample. The author intends to continue research and test the formulated hypotheses with the developed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of separating the affiliated businesses from rail operations and the associated efficiency gain on firms' exporting decisions by rail. First, an economic model was built to analytically show that an efficiency improvement in rail operations would increase the firm's product variety but decreases the skewness of export by rail. The paper then utilized China's rail reform to separate the affiliated businesses from the rail sector in 2003 as a quasi-natural experiment and adopted the difference-in-differences (DID) method to empirically verify and quantify the analytical findings. Specifically, it is found the reform to separate the affiliated businesses significantly improved the efficiency of China's rail operations. The resultant efficiency gain then encouraged firms to export by rail, with more variety of export products and higher value. More importantly, the firm's skewness of export by rail has also been reduced. The relevant policy implications have also been provided. • This paper considers China's rail reform to separate the affiliated businesses from the rail sector in 2003. • We examine the effects of the reform on the efficiency of rail operations and the product mix of export by rail. • We find that the reform improved the efficiency of China's rail operations. • Firms' skewness of export by rail was reduced by the reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon trading is widely used as a carbon finance instrument to promote green transformation. This paper focuses on carbon trading's impact on the bond spread for high-carbon enterprises. Using variation in carbon trading access due to pilot policies in China, we find that bonds issued by high-carbon enterprises participating in the carbon trading pilots have lower spreads. Furthermore, the results suggest that carbon trading reduces bond spreads by encouraging high-carbon enterprises to improve their environmental performance. Another channel is the information asymmetry between bondholders and enterprises. More active carbon markets provide investors with more information about enterprises' motivations for reducing carbon emissions, leading to a greater reduction in bond spreads. In addition, the impact of carbon trading is more significant in local SOEs, high-innovation enterprises, and longer-term bonds. Our research helps us understand the importance of carbon trading in achieving a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In smart enterprise systems, augmented IoT can efficiently improve the decision-making, handling, and generation of a huge amount of information during communication. However, Augmented Internet-of-Things (AIoT) leads to various security and trust issues when transmitting information through intermediate devices. In a case where malicious devices can easily integrate with legitimate devices, it can further affect and interfere with the overall performance of the network system. Though various security surveys have been illustrated and schemes have been proposed by scientists, however, all of them are in their early stages. This paper proposes a trusted decision-making mechanism called Active Recognition Trust (ART), using AIoT for handling smart enterprise systems. The proposed mechanism integrates active recognition and associated reference mechanisms to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the secure transmission process by computing a trust value for each device using impact factors of function fusion systems before information exchanges. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism can efficiently enhance performance while improving the accuracy of recognizing legitimate devices by reducing or eliminating interference from malicious devices. The proposed mechanism is evaluated using the transmission ratio, identification accuracy, average trust, and run cycle compared to the existing mechanisms. Further, the proposed mechanism achieves approximately 89% better improvement than the baseline approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing evidence suggests that a large share of international trade transactions are made through intermediaries and that whether firms use them or not depends on different factors. The aim of this paper is to empirically investigate if credit constraints introduce a degree of difference among firms in their mode of importing. Building on the intuition provided by a simple theoretical framework, we use firm-level data from 66 developing and developed countries to test the possible links between credit constraints and reliance on import intermediaries. Our results show that indeed credit-constrained firms exhibit a higher probability of importing their inputs using an intermediary, while unconstrained firms are more likely to import directly. Our results also provide some evidence that the impact of credit constraints on the probability of indirect importing is amplified for firms with a higher distance from their international sourcing network. Moreover, if firms face other types of frictions to import, then the probability that credit-constrained firms rely on intermediaries is estimated to be higher. Remarkably, credit rationing affects the probability of indirect importing no matter what the mode of exporting is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect of local fiscal pressure and corporate tax avoidance behavior using the abolish of agricultural tax reform as a quasi-natural experiment. We show that sudden loss of fiscal revenue results in reduction in tax evasion through encouraging firms to improve their productivity. This incentive for tax liability can be strengthened if the firm: (1) located in areas with relatively tough tax enforcement; (2) are non-state-owned enterprises; (3) located in areas where local officials face more promotion incentives; (4) is in highly competitive industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses why organizational growth can cause crises in the governance of firms, how such crises typically unfold, and what options for responding they leave for management. More specifically, focus is on growth-induced changes in how the governance of an organization coordinates its members on, and motivate them to contribute to, the pursuit of the common purpose. As outlined by means of two distinct examples, governance