International Journal of World Economic Research
International Journal of World Economic Research (IJWER) is an international, peer-reviewed journal. The mission of the journal is to provide an academic platform for scholars and practitioners to discuss the issues of economics, business, finance, management across the world. All articles published are rigorously and fast reviewed meeting the Journal Quality standards.
The Internal Logic and Practical Approach of the Integration of Sports, Culture, and Tourism in Qingyuan from the Perspective of "One Belt, One Corridor, One Area"
Against the backdrop of Guangdong Province deeply advancing the regional coordinated development strategy and accelerating the construction of a new development paradigm, Qingyuan City, based on its own resource endowments, has proposed the construction of a new 100-billion-yuan tourism development pattern known as "One Belt, One Corridor, One Area". This spatial strategic planning is not only a re-examination of the municipal economic geography but also provides an important physical spatial carrier and institutional development opportunity for the cross-border deep integration of regional sports, culture, and tourism industries. Moving beyond traditional quantitative measurements and empirical models, this paper adopts a theoretical speculative perspective of qualitative research, combining the theory of new productive forces, regional coordinated development theory, and industrial integration theory, to systematically and profoundly sort out the internal logic of the integration of sports, culture, and tourism industries in Qingyuan under the "One Belt, One Corridor, One Area" framework. The research posits that the integration of Qingyuan's sports, culture, and tourism industries is essentially a theoretical requirement for the reorganization of cross-border production factors and the extension of value chains. It is also a practical reflection echoing supply-side structural reform and the upgrading of mass experiential consumption structures, while highly aligning with local high-quality development strategic orientations and macro-regional positioning to a certain extent. Addressing the practical dilemmas currently faced by Qingyuan in this process—such as the need for optimized top-level design synergy, shallow industrial integration, a delayed pace of digital transformation, and insufficient regional resource coordination—this paper explores the composite dynamic mechanisms driving this integration from four dimensions: policy and institutional guarantees, digital technology transformation, industrial innovation development, and market demand evolution. Furthermore, it systematically analyzes multiple model selection paths, including industrial integration, reorganization, extension, and penetration. Ultimately, the study proposes practical approaches with a certain degree of feasibility, encompassing optimizing top-level design to gradually alleviate institutional barriers, building regional sharing platforms to promote the rational flow of factors, strengthening digital empowerment to expand new consumption scenarios, and relying on major sports events and festivals to cultivate characteristic cultural and tourism brands. This aims to provide solid theoretical support and decision-making reference for Qingyuan City in building a high-quality tourism and holiday destination in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
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Tourism Development and Promotion Strategies of Ancient Towns in Chongqing from the Perspective of Thai Tourists
With the deepening of globalization, China’s inbound tourism market has shown a strong recovery momentum. Especially driven by the China-Thailand visa-free policy, Thai tourists’ enthusiasm for traveling to China is expected to rise further. As the economic and cultural center in southwest China, Chongqing has become a popular destination for Thai tourists with its unique mountain-city features and rich historical relics. This study uses word cloud analysis to examine package tour data from Thai travel agencies to China, and combines word cloud analysis with grounded theory to analyze travel vlogs about China posted by Thai travel bloggers on YouTube, so as to identify the tourism preferences of Thai tourists visiting China. The combination of the two methods provides a comprehensive analytical perspective with both breadth and depth. The results show that ancient towns in Chongqing have significant appeal to Thai tourists due to their simple architectural styles and profound cultural deposits. However, the development of ancient-town tourism presents a polarization: well-known ancient towns suffer from overcrowding, while lesser-known ones lack visitor arrivals. In addition, ancient-town tourism is confronted with challenges such as over-commercialization, inadequate supporting facilities and management, and homogeneous operation. From the perspective of Thai tourists, this study analyzes their tourism preferences and proposes further development strategies for ancient-town tourism in Chongqing targeting Thai tourists.
