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What are the consequences of the rise of foreign state-led investment for international politics? Existing research oscillates between a 'geopolitical' and a 'commercial' logic driving this type of investment and remains inconclusive about its wider international reverberations. In this paper, I suggest going beyond this dichotomy by analyzing its systemic consequences. To do so, I conceptually delineate a geoeconomic approach that emphasizes the globalized nature of foreign state investment. I argue that foreign state investment creates system-level patterns, which can be studied by observing similar sectoral and geographic investment behavior. I map this phenomenon globally for the first time, drawing on the largest dataset on foreign state investment. Empirically, I show how foreign state investment is highly concentrated in Europe, North America and East Asia, and is owned by a handful of dominant states. It is especially European geo-industrial clusters that represent the hotspots of such concentration. The findings also suggest that three global industries - energy production, high-tech manufacturing, and transportation and logistics - form the key areas for current and future state-led investment concentration. With these contributions, the paper illuminates the increasing presence of states as owners in the global political economy, and facilitates its study as a geoeconomic phenomenon.

Following state-level legal changes that increase labor dismissal costs, firms increase their innovation in new processes that facilitate the adoption of cost-saving production methods, especially in industries with a large share of labor costs in total costs. Firms with high innovation ability exhibit larger increases in process innovation and capital-labor ratios - an effect driven by both increases in capital investment and decreases in employment. By facilitating the adjustment of the input mix when conditions in input markets change, innovation ability allows firms to mitigate value losses and is a key driver of their performance.

The “buy online and pick up in store” (BOPS) mode is gaining tremendous popularity among retailers since it is convenient for consumers and brings additional store sales to retailers. However, operating the BOPS channel requires additional investment, which is a challenge for retailers. This article considers the pricing strategies of competing dual-channel retailers, focuses on whether and when they should adopt the BOPS strategy, and explores the impacts of market factors on the equilibrium outcomes. Since retailers’ decisions are usually made sequentially in reality, we use the Stackelberg game model to analyze retailers’ optimal strategies. First, we show that the follower's price is not always lower than the leader's price. Specifically, when the unit additional profit from cross-selling of the follower is low enough, the follower will set a higher price than the leader. Second, we find that retailers prefer the BOPS strategy when the fixed costs for offering BOPS channels are low enough, or when the difference between the additional profits from cross-selling of two retailers is sufficiently large. Third, we present an interesting insight: an increase in product return probability or retailer cost of handling a returned product can be beneficial to retailers.

With the diversity of customer needs and complexity of technology innovation, many high-tech small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) turn to open innovation, to produce the perfect match between market demands and firm resources. However, questions still exist in relation to open innovation in SMEs. Based on a framework combining both inbound and outbound open innovation with the four-stage new product development (NPD) process, this article explores the open innovation strategies adopted by high-tech SMEs in emerging economies for NPD and the reasons behind it through case studies. Results show that high-tech SMEs in emerging economies selectively adopt open innovation for NPD at different stages with various partners based on their needs. High-tech SMEs prefer to be closed to protect the know-how at the experimentation stage. Regarding the open innovation strategy, at ideation stage, SMEs adopt inbound open innovation for basic research and customer knowledge, while at manufacturing and commercialization stages, SMEs conduct both inbound and outbound open innovation. The analysis raises awareness of customer knowledge and customization to high-tech SMEs for NPD. This article contributes to the theories and practices on open innovation in SMEs.

This paper estimates the effect on innovation of increased market access facilitated by trade liberalization. We use a novel empirical design that exploits tariff cuts during the 1990s, along with detailed data on innovation among firms from 65 countries. Our results reveal a large effect of tariff cuts on innovation as measured by patent data, suggesting that multilateral liberalization has promoted innovation and growth. These effects are not driven by the deterioration of innovation quality, and the results are robust to controlling for changes in the patent system and to industry-wide trends in innovation.

With the development of e-commerce, manufacturers now have the opportunity to compete with existing retail channels by introducing their direct channels. Encroachment weakens the strength of retail channels, which may affect the manufacturer's decision on whether to provide trade credit financing to retailers. This study investigates the strategic interaction between manufacturer's encroachment and retailers’ financing choices (trade credit financing or external financing) in a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and two capital-constrained retailers. We find that only encroachment cost below a certain threshold will make the manufacturer encroach on the market, while manufacturer encroachment is harmful to capital-constrained retailers. Surprisingly, these retailers can expand the ratios of equity financing in anticipation of manufacturer encroachment, which is a new strategic role of equity financing. In addition, the more intense the channel competition (the larger the credit gap between the two retailers) is, the less (more) likely the manufacturer will be to encroach. Further, we find that retailers prefer trade credit (external) financing at a low (high) bank loan interest rate in a non-encroachment scenario, while they prefer external financing in an encroachment scenario. However, the manufacturer always prefers the case that both retailers choosing external financing. Finally, there are financing choice conflicts between the manufacturer and retailers in the non-encroachment scenario. A high-credit retailer choosing trade credit financing may make all members achieve a Pareto improvement when the credit gap between two retailers is large; otherwise, both retailers choosing external financing is a Pareto improvement.