approaches differ with respect to the solution of coordination and motivation problems. Nonetheless, when the organization size grows, adaptations in the firm members' cognitive and motivational attitudes occur and tend to similarly undermine the governance of the organization. As a consequence, confusion, frictions, and internal rivalries increase and work effort declines. The unfolding of such crises is shown to be a case of a self-organizing criticality, a unique feature of nonlinear dynamics. Once the crisis has emerged, the cognitive and motivational conditions characterizing the outmoded governance approach constrain the options for making a transition to one that is better suited for the growing number of employees. Failure to accomplish such a transition results in any case in a state of muddling through with an outmoded governance approach that jeopardizes profitability and, in the longer run, the existence of the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Company's document stream highly challenge classical neural networks because it is imbalanced and incomplete. • There is multiple solutions to manage imbalanced, our best solution is to combine them. • Incompleteness is more difficult and require to include few-shot learning methods. • Our best proposition is to use adapted neural networks and few-shot learning methods successively in a cascade. Documents are essential nowadays and present everywhere. In order to manage the vast amount of documents managed by companies, a first step consists in automatically determining the type of the document (its class). Even if automatic classification has been widely studied in the state of the art, the strongly imbalanced context and industrial constraints bring new challenges which were not studied till now: how to classify as many documents as possible with the highest precision, in an imbalanced context and with some classes missing during training? To this end, this paper proposes to study two different solutions to address these issues. The first is a multimodal neural network reinforced by an attention model and an adapted loss function that is able to classify a great variety of documents. The second is a combination method that uses a cascade of systems to offer a gradual solution for each issue. These two options provide good results as well in ideal context than in imbalanced context. This comparison outlines the limitations and the future challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supplier selection is a decision of strategic nature that significantly influences a company's competitive advantage. The supplier selection criteria list has evolved over the years. Traditional criteria are: cost, quality and delivery. In manufacturing industry, those were highlighted as being the most important supplier selection criteria. The paper focuses on of the steel industry company in Poland. The evaluation sheets in this enterprise are the basis for creating a vendor ranking. However, they do not contain evaluation criteria in line with the sustainable development strategy. The discussed company requires introducing significant changes in the supplier selection criteria. Thus, the aim of this paper is to implement a method that will help in the selection of suppliers. Studied company operates in the area of ​​prefabrication of steel structures. In the paper, the AHP method is used. The results show dominant position of 3 suppliers out of 11. Moreover, the case study shows that in analyzed enterprise managers do not use the evaluation criteria that are in line with the sustainable development strategy. Thus, this area requires introducing significant changes in the supplier selection criteria in this company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) present enormous uncertainties and challenges for future urban transport and mobility. While urban and transportation planning have significant roles to play in shaping these futures, a critical challenge is identifying and reconciling divergent values and competing visions in relation to this potentially disruptive transport technology and the associated mobility services. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of a participatory multi-criteria visioning and appraisal framework and methodology to enable stakeholders to envision, identify and interrogate essential tensions between imagined AV futures and long-term transport and mobility imperatives. Based on workshops with stakeholders at the forefront of policy and practice, and academia in Greater Manchester (UK) and Melbourne (Australia), we reveal several insights. Regarding the prospects of AVs, our participants are neither 'opponents' nor 'evangelists', but instead, manifest the contrasting attitudes and perspectives of excitement, optimism, ambivalence, scepticism and uncertainty all at the same time. In the visions outlined and appraised, our stakeholders identify AVs prospects in various use cases, such as public transport, personal and shared-use and urban freight and delivery applications, while at the same time recognising the inherent contradictions between automated driving futures outlined and imperatives such as reversing auto-mobility and creating safe and inclusive urban environments. Finally, the study brings to the fore the significant role of governance in mediating the politics and resolving contestations in critical areas including data management and privacy, cybersecurity and implementing viable business models and ownership arrangements. • Develop and apply participatory multi-criteria framework to envision and appraise automated driving futures. • Identify and interrogate essential tensions between imagined AV futures and long-term transport and mobility imperatives. • Identify AVs prospects in various use cases, such as public transport, personal and shared-use. • Inherent contradictions between automated driving, reversing auto-mobility and creating safe urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the change of provincial leaders in 31 provincial administrative regions in China as the breakthrough point, we choose China's A-share non-financial listed companies from 2008 to 2019 as a research sample to empirically test the impact mechanism of political uncertainty on firm cost stickiness. The study reveals that local companies will reduce their cost stickiness when officials' replacement increases political uncertainty, and this cost decision is directly