A Study on the Applicable Law in Shareholder Capital Contribution Disputes
The corporate capital system is the core cornerstone of the company law system, and the principle of capital maintenance is a key criterion for maintaining the security of commercial transactions and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of companies and creditors. Since the implementation of the subscribed capital system reform, disputes over defective share transfers and shareholder withdrawal of capital contributions have frequently occurred. In judicial practice, there have long been differing opinions on issues such as the litigation standing of shareholders acquiring defective shares, the exemption from liability for withdrawal of capital contributions, and the determination of liability for assisting in torts by corporate executives. This paper takes a shareholder contribution dispute case between a Tianjin education company and a Shanghai pump company as a case study, combining the current Company Law and relevant judicial interpretations, focusing on the core legal disputes of the case, and deeply analyzing three core legal issues: the rules for exercising the common interests of shareholders with defective shares, the statutory nature of liability for withdrawal of capital contributions, and the standards for determining the fault liability of directors and executives. The study finds that shareholders' obligation to contribute capital is a mandatory statutory obligation, which cannot be exempted due to the company's operating status, defective shares, or internal autonomy; shareholders acquiring defective shares legally enjoy the common interests of shareholders and have the litigation standing to sue shareholders who have withdrawn capital contributions; the determination of joint liability of corporate executives must adhere to the principle of fault liability, and mere official position does not constitute a basis for tort liability. The second-instance judgment in this case clarified the ambiguous boundaries in commercial trials and unified the standards for adjudicating similar cases. Based on an extended analysis of the disputed issues in this case, this article summarizes the difficulties and pain points in the current judicial application of shareholder contribution disputes, and proposes targeted optimization ideas for judicial application and compliance suggestions for commercial entities, providing theoretical and practical references for improving the adjudication logic of shareholder contribution disputes and regulating the investment behavior of market entities.
Research on the Impact of Trade Facilitation Level on the Export Scale of Cross-border e-commerce in Laos
The export scale of Cross-border e-commerce in Laos is affected by factors such as customs clearance efficiency, logistics infrastructure, Cross-border payment, policy environment and digital supervision level. Improving the level of trade facilitation can reduce the time cost and institutional barriers of export links, and strengthen the ability of enterprises to participate in the international market. The analysis of the mechanism of trade facilitation on the export scale of Cross-border e-commerce in Laos can reveal the impact path of customs clearance facilitation, logistics coordination and policy support on export growth, and provide a reference for Laos to optimize the business environment of Cross-border e-commerce, expand the export scale and enhance the competitiveness of regional trade.
The Application of Artificial Intelligence in Personalized Marketing
With the all-around development of digital marketing and personalised advertising, artificial intelligence technology has now begun to change the structure of the marketing system to a certain extent. Systematically present the technical structure (data layer and algorithm layer) and basic application scenarios of AI in personalised marketing in this paper, such as user profiling and segmentation, personalised recommendation systems, intelligent pricing and promotion, and automated content production. Research has shown that AI can improve the conversion rate and increase the efficiency of user operation, but there are still problems such as a lack of transparency in algorithms, privacy risks, information cocoons, and a weakening of brand culture; in the future, efforts will be made to promote the sustainable and responsible development of personalised marketing by coordinating technological innovation with ethical governance.
The Evolution of Labor Income Share in the Wave of Digital Transformation: An Empirical Analysis Based on Chinese A-Share Listed Companies
With the booming development of the global digital economy, digital transformation has become a core driving force for China's economic restructuring and industrial upgrading. However, the impact of digital transformation on resource allocation efficiency and income distribution patterns, especially on the mechanism of its effect on labor income share, remains controversial. Against this backdrop, this study focuses on the impact of digital transformation on labor income share and its mechanism of action, aiming to provide a theoretical basis for relevant policy formulation. This study uses A-share listed companies in China from 2014 to 2023 as the initial research sample and employs econometric methods such as panel data analysis and threshold models to systematically study the impact of digital transformation on labor income share and its mechanism of action. The specific research contents include: (1) analyzing the direct impact of digital transformation on labor income share; (2) exploring the mediating effect of resource allocation optimization on digital transformation and labor income share; and (3) examining the heterogeneity characteristics of the impact of digital transformation on labor income share, including differences in industry, region, and enterprise size. The study found that digital transformation has a significant inverted U-shaped relationship with labor income share by optimizing resource allocation and improving labor productivity, but this impact is significantly heterogeneous across different industries, regions, and enterprise sizes. Therefore, policymakers should consider these factors and formulate differentiated policies to promote balanced development of digital transformation and ensure a reasonable increase in the share of labor income. At the same time, this study emphasizes the importance of enhancing workers' digital skills and optimizing the layout of digital infrastructure to meet the needs of digital transformation and drive high-quality economic development.