This note examines how recent volatile fluctuations of world commodity prices due to the COVID-19 shock affect Asian commodity exporting economies. Our analysis shows that a drop in world commodity prices has a significant negative impact on output, consumption, and investment of sample countries. However, the impact on trade balance is positive in some countries and negative in others. The difference between these two groups is attributable to whether world commodity prices affect each country's interest rate spreads.

This paper studies international transmission of U.S. monetary policy shocks to commodity exporters and importers. After first showing empirically that the shocks have stronger effects on commodity exporters than on importers, I then augment a standard three-country model to include commodities. Consistent with the empirical evidence, the model indicates that an expansionary monetary policy shock to the U.S. increases the aggregate output of commodity exporters by more than that of importers. This is because the increased U.S. aggregate demand triggered by the shock leads to greater U.S. demand for commodities and higher real commodity prices, and thus the exports of commodity exporters increase relative to those of commodity importers. Furthermore, I show that if commodity exporters’ currencies are pegged to the U.S. dollar, then the U.S. monetary policy shocks have stronger spillovers to commodity exporters and importers. In the event that the U.S. becomes a net energy exporter, the shocks will have weaker effects on commodity exporters and stronger impacts on importers.

Debt-shared bank financing, as an innovative and collaborative financing scheme, allows the supplier to (partially) share the retailer’s bank loan obligation, including principal and interest. We study the operational and financial decisions of a chain with a supplier (Stackelberg leader) selling to a capital-constrained retailer via a debt-shared contract. We derive the equilibrium debt-shared coefficient, wholesale price, order quantity and bank’s interest rate with the retailer in different wealth regions. The very poor retailer always accepts debt-sharing and earns a profit, even if the supplier sets the wholesale price up to the retail price. The medium poor retailer might enter a supplier’s debt-sharing hole (a retailer’s wealth region) and acquire zero profit, by using debt-sharing with a wholesale price up to the retail price. For the medium poor retailer outside the hole or the medium rich retailer, the supplier offers either an optimal debt-shared bank financing contract or an optimal price-only contract at her benefit, mainly depending on the production cost and the retailer’s capital. Under debt-shared bank financing, both the supplier’s profit and the chain’s efficiency improve. The retailer might overstock when the production cost is high. Computational studies show the not very rich retailer’s profit is a bowl-shaped function of his capital and the bottom is the hole. The very poor retailer might earn a larger profit than under the optimal price-only contract. The supplier’s profit is unimodal and it achieves globally optimum in the hole (at the upper bound of the hole if production cost is low).

In this article, we investigate the relative roles of local tax policies and respondent attitudes and characteristics in shaping support for local taxes. Using a unique set of survey data collected across dozens of cities over several years, combined with contextual data on local tax systems, we can offer a comprehensive picture of who supports, and who opposes local taxes. The contributions of our approach are three-fold: We use measures of satisfaction with local taxes, using data gathered across dozens of localities; we incorporate measures of the local tax systems to help account for city-to-city variation in local tax attitudes; and we incorporate measures of racial attitudes to account for an important non-material element heretofore not incorporated in studies of local tax attitudes. Integrating these factors into an explanation of local tax policies rounds out and offers a more realistic understanding of attitudes in this critical policy area.

This exploratory study aims at understanding the social aspects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by suggesting how the interface involving technological innovation and social innovation can resolve societal and socioeconomic problems with stress on sustainable development. The authors view social innovation and social enterprise as new amalgam for solving social problems in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. By applying theoretical analysis of the existing literature about the correlation between the Fourth Industrial Revolution and social innovation and social enterprise, they aim to describe the opportunities, forms, and the challenges unfolding in this new age. UK and China case studies will provide the empirical evidences that could support social innovators and social enterprises understand the implications in fields of application of the Fourth Industrial Revolution plus the interplay between them.