related to the heterogeneity of officials' characteristics. After eliminating time and economic variables from political fluctuations, we discover that the political features of official change have a significant impact on cost stickiness both in the year before and after the official change. Furthermore, through a detailed examination of the three drivers of cost stickiness, we demonstrate that political uncertainty exacerbates managers' pessimism and establish the path of management sentiment, excluding the drivers of adjustment costs and agency problems. This paper opens up the black box that political uncertainty affects firm cost stickiness by introducing the heterogeneity of officials' characteristics into the study and presenting empirical evidence of political uncertainty and cost stickiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As public resources are scarce, investments from the private sector are essential to scale up rural electrification and thus to achieve universal access to electricity by 2030. However, the lack of clear public policies, together with a high perceived risk, have been a deterrent to investors' participation in off-grid electrification projects. In this paper, we focus on identifying the main drivers of risk, namely the set of uncertainties and perceived risks that prevent private companies from investing in off-grid electrification projects. We use a stochastic discount cash flow technique — net present value (NPV) combined with Monte Carlo simulation — to incorporate these uncertainties and quantify the business and investment risks associated with an off-grid solar PV project. The technique is applied to the case of Colombia, wherein major contributors to risk are the variability in revenues and the annual revenue growth rate. For this case, we estimate the probability of project failure and investigate how private companies could mitigate risks by keeping operating costs to <50 % of revenues. In this regard, the role of the government proves to be essential in providing a better investment environment for private investors. We suggest that government interventions could take the form of financial de-risking instruments, including better-designed end-user subsidies and the implementation of concession agreements through long-term contracts. These results are of interest to private investors who need to account for risk analysis when deciding whether to invest or not in off-grid projects. Also, our findings guide policymakers seeking to understand the private sector perspective while designing efficient policy mechanisms to increase access to electricity in developing countries. • Investments from the private sector and better-designed tariffs are essential to scale-up rural electrification • Monte Carlo Simulation with multiple sources of uncertainty • Stand-alone PV systems are a cost-effective solution to expand electricity access • Revenue uncertainty impacts the variability of the NPV of the project • Business Risk affects the off-grid private companies' willingness to invest [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we will examine how innovation, which is the source of competitiveness of good companies, is managed in their organizational structure by combining patent-based network analysis, the Business Model Canvas, one of the tools for practical activities for new businesses, and the perspective of ISO 56000, and by analyzing Fujifilm's The analysis was conducted focusing on the period when Fujifilm underwent a major corporate transformation. As a result, we could distinguish between the organizational structure of the genus-based approach and the organizational structure of the organization-based approach based on the network diagram and the relationship between proximity centrality and eigenvector centrality. It was also suggested that a deeper analysis of new business development activities, e.g., "What aspects should be improved?" would be possible by overlaying the analysis results from the perspective of the Business Model Canvas and the ISO 56000 innovation management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience of highly developed countries proves that innovation is the driving force of economy. Emerging economies should in particular be focused on innovation, in order to achieve higher productivity and boost their competitive advantage. This is especially important in the current reality of disruptive changes related to IT and ICT new technologies rapid emergence. Technologies already partly adopted on the ground of industrial automation lead to further implementations in many sectors of economy. The reality is often adverse. This particularly concerns insufficient activities of enterprises with respect to intellectual assets creation. Although some progress is observed, emerging economies enterprises rather applicate existing solutions, than invest in their own intellectual assets. Furthermore, financial performance measures concerning innovation activity of enterprises often provide mixed findings. In this context, the purpose of this paper was threefold: to propose a practical set of adjusted performance measures, to verify if innovators sustain performance development and receive additional economic profits, and finally to encourage stronger innovation engagement of managers and entrepreneurs. The results of this empirical study proved that the selected group of enterprises generated positive performance development within three perspectives: financial, economic and intellectual capital efficiency. Moreover, these enterprises seem to have additional innovation bias revealed by further investments of retained profits in new implementations, which should also be taken into consideration with respect to performance measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multinational firms indicate that the threat of trade secret misappropriation by current and former employees remains a substantial impediment to conducting business in emerging markets. In this paper, I examine the economic implications of strengthening international standards in trade secret protection. I develop a general equilibrium model featuring heterogeneous firms that differ in the degree to which they must expose employees to trade secrets. To prevent employee misappropriation, firms offer incentive compatible wage premiums based on their individual exposure and the common level of legal protection. Entry selection into the