Research on Infrastructure Construction in the Yangtze River Delta Region Oriented by New Quality Productive Forces: A Prefecture-level Analysis
Developing new quality productive forces, an advanced form of productive forces, is a key driving force for promoting regional structural layout and high-quality infrastructure development. Based on panel data from 41 cities in China's Yangtze River Delta region from 2011 to 2022, this paper constructs an evaluation index system grounded in theory and empirically analyzes the impact of new quality productive forces on infrastructure construction. The study finds that the development of new quality productive forces significantly promotes infrastructure construction in the Yangtze River Delta, a conclusion that holds after endogeneity treatment and a series of robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impact of new quality productive forces on infrastructure is more pronounced in non-coastal cities and megacities. Mediation effect tests show that new quality productive forces can achieve high-quality infrastructure development by enhancing technological innovation capacity and strengthening government responsiveness. Therefore, this paper suggests providing momentum for the construction of a modern infrastructure system and regional coordinated development by systematically cultivating the core elements of new quality productive forces, implementing differentiated urban development strategies, smoothing collaborative transmission mechanisms, and removing regional administrative barriers.
The Effect of Green Finance on Urban Ecological Economy: Evidence from the Huai River Basin
Against the backdrop of the coordinated advancement of the dual carbon strategy and high quality development of river basins, uncovering the mechanisms through which green finance enables the transition to an ecological economy carries substantial theoretical and practical significance. Taking the Huai River Basin, covering four provinces (and province-level municipalities and autonomous regions), as the study area and using data from 2000 to 2023, this paper innovatively constructs a comprehensive green finance index for prefecture level cities from a multidimensional perspective that includes credit, investment, insurance, bonds, funds, and carbon rights trading. Urban ecological economic efficiency is then measured via the entropy weight method within a three dimensional framework encompassing economic, ecological, and social dimensions. Employing a panel two way fixed effects model and a stepwise mediation testing procedure, the study empirically examines the impact of green finance on ecological economic development and identifies the underlying mechanisms. The results show that green finance significantly enhances the overall level of urban ecological economic performance in the Huai River Basin. This finding remains highly robust after a series of endogeneity and robustness checks, including a one period lag of the dependent variable, 1% winsorization, and the replacement of subcomponents of the dependent variable. Mechanism analysis reveals that the transmission of ecological dividends through technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading remains obstructed. The innovation channel is constrained by the long cycle of green technology research and development and delays in commercialization, while the structural channel is limited by the rigidity and path dependence of the basin’s industrial structure. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that the promoting effect is significantly stronger in cities with higher levels of environmental regulation, urbanization, and economic development.
Transition from Demographic Bonus to Demographic Dividend in Bangladesh: Search for Key Elements to Grasp the Opportunities
In this study, we assess the shift from demographic bonus to demographic dividend in Bangladesh and the elements needed to harness this opportunity for economic development. Using a mixed-method approach, the study employs quantitative analysis based on 62 survey participants and qualitative insights from 18 key informant interviews with experts, policymakers and stakeholders. The results show that Bangladesh has a burgeoning working-age population with considerable economic potential; however, it is not fully exploited due to the lack of policies to absorb young people into the workforce, the mismatch between education and skills required in the job market, and the lack of investment in skills. A positive correlation between education, income and productivity is found in quantitative analysis, with regression analysis confirming that the growth of the working-age population and human capital investment are key drivers of GDP growth. Qualitative insights also reveal the need for policy coherence in education and vocational training, and embracing the digital economy. Bangladesh's ability to harness a demographic dividend, the study argues, hinges on strategic investments in human capital, job creation, and policy reforms to ensure a productive inclusion of the growing population into the workforce, with significant lessons for other developing countries with similar demographic dynamics.