Using entrepreneurial discovery theory, this study explains how digital applications can drive entrepreneurial alertness across heterogenous innovation ecosystems. A diverse set of stakeholders have been analyzed when performing entrepreneurial discovery tasks on a digital platform ecosystem. A quantitative survey-based experimentation phase with 686 individuals was conducted in two moderate-innovation ecosystems—Greece and Spain—and two defined as innovation leaders—Scotland and the Netherlands—on the European Innovation Scoreboard. Based on structural equation models, the findings show that digital applications, including discovery tasks, facilitate entrepreneurial alertness regardless of the innovation ecosystem in which the user operates. Additionally, Kruskal-Wallis tests reinforce that the relationship between perceived quality of digital applications for discovery tasks and perceived entrepreneurial alertness remains significantly positive despite heterogeneity across stakeholders and innovation ecosystem. Through its psychological foundations, this work reveals how digital technologies alert any kind of individual to potential entrepreneurial opportunities. It thus contributes to research on digital economies by evaluating digital technologies’ potential to boost psychological starting drivers of any entrepreneurial endeavor across innovation ecosystem. Although this study is of interest to a wide range of stakeholders, it is particularly relevant for potential entrepreneurs and policymakers as an inspiration for new ideas to strengthen sustainable innovation ecosystems., Technovation, 118, ISSN:0166-4972

Design thinking has been widely embraced as an approach that fosters discussion and facilitates innovations that promote inclusion and empowerment in the public and private sectors. However, recent...

This paper examines the effects of commodity demand and supply shocks as well as international liquidity shocks on the small open economy of Brazil using an SVAR model. The paper highlights the importance of modelling both types of shocks in the commodity sector. Including only commodity prices overstates the effect of commodity price shocks on the output of Brazil. Commodity demand shocks are much larger than commodity supply shocks in the long run. Including commodity demand and international liquidity also reduces the impact of commodity price shocks on the interest rate made available to Brazil in international capital markets. There is little evidence of Dutch disease for Brazil. However, our results show that Brazil is vulnerable to external shocks.

We investigate the design of a supplier’s wholesale price contract and a third-party logistics (3PL) firm’s joint logistics and financing services contract in a three-tier supply chain comprising a supplier, a 3PL firm, and a newsvendor-like retailer with capital constraints. The retailer can apply for bank financing or 3PL financing for purchasing when necessary. All members engage in a Stackelberg game with the supplier functioning as the leader. Our analysis indicates that the 3PL who finances the retailer with a low interest rate induces the retailer to order more, thereby causing the 3PL to obtain more profit from logistics services. The supplier benefits from 3PL financing by receiving a larger order from the retailer. Compared with bank financing, a retailer whose working capital level is not too low can benefit more with 3PL financing owing to lower purchasing (ordering and transportation costs) and financing costs. We further conclude that all members’ optimal decisions remain unchanged when the 3PL is also capital constrained but can borrow from a bank. We examine the retailer and supplier’s issues when the 3PL functions as the game leader instead of the supplier, and numerically demonstrate that the retailer and 3PL are better off while the supplier is worse off under 3PL leadership. Our results explain why 3PLs are willing to finance retailers’ inventories in business practice and suggest that 3PLs should set low financing interest rates to improve channel performances.

Retailers often experience stockouts when a supplier fails to deliver an order. In this paper, we identify the optimal procurement policy of a multi-product retailer in the presence of possible supply disruptions. Our analysis reveals that, in anticipation of potential supply disruptions, a retailer would typically benefit from ordering more units from a reliable supplier and fewer units from an unreliable one. Furthermore, the total number of units ordered may increase when there is supply disruption risk. As a result, the retailer may overstock some items. However, there are situations in which a retailer would optimally respond to supply uncertainty by consolidating its selling strategy around the unreliable supplier’s product. Under such a strategy, we find the surprising result that the retailer reduces the amount it orders from a reliable supplier as an unreliable seller becomes even less reliable. We also explore how supply disruptions can affect a retailer’s optimal pricing strategy. We find that under certain conditions, it is beneficial for a retailer to lower its price of a substitute product when one supplier fails to deliver its product. Finally, we find that, on net, consumers may benefit from supply uncertainty even though supply disruptions eliminate access to a desirable product.