international market generates an endogenous distribution of firm specific wages and positive unemployment in equilibrium. I find that stronger protection stimulates multinational investment and increases aggregate productivity. However, distributional effects leave many workers worse-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the level of digital maturity and business resilience in microenterprises in Ibero- America immediately after Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The results of 7265 surveys of microbusinesses in 18 countries were analyzed. It was found that businesses with a higher level of digital maturity presented a higher level of resilience understood as an improvement in their sales after facing a crisis such as the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS) have increasingly been introduced as core components of the digital workplace. Organizations have a range of different goals that they want to achieve when they implement a new collaboration software. In our paper, we argue that traditional controlling indicators with a focus on delivery dates and costs are not suitable to measure the return on investment and the benefit that a user company can achieve from the digital support of work. Conventional indicators provide limited value because they cannot be used to directly attribute the contribution of a digital collaboration project to the achievement of corporate goals. The research described in this paper is part of a long-term university-industry research initiative and the findings contribute to a broader understanding of the metric-based analysis of benefits from ECS use in organizations. We present a method for developing and applying "metrics profiles" to ECS, which makes it possible to analyze the realization of benefits over time. The method was tested and evaluated using non-reactive ECS data from an operational collaboration platform that has been in operation for more than seven years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 is a popular topic in management literature, but it is also an interdisciplinary subject, maintaining a strong engineering connotation. Firm decision-making processes are more and more affected by Industry 4.0 which has introduced numerous tools that benefit and greatly support business activities. In this domain, the focus of this paper is the information made available to stakeholders on Industry 4.0 tools in use through a content analysis of the Annual Reports of the main European innovative firms (from the top ten of the Boston Consulting Group ranking). The analysis seeks to highlight how firms describe and qualify these tools in terms of impact (risk, strategy or environmental), the perspective used in illustrating them (managerial or engineering) as well as the temporal orientation of the information provided (present, past, future or none). Results show that innovative European firms pay attention and use these tools, in different ways and for different purposes. The paper has both theoretical and managerial implications. From a theoretical point of view, it contributes to study and further the literature on Industry 4.0 and its instruments, while from a managerial perspective, it gives a better understanding of how these innovative tools can be communicated to external stakeholders, especially investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New technologies supporting cyber-physical enterprise systems with respect to online decision-making based on up-to-date data, require networked sensor and actor systems in place. Interoperability is a key factor when supporting systems in a system-of-systems. In this paper, we survey approaches on Enterprise Interoperability with special attention to the Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Enterprise. The paper identifies the need for interoperability in system-of-systems in contrast to integration in a single system. Also identified are issues due to insufficient support for physical aspects of systems. An application scenario from the manufacturing domain will serve to underpin the developed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, five evaluation indexes were determined for the evaluation of the node importance of the eco-industrial system, and a comprehensive evaluation method based on the network load was established by introducing the cascade effect model of complex network. Then, by combining the process of industrial production and the operation status of each raw material and production point, the paper analyzes the important sites by using the model principle of cascade effect in the actual production, and designs the optimization scheme on the basis of saving the cost of the enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disclosure is the soul of supervision, the bridge between companies and investors, and can help public fully understand companies' business operations. The disclosure quality of listed companies' annual reports affects security market efficiency and investor rights protection. Currently, there are issues including but not limited to contradictory information and avoidance of important problems. Moreover, the qualities of disclosure reports from different companies vary greatly. This paper is to focus on annual reports of listed companies, dividing them into two categories based on the assessment results of disclosure by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and conducting the research on textual characteristics. Firstly, three characteristic indicators, tone, readability, and file size of each annual report are analyzed and compared, with validation. To explore the impact of characteristic indicators on text classification, these three indicators are introduced into text models, constructing comprehensive models. To achieve dimension reduction for training models, feature selection is performed by using Chi-square statistics. Different lengths keywords dictionaries are constructed. In conclusion, prediction performance of classifier models can be improved or maintained after introducing indicators, with the random forest model having the best improvement after introduction of indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently businesses began to consider different initiatives of integrating ESG activities into business decision-making process. The key initiative is maintaining non-financial reporting and performance integration when aligning value