The Impact of the Digital Economy on Industrial Structure Upgrading from the Perspective of Regional Heterogeneity: Evidence from China's Provinces
The digital economy serves as a crucial engine driving the upgrading of industrial structure and the high-quality development of the economy. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2023, this paper constructs individual fixed effect models and mediating effect models to systematically examine the impact mechanism of the digital economy on the upgrading of industrial structure. The empirical results show: First, the digital economy can significantly promote the upgrading of industrial structure, and the driving effect exhibits regional heterogeneity with the central region > western region > eastern region. Second, the digital economy can indirectly promote the upgrading of industrial structure by enhancing human capital, and the mediating effect of human capital also shows regional heterogeneity. Specifically, the central region has a complete mediating effect, the western region has a partial mediating effect, and the eastern region has no mediating effect. Therefore, this paper proposes that each region should implement differentiated digital economic development strategies and strengthen talent cultivation and allocation, and improve the regional coordinated development mechanism to achieve the coordinated upgrading of regional industrial structure through the empowerment of the digital economy, and contribute to the high-quality development of the economy.
Supply Chain Bargaining with Flexible Disagreement Points: An Extension of the Kalai-Smorodinsky Solution
This paper extends the supply chain bargaining framework of Feng et al. [1] by introducing flexible disagreement points — a departure from the classical assumption that negotiating parties maintain fixed reservation utilities throughout negotiations. Flexibility parameters τS ≥ 0 and τR ≥ 0, expressed as percentages of each party's walk-away value, enable meaningful cross-channel comparison. Analysing two canonical channel structures — a one-to-two channel (monopoly supplier, competing retailers) and a two-to-one channel (competing suppliers, monopoly retailer) — we compare the Kalai-Smorodinsky (KS) and Nash Bargaining (NB) solutions at the implied equivalence point θ = 0.6. Our key findings are: (1) both solutions produce identical outcomes at baseline, confirming Feng et al.’s characterisation; (2) under flexibility, NB is 1.2× more reactive than KS in the one-to-two channel and 8.5× more reactive in the two-to-one channel; and (3) NB’s hyper-reactivity destroys approximately 9% of total supply chain value in the two-to-one channel, while KS maintains near-baseline efficiency. These results demonstrate that the KS solution is not only “more reasonable” at baseline but also “more stable” under flexibility — and this stability has direct welfare consequences for supply chain performance.
Research on the Mechanism of Digital Finance Empowering New Quality Productivity
With the deepening development of the digital economy, digital finance, as a critical enabling factor, has played an increasingly important role in optimizing resource allocation, stimulating technological innovation, and driving industrial transformation, thereby exerting a systematic impact on the formation and evolution of new-type productivity. Based on an integration of cutting-edge domestic and international theories and empirical studies, this paper constructs a multi-path framework elucidating how digital finance empowers new-type productivity. It systematically identifies five dimensions through which digital finance promotes qualitative upgrades in productivity: reorganization of capital and optimization of resource allocation, support for technological innovation and cultivation of innovation ecosystems, industrial upgrading and intelligent transformation, enhancement of risk governance capacity, and valorization of data assets alongside organizational restructuring. Furthermore, the study proposes a bidirectional feedback model between digital finance and new-type productivity, emphasizing their symbiotic evolution within a “technology–finance–industry” triadic interaction. The findings indicate that digital finance provides a stable, efficient, and resilient driving force for the sustained development of new-type productivity through systemic mechanisms, synergistic pathways, and ecosystem-based networks. Theoretically, the paper deepens the conceptual understanding of new-type productivity and extends the analytical boundaries of digital finance research; practically, it offers systematic policy and industrial-finance integration insights.
The Impact of CEO Overseas Experience on Agency Costs of Enterprises: An Empirical Study Based on A-share Listed Companies
Based on the principal-agent theory and higher-order theory, this paper uses the panel data of A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2023 to empirically test the influence mechanism of CEOs' overseas experience on corporate agency costs. By constructing a dataset covering multiple dimensions of overseas experience, and using comprehensive indicators such as the management expense ratio to measure agency costs, a two-way fixed effect model is adopted, supplemented by PSM and instrumental variable methods to alleviate endogeneity issues. This study innovatively reveals the intrinsic path between overseas experience and agency costs, providing theoretical basis and empirical evidence for the selection and governance mechanism design of internationalized executives in emerging markets.