The ways in which emergent technologies are disrupting retailing are manifold. The Internet, social media, mobile technologies, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, and natural user interfaces all combine to grant consumers access to more information and channels than ever before, through virtually seamless connections with retailers, competitors, and other consumers. The resulting transformations, due to such technologies, thus are widespread, affecting retail marketplaces, the retailing industry, retail real estate, and consumers’ behaviors in terms of where and how they shop for products and services. In response to these changing circumstances, retailers develop innovative strategies and new business models in their efforts to enter, expand, and defend their markets. This special issue offers some insights, with the objective of motivating researchers to undertake in-depth investigations of the effects of new, emergent technologies, on both retailers and evolving consumer behaviors.

As more retailers ask customers for their attitudes following a consumption experience, it becomes increasingly important to understand the role of response modality and customer honesty. This research examines when customers tell “white lies” while providing feedback. Five studies reveal that customer attitudes solicited through dynamic communication modes are more inflated than attitudes solicited through other modalities. However, attitude construction is an important moderator to these effects. When customers construct an attitude on the spot through dynamic communication modes, attitudes are significantly inflated when compared to static communication modes. When attitudes exist prior to providing feedback, response modality no longer plays an important role. Marketers should not, however, discount inflated attitudes. Extending research on lying, communication modes, and attitude dissimulation, findings here also show that inflated attitudes can have a lasting and positive impact when customers form attitudes about a product or service for the first time.

Although many studies have evaluated the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) development on transportation connectivity and accessibility, it remains unclear to what extent the introduction of HSR may influence the operational capacities of freight and conventional passenger rail services. This paper addresses this question by examining the spatial and temporal variations of transport capacities of different rail systems. In addition, the interaction effects of different rail systems were investigated using a structural equation model. The results reveal that the spatial and temporal evolution of operational capacity varies significantly among freight, conventional passenger, and high-speed passenger rail systems. Moreover, HSR was found to have a substitutional effect on conventional passenger rail, although the effects vary spatially in different corridors. Furthermore, the operational capacity of conventional passenger rail is negatively associated with that of freight rail, which confirms that a service cut in conventional passenger rail contributes to an increase in the capacity of freight rail. The analysis also demonstrates that HSR promotes the expansion of freight rail capacity through its substitutional effect on conventional passenger rail. These findings provide important implications for transportation planners to optimize operational plans, in order to improve the performance of various rail services.

Business ecosystems are an important form of inter-organizational cooperation and potential driver of a company’s success. Strong ecosystems strike a balance between their actors’ cooperative value contribution and competitive value appropriation. However, our understanding of the value that an ecosystem actor’s contributed input (any resource and/or capability) adds to the ecosystem is so far limited. Building on a review of the resource-based view (RBV), the institutional view, and the ecosystem literature, we conceptualize the determinants of a provided input’s value within ecosystems as a function of its contribution to the value proposition, scarcity (bottleneck), complementarity, and the input provider’s reputation. Our findings extend the RBV to the ecosystem context and allow us to contribute to the emerging literature stream on managing business ecosystems.

Using self-determination theory among a sample of student employees, the present cross-sectional study ( N = 358) examines how mentors’ interpersonal behaviors relate to both motivation at work and motivation for a mentoring relationship and how these two contexts of motivation can differentially relate to mentees’ work outcomes. Results revealed that mentors’ need-supportive interpersonal behaviors were associated with greater autonomous motivation at work and in the mentoring relationship and, in turn, to greater well-being and work engagement, and to lower turnover intentions. In contrast, need-thwarting interpersonal behaviors were associated with greater controlled motivation at work and in the mentoring relationship and, in turn, to lower well-being and work engagement, and to greater turnover intentions. Overall, this study illustrates the impact of the mentor–mentee relationship on motivation for work and for the mentoring relationship and provided support for the contribution of both motivational contexts in the work-related outcomes of employees in the workplace.

The “Grand Challenges for Social Work,” is a call to action for innovative responses to society’s most pressing social problems. In this article, we respond to the “Grand Challenge” of Creating Social Responses to a Changing Environment from our perspective as Indigenous scholars. Over the last several decades, diminishing natural resources, pollution, over-consumption, and the exploitation of the natural environment have led to climate change events that disproportionately affect Indigenous peoples. We present how environmental changes impact Indigenous peoples and suggest culturally relevant responses for working with Indigenous communities. We propose a decolonizing cyclical, iterative process grounded in Indigenous Ways of Knowing.

The paper draws on the literatures on techno-economic paradigms and socio-technical transitions to analyse the impact of technological revolutions on regional development. Based on interview data c...