creation activities with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) and communicating to stakeholders. Particularly, this is true for ESG positioning of the company in the context of the ESG performance-disclosure dichotomy. The purpose of the paper is to understand what kind of ESG practices' factors influence value of companies from oil & gas and industrials sectors of the economy in developed capital markets the most in ESG performance-disclosure dichotomy. Our sample consists of 5388 observations of oil & gas and industrials companies for the period from 2016 to 2021. The results showed that investors do not appreciate either performance or disclosure separately, but they look at the activity of the firm in complex. Therefore, the company should employ both practices in order to be sound ESG-responsible company in the eyes of the market. The conclusions of the study could be of interest to companies building an ESG strategy to increase investor loyalty and improve financial performance. As well as to potential investors to evaluate companies and build an investment strategy implementing non-financial factors into decision making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• From 2010 to 2017, chinese imports in south africa's manufacturing sector grew rapidly from 5 per cent of total domestic consumption to over 8 per cent. • Chinese imports have negatively affected employment growth, sales growth and the survival rate of manufacturing firms in south africa. • Chinese import competition has a systemic impact on the south african manufacturing sector, propagating from one firm to another through domestic input–output linkages. • Within industries, firms that invest relatively more intensively in capabilities development tend to be less hard hit by chinese import penetration than other firms. Using firm-level tax administrative data from 2010 to 2017, we study the extent to which Chinese import penetration has affected the growth performances of manufacturing firms registered in South Africa. By instrumenting Chinese imports to South Africa with Chinese exports to other developing countries, this paper analyses both the systemic and heterogeneous impact of Chinese import penetration on South Africa-based manufacturing firms. First, we study whether China's import competition has been associated with a downsizing of manufacturing firms in terms of decreasing employment and sales growth, and higher probability of exiting the market, both within the same sector (direct import penetration's effect) and across sectors along domestic value chains through input–output linkages (indirect import penetration's effect). Second, we test whether firms investing more intensively in their capabilities development—notably in their skills development, production technologies and related process upgrading —are better able to cope with such direct and indirect competitive pressure. Our results indicate that rising exposure to Chinese imports—not only direct one, but also in downstream segments of the domestic value chain—leads to slower sales and employment growth for the entire sample of surviving firms and to a higher probability of shutdown for firms not undertaking significant investments in their capabilities development. However, we also find that, within industries, firms investing relatively more intensively in skills development, production technologies and related process upgrading are more likely to survive and grow despite rising import competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a financial innovation driven by digital technology, FinTech has a significant impact on the traditional financial system and the real economy. Existing studies mainly focus on the application of FinTech in the fields of banking and capital markets, less attention is paid to the firm-level evidence, especially the discussion of enterprise capital structure. In fact, when a company's capital structure has a high proportion of debt, it is considered overleveraged, which could produce devastating impacts on the sustainable development of firms and the entire capital market. This paper explores solutions to address corporate excess leverage from the perspective of FinTech. Using Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2020 as a sample, we find that regional FinTech significantly reduces financing constraints and improves stock liquidity, which is beneficial for the alleviation of excess leverage The results hold after a battery of robustness tests. Moreover, the heterogeneity analysis shows that this impact is more pronounced for private enterprises and companies with a relatively low degree of capital market liberalization. This study aims to provide alternative solutions to avoid excess corporate leverage in China and other emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies in engineer–to–order (ETO) manufacturing environments that seek efficiency gains through adopting a mass customisation strategy meet significant challenges. The implementation of the mass customisation (MC) strongly focuses on transitioning from mass production. The purpose of this study is to identify current areas of concern and operational challenges when adopting mass customisation principles in ETO companies. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was carried to evaluate the challenges the Portuguese Industry faces in the moulding companies' sectors and how they are improving their ability to meet deadlines. The study will look at ways of boosting customer satisfaction by providing unique products at a relatively low cost. The study exposed issues of MC in ETO companies in general, it is critical to achieving more efficient use of resources, workflow, and innovative management methods and approaches to deal with the variability and complexity of this manufacturing system. The competitive pressure to achieve better efficiency and effectiveness in this type of organisation requires constantly searching for new concepts and tools that can be developed and applied. Furthermore, this paper explores the ETO companies' significant difficulties and the technical and scientific solutions used and proposed as its significant contribution, as well as a proposal for future research and development to increase ETO companies' resilience and performance level in managing their value chain and executing operations in response to customer requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]