Government Subsidy Strategy Considering Weather Options under Adverse Weather Conditions
Under the joint impact of adverse weather and demand uncertainty, fresh agricultural product supply chains (FAPSCs) face significant challenges, including yield volatility, quality deterioration, and price instability. To address these issues, this paper develops a two-echelon supply chain model consisting of an agricultural cooperative and a retailer. A weather index is introduced to capture the joint effects of weather conditions on both yield and product quality, while weather options are incorporated as financial instruments for risk hedging. We consider three policy scenarios: no government subsidy, subsidies to the agricultural cooperative, and subsidies to the retailer. A Stackelberg game framework is established to analyze the optimal decisions of supply chain members and evaluate their economic performance under different subsidy schemes. The results show that adverse weather reduces agricultural input investment and leads to higher wholesale and retail prices, thereby decreasing supply chain profits and social welfare. Government subsidies can effectively mitigate the negative impacts of weather uncertainty. Moreover, different subsidy schemes have heterogeneous effects, and subsidizing the agricultural cooperative is more effective in reducing wholesale prices, increasing input investment, and improving overall social welfare. In addition, weather options significantly enhance the supply chain’s ability to hedge weather risks and improve system stability. his study provides theoretical insights for optimizing government subsidy policies and integrating financial derivatives into agricultural risk management.
The Impact of Digital Finance on the Upgrading of Industrial Structure
The upgrading of industrial structure is of great significance for achieving high-quality economic development. This paper selects China's urban panel data from 2011 to 2021 to empirically test the relationship between digital finance and the upgrading of industrial structure. The research results show that: first, the development of digital finance significantly promotes the upgrading of China's industrial structure, and the robustness of the results is proved by replacing the explained variable, adding interactive fixed effects and using the instrumental variable method. Second, digital finance can promote the upgrading of industrial structure by boosting economic growth, increasing savings and stimulating employment vitality. Finally, from the perspective of regional heterogeneity, it is found that coastal areas, non-first-tier cities and non-eastern regions have a better promoting effect of digital finance on the upgrading of industrial structure. The above research results help to further explore the impact of digital finance on the upgrading of industrial structure, thus providing a policy basis for the government and enterprises to promote the upgrading of industrial structure.
Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Coupled Coordination in Rural Economic, Social, and Environmental Development: A Case Study of Chinese Provinces within the Rural Revitalization Context
The interplay between the economy, society and environment has evolved throughout human history, following to specific laws. The theory and mechanism of coupled coordination theory mechanism bear crucial guiding significance for advancing synchronized rural development. After the release of the rural revitalization policy, there has been a trend of rapid development in rural areas. This article takes rural areas across the country as the overall research object and integrates the coupling coordination theory into the interaction between China's rural economy, society, and environment. This research applies the coupled coordination theory and model to the rural economic, social and environmental system. It establishes an index system tailored for contemporary Chinese rural areas and uses the entropy value method and coupled coordination model to gauge the degree of coupled coordination in each province of China from 2012 to 2024. The results of the survey show that the rural areas in eastern China are more developed than the rural areas in central China, which in turn outperforms the rural areas in western and northeastern China. In conclusion, the coordinated development of rural areas in China varies from place to place, highlighting the differences in development.