Drawing upon social cognitive and learning theories and social embeddedness perspective, we develop a conceptual framework for exploring the impact of immigrant founder chief executive officers on firm performance through firm innovation. We propose that immigrant founder chief executive officers are more likely to lead their firm with an innovative mentality due to their biculturalism, thus enhancing firm innovation and performance. We suggest that the impact of immigrant founder chief executive officers on firm innovation is moderated by cultural distance such that moderate cultural distance results in greater innovation, and ultimately, performance. We also indicate that top management team and board members’ local social capital, as well as immigrant founder chief executive officers’ foreign social capital, enhance the proposed relationships. A discussion of the relationships, limitations, and future research directions is provided.

© 2021 The Author(s)This paper examines the use of survey-based measures in volatility forecasting. We argue that an aggregate volatility forecast built up from individual forecasts should be the sum of individual expected volatilities and the dispersion in mean return forecasts. We use data coming from a repeated survey to capture volatility expectations and mean returns of investors, and to produce aggregate volatility forecasts. Our survey-based volatility forecasts are consistent and quantitatively similar with forecasts based on GARCH and implied volatility models. This result is robust to both in-sample and out-of-sample comparisons and in response to news.

Dr. Margaret-Ann Armour was a visionary and leader in addressing the issue of gender inclusivity and discrimination in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). She was instrumental in creating WISEST — Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science, and Technology — in 1982, which was one of the first programs in Canada intentionally designed to increase the participation of women and girls in STEM career paths. Since then, this innovative organization has designed several programs featuring hands-on learning and mentoring that reduce barriers and empower people from underrepresented and marginalized groups to pursue education and careers in STEM fields. This review provides a template for WISEST programs, discusses their impact on diversity in STEM, and highlights the work still to be done.

Aim. The presented study aims to verify the author’s analytical model for assessing the development of the innovation ecosystem of a large enterprise.Tasks. The author describes the problems of assessing the level of development of innovative ecosystems; considers the relationship between the indicators of ecosystem dynamics (characterizing the stakeholders of the ecosystem) and the growth rate of production of innovative goods; reveals the specific features of ecosystem management, particularly with regard to interaction with ecosystem stakeholders as a factor in the ecosystem’s development.Methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of this study includes scientific publications on ecosystem genesis and assessment of the development of socio-economic ecosystems. Regression analysis is used to calculate the degree of connectivity between the previously selected indicators affecting the dynamics of production of innovative goods. The informational basis of the study consists of indicators of financial and economic activity of a large industrial enterprise in the Sverdlovsk region as well as indicators characterizing interaction with its stakeholders.Results. Development indicators of the innovation ecosystem of a large enterprise are calculated for 2013-2019 based on its stakeholder decomposition. Factors that are closely linked to the potential aggregate indicator of innovation ecosystem development are identified, and ways to make their analysis less complicated are outlined.Conclusions. Testing of the analytical model for assessing the development of the innovation ecosystem of a high-tech enterprise has revealed the irreducibility of the integral indicator of innovation ecosystem development to the production of new goods. The importance of developing an ecosystem management technology is substantiated.

The paper presents the stages of changes in the development of labor resources in rural areas in the post-Soviet period, which prepared them for further transformations. The author identifies as the main directions of changes that may occur in the 2020s in the economy of rural areas and will affect the labor resources of rural areas: the active introduction of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in agricultural production; the emergence of new rural professions and specialties and associated modernization of the personnel training system; transformation of employment of rural labor resources in connection with technological transformations in the economy; the new approach on the part of employers to social and labor relations with labor resources associated with the changes in the technological structure in rural areas; development of a modern organizational and technological paradigm for the development of the rural economy. It is assumed that the rural labor force will need new adaptation, which will be natural and will take place in a milder form.

The presence of quality in the services provided is indeed indispensable for the survival of the accounting profession, since it translates into the objective of an accountant. Information systems, new artificial intelligence technologies and innovation, when connected with the expertise of accounting professionals, can result in greater performance of companies and, consequently, the economy. Considering that the profession of the accountant seeks to provide tax information to the tax authorities, this article aims to demonstrate that this profession is in a process of migration with regard to the automation of tasks, in order to become a management tool capable of assisting in assertive decision-making, in order to contribute to the performance of the companies’ social responsibility. The problematization of this study is based on the following problem question: What will be the role of the accountant with the automation of accounting? Will the accounting profession end as predicted by the Sapiens Institute in 2018 research? To achieve the objectives, the literature review was used. As results, the article demonstrated the role of the accountant in the process of development and growth of companies before and after the automation of bureaucratic processes, as well as the perspective of future scenario of the profession. Thus, it was found that the accounting profession undergoes a sudden change of positioning so that it survives as a profession and maintains its role with the society and economy of the country.

The experience and features of state models of support for the corporate venture sector in the USA, China, and EU countries are summarized. A general trend in the development of the venture capital industry for foreign countries is the shift in the focus of venture capital funds to investments of late stages of financing. It is shown that the greatest efficiency of government programs in stimulating large companies to innovative and technological development is achieved with joint financing of startups, with the creation of a venture capital fund, with the introduction of tax incentives aimed at companies with high growth potential.

The general consensus in the volatility forecasting literature is that high-frequency volatility models outperform low-frequency volatility models. However, such a conclusion is reached when low-frequency volatility models are estimated from daily returns. Instead, we study this question considering daily, low-frequency volatility estimators based on open, high, low, and close daily prices. Our data sample consists of 18 stock market indices. We find that high-frequency volatility models tend to outperform low-frequency volatility models only for short-term forecasts. As the forecast horizon increases (up to one month), the difference in forecast accuracy becomes statistically indistinguishable for most market indices. To evaluate the practical implications of our results, we study a simple asset allocation problem. The results reveal that asset allocation based on high-frequency volatility model forecasts does not outperform asset allocation based on low-frequency volatility model forecasts.

Authoritarian leaders rely on regional leaders for both political support and the fulfillment of their policy objectives. In addition, top leaders face trade-offs between following established rule...

The paper is devoted to development of theoretical and methodological foundations, conceptual provisions and practical recommendations for the development of innovation ecosystems of Ukraine. The theoretical and methodological foundations of the concept of innovation ecosystem as a result of the development of innovation theory are improved; the interconnection between glocalization of the world economy and the development of innovation processes is revealed. The research revealed the leading role of industry in the development of innovation ecosystems. Scientific and methodical approach for assessment of innovation activities in industry was developed; analysis and assessment of innovation processes in industry was carried out on the basis of proposed approaches in the context of industries and regions. The necessity of neo- industrialization of the economy is substantiated as a condition for the development of the national innovation ecosystem of Ukraine. Obstacles on the way to neo-industrialization and development of national innovation ecosystem are identified and characterized, the proposals for overcoming them have been developed. Systematization of the institutional foundations, the state and problems of European integration of Ukraine in scientific, technical and innovation sphere has been carried out; the directions of strengthening of Ukrainian participation in the European research area were revealed. A conceptual approach to the development of national innovation ecosystem of Ukraine in accordance with the requirements of the European NUTS classification was proposed; a conceptual model of Ukrainian innovation ecosystems was developed. The proposals for the institutional support of the formation of regional innovation ecosystems of Ukraine at the level of economic regions are substantiated. The scientific and methodological approach to the formation of special economic zones as stimulating regulatory regimes aimed at the development of innovation ecosystems was improved.

As a disruptive innovation on the traditional payment mode, the 3rd-party online payment has been involved in disruptive innovations featuring contextualized and modernized characteristics, but a theoretical summary is urgently needed for the dominant design of these disruptive innovations. Therefore, an in-depth case study is done with Alipay and PayPal as the subject, and it comes to elaborate four key aspects involved in the dominant design of disruptive innovations of the 3rd-party online payment. Namely, adopt new innovative derivations, create new product attributes, construct new business models, and process subsequent performance improvements. In addition, the factors that differ from the traditional disruptive innovations are also spotted, including two innovative driving forces, two new product features, and four business modes.

This article explores the initiation process of China’s Growth Enterprise Board in the security market and focuses on the policy transfer activities developed by the Chinese based on the financial ...

The article is devoted to the topical issues of determining the budget effectiveness of the use of tax incentives for innovation. The conceptual difference between “budgetary effect” and “budget efficiency” has been defined. A reasonable criterion of the budgetary effect, which is proposed to calculate as the difference between financial results of innovation and expenditures (temporary budget losses) to stimulate innovation. The method of justifying the budgetary effect of tax incentives for innovation by applying an increased standard of write-offs on the cost of spending on scientific and scientific and technical works has been proposed. The proposed methodology uses a recursive model for calculating tax revenues starting with the development of innovative products, which occurs as a result of the reinvestment by the subject of innovation in the first stage – savings from tax cuts, in the second and subsequent stages – the said savings and part of the increase in profits. The increments of investment resources of the subject of innovation and budget revenues are determined taking into account the factor of time of their receipt by the method of discounting. The budgetary effect is proposed to assess during the regulatory period of return on investment. The article contains a logical illustration of the recursive model of tax revenues and the calculation formula. Based on the data of the innovative enterprise, the indicators of the budget effect, the internal rate of budget revenue and the payback period of its losses, which arise due to the introduction of an increased rate of write-off for the cost of scientific and scientific-technical works have been calculated . It is recommended when making decisions on the feasibility of tax incentives for innovation to take into account the stimulating function of taxes, which is manifested in increased motivation of entrepreneurs to innovate. Keywords: taxes, tax policy, innovation, budget efficiency.

Governments have a history of intervention in the market to aid small, minority, and women-owned businesses. This research explores women-owned business development programs across the United States. The paper begins with a discussion of programs to serve women-owned businesses, noting barriers that exist for women business owners to access markets and capital. Analysis considers program offerings and how they are communicated to the public and client businesses via government websites. Policy approaches may reinforce patterns of suppression, rather than opening maximum opportunities for women business owners.

China’s private security companies (PSCs) have become increasingly active actors in meeting the growing demands of Chinese companies operating in high-risk foreign environments for protection and s...

Researchers have been interested in discussing negative workplace gossip and its consequences, but have paid little attention to positive workplace gossip and its positive aspects in the workplace. Based on the perspective of social network, this study explores the two-path mediating mechanisms between positive workplace gossip and the socialization outcomes of newcomers. The data were collected in a multitime and multisource manner. The results show that information ties and friendship ties mediated the relationship between positive workplace gossip and the socialization outcomes of newcomers. Specifically, positive workplace gossip helped newcomers form instrumental and expressive social relationships (viz., informational ties and friendship ties), which in turn contributed to socialization outcomes (viz., role clarity and social integration). Theoretical and management implications are discussed as well.

The patents which never have marketed are unsuccessful innovations. The patent’s national phases are an indispensable process for the marketing of innovation. In this process, patent owners decide in which countries they want to get protection. Despite being an essential issue that generates significant competitive advantages over competitors and relevant for technology transfer and patent licence, few discussions are on this issue. Indeed, the institutions for which this is a new practice cannot find much literature guiding them. Thus, the paper provides a novel methodology to identify the potential countries for applying. Overall, the proposed methodology uses patent analysis and market research methods to define the value of a technology, and the target countries to perform patent filings as an international technological strategy. This paper analyses a case to illustrate step by step how it is possible to use affordable market and technology data to select the countries in which a patent must be protected. The methodology for patent’s national phases may contribute to (i) define the selection process to establish nations in which patent protection is necessary instead of proposing a set of general recommendations and (ii) how a guide to delineate comparative advantages and market possibilities.

Using longitudinal data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), this paper employed a set of techniques to investigate the mechanism through which participation in structured extracurricular ...

This paper explores how policies of market liberalization and partial privatization of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) involved in the production and provision of key inputs – banking, energy and telecom – affect the vulnerability and resilience of an economy. SOEs’ response to such policy changes and their ability to operate under the new market conditions are crucial for maintaining quality and continuity in the supply of intermediate goods and services that underlie the functioning of the economy and society. The paper analyses this issue in the context of Chinese SOEs’ reforms. It finds that privatization and liberalization in China have been designed (i) to strengthen the economy’s resilience, as access to private capital and foreign markets has contributed to companies’ growth and to increase the stock and quality of critical infrastructure for the country; but also (ii) to minimize the vulnerabilities that arise from such policies, by envisaging measures against volatility in capital markets and the destabilizing effect of market competition through ad hoc regulation. The paper may prove relevant for the next steps of Chinese SOEs’ reforms and its findings might find applicability in other geographical contexts as well.

Businesses in the construction industry are experiencing pressure to modernise by embracing digital technologies. Like any other change initiative, digital transformation requires that leaders are at the forefront of their organisations’ pursuit for digital innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the different leadership approaches exhibited by construction industry leaders in influencing their organisations’ digital paths. Qualitative data collected from 41 construction industry professionals were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. The main finding was a taxonomy of digital leadership types characterised under six themes: proactive and forward-thinking; supportive; uncoordinated; cautious; resistant and visionless & undriven leaders. These themes provide an insight into how leaders influence the digital transformation paths in organisations. As far as the authors are aware, this study is the first that developed a taxonomy of digital leadership approaches in the construction industry. This is a valuable step in understanding leaders' influence in driving digital transformation in the construction industry. Thus, the taxonomy of digital leadership can be used to evaluate leadership styles and attitude towards digitalisation. The findings are also a platform for further studies on digital leadership in construction.

This research adopts a consumer focus in examining the impact of perceived legitimacy of sharing economy platforms on attitude and behavioural intention in the accommodation sector. By investigatin...

Rapid development and expansion of technology has created massive shifts in people’s lives around the globe. China’s focus on transforming the nation into a global leader in technology has resulted...

This study applied the Porter’s alignment model to construct a localized two-dimensional framework based on Anderson's taxonomy. The research chose the third-grade primary school science textbooks from two representative presses in China and Japan, coded the textbooks and curriculum standards, calculated the alignment level between the textbooks of the two presses and their corresponding curriculum standards, and discussed the alignment level from the topic, cognitive demand, and emphasis. The results show that the B version in Japan is significantly aligned with the Japanese curriculum standard, but the A version in China does not have significant alignment with the Chinese curriculum standard. Besides, a common problem is that the ratios of life science in sample science textbooks both exceed the requirements of the curriculum standards, and the problems of exceeding the standard in cognitive demand and not highlighting the key points also need to be concerned. This study provides ideas and references for countries with similar educational situations to study the compilation of science textbooks and fills up the deficiency of the international comparison of the alignment between primary school science textbooks and curriculum standards by using the alignment model. Keywords: alignment evaluation, content analysis, curriculum standards, primary school, science textbooks

Accurate analysis of technological innovation mechanism in different regions is the key to promoting China’s technological innovation, economic transformation and upgrading. This paper collected statistical data of high-tech enterprises in 27 provinces in China from 2009 to 2016, established a novel PSO-GRNN model, and applied sensitivity analysis to explore the influencing factors and regional differences of enterprise technological innovation in Eastern, Central and Western China. The empirical results showed that the influencing factors were innovation investment, market environment, government support and foreign technology spillover sorting by impact size. Innovation investment was the decisive factor of technological innovation, but innovation resources mainly concentrated on Eastern China, severely insufficient in Central and Western China. Market environment was favorable to Eastern and Central China, but unfavorable to Western China, which restricted greatly the development of Western China. The principalagent problem of state-owned enterprise and the crowding out effect of government research and development funds jointly led to the negative influence of government support on technological innovation. Foreign technology spillover had significant positive effects on technological innovation in Western China. This paper clarifies some disputes about influencing factors of technological innovation and provides a new research perspective for related issues. First published online 27 May 2021

The objective of this paper is to assess the existence of transactions within business groups in Ecuador with the motivation of reducing their tax burden, and to characterize the conditions of this behavior. It estimated the differential sensitivity of profitability to the marginal tax rate and found the tax response coefficient between group and stand-alone firms to be significantly different, supporting the hypothesis of tax avoidance. Business group characteristics affect the decision to shift profits away from firms with higher tax rates to affiliates with lower tax rates. The use of tax haven ownership in Ecuadorian firms was also explored, as well as the effect of a legal reform to discourage this scheme. This analysis seeks to contribute to the understanding of this business configuration and to the design of policies that improve the efficiency of the taxation system of business groups and tax havens.

In recent years, an emerging stream of research suggests that firms should use technological innovation and business model innovation harmoniously to maximize firm performance. In order to enrich the scholarly conversation on the fit between technological innovation and business model innovation, drawing insights from the dynamic capabilities perspective, this paper examines the fit between value proposition innovation and technological innovation (exploitative versus explorative) for the performance of startups in the digital environment. Based on on-site survey data of 285 digital startups in one of the world's largest digital economies, we find that explorative innovation strengthens the positive impact of value proposition innovation on the performance of startups, whereas exploitative innovation weakens this positive effect. Furthermore, these moderating effects are magnified in a highly uncertain demand environment. These findings inject fresh insights into existing scholarly conversation on the fit between technological innovation and business model innovation by offering a dynamic capabilities perspective and by extending it to an increasingly digital business environment.

The vast majority of international migrants from developing countries are of working age. And yet, their integration in the formal local labor market of their host countries continues to be a challenge. This paper reviews the scope of mentoring programs as a more systematic policy instrument to facilitate the integration of migrants into the labor market. It synthesizes the multidisciplinary academic research on mentoring. The review highlights the diversity of outcomes indicators and the relevance of context in the choice of mentoring program design. Determinants of success include the personal characteristics of the mentee and of the mentor and the efforts to match them but also the efforts made to account for the human, institutional, financial, and political context in the overall design of programs. Despite the significant progress achieved in understanding the determinants of mentoring effectiveness, the survey shows that there are still many sources of uncertainty on the optimal design of mentoring programs. This justifies a research agenda in a field with growing and significant political and social prominence of direct relevance to both developed and developing countries.