The Impact of Carbon Emission Trading Pilots on Regional Innovation
To investigate the driving effects of market-based environmental regulation on regional innovation, this study uses China's carbon emissions trading pilot programs as a quasi-natural experiment. Drawing on panel data from 227 prefecture-level and higher cities from 2005 to 2020, we employ a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically examine the impact of these pilot programs on regional innovation and to investigate the moderating roles of government intervention and the degree of marketization. The results indicate that carbon emissions trading pilot programs significantly promote regional innovation. This conclusion holds even after a series of robustness tests, including parallel trends tests, exclusion of pandemic-affected samples, exclusion of special cities, and PSM-DID analysis. Both government intervention and the level of marketization exert significant positive moderating effects, effectively amplifying the promotional role of carbon emissions trading pilot programs on regional innovation. Mechanism analysis reveals that carbon emissions trading pilot programs drive regional innovation by internalizing the external costs of carbon emissions, creating incentives for emission reductions, and generating technology spillover effects, while effective government intervention and a well-developed market environment can further amplify the policy's impact. The findings of this study provide empirical evidence and policy references for deepening the development of the national carbon market and integrating the "dual carbon" goals with the innovation-driven development strategy.
Leverage effect or crowding out effect: the impact of green bonds on corporate green innovation
Green bonds are an important part of the green financial system, and their dual attributes of external supervision and market allocation are crucial to corporate green innovation. Based on the panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2023, this paper uses the progressive difference-in-differences model to explore the impact of green bond issuance on corporate green innovation. It is found that enterprises can improve the level of green innovation by issuing green bonds. The issuance of green bonds achieves the leverage effect on green innovation on the basis of existing innovation activities by encouraging enterprises to increase R&D investment and human capital.
Study on the Impact of Establishing Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zones on Urban Economic Resilience
China is currently undergoing a critical transition from old to new growth drivers, with enhancing urban economic resilience emerging as a core imperative for high-quality development. This study employs a natural experiment framework centred on the establishment of national big data comprehensive pilot zones, utilising a sample of 283 prefecture-level and above cities from 2012 to 2023. It employs a difference-in-differences approach to assess policy effects. Findings reveal that the establishment of big data pilot zones significantly enhances urban economic resilience. Mechanism analysis indicates these zones primarily exert influence through talent aggregation and enterprise clustering pathways. Further analysis demonstrates that policy effects are more pronounced in megacities and large cities, as well as in municipalities with robust intellectual property protection and strong policy implementation capacity. Policy recommendations are thus proposed to foster urban economic resilience.
A Study on Commercial Bank Liquidity Risk in the Context of Digital Currency Disruption
Against the backdrop of the accelerated advancement of digital currencies and their ongoing reshaping of the financial system, commercial banks’ liquidity risks are exhibiting new patterns of evolution. Focusing on the mechanism through which digital currency shocks affect bank liquidity risks, this study constructs an analytical framework that incorporates deposit migration pathways. Using panel data from commercial banks, we conduct empirical tests employing two-way fixed-effects models and mediation models. The results indicate that digital currencies significantly weaken deposit stability and elevate liquidity risk levels, with deposit migration playing a partial mediating role in the transmission of shocks. Additionally, banks of different sizes exhibit varying sensitivities to these shocks, with small and medium-sized banks being more significantly affected. Further analysis reveals that capital adequacy ratios have a certain mitigating effect on risk but cannot fully offset structural shocks. This study uncovers the intrinsic evolutionary logic of commercial bank liquidity risk in the context of digital currencies from the perspectives of mechanism identification and quantitative testing.
Research on the Spring Festival Effect and Market Efficiency of the Shanghai Composite Index
To examine the efficiency of China's stock market, this study employs the Efficient Market Hypothesis as its theoretical framework. Using daily closing price data of the Shanghai Composite Index from January 1.2008 to September 30.2024 we construct a GARCH (1,1)-M model to empirically test the return characteristics of the three days before and after the Spring Festival. The findings reveal a significant pre-Spring Festival effect in the SSE Composite Index, while the post-Spring Festival effect is insignificant. This result indicates that publicly available calendar information can predict short-term returns, challenging the weak-form efficient market hypothesis. It provides empirical evidence that China's stock market has not yet fully achieved weak-form efficiency, offering insights into market pricing efficiency.
Transport Infrastructure Connectivity and China–DRC Bilateral Trade Performance: An Empirical Analysis
This paper examines the causal relationship between transport infrastructure connectivity and bilateral trade performance between China and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the period 2000–2023. Employing a gravity model augmented with infrastructure quality indices, panel data fixed-effects estimations, and vector autoregression (VAR) analysis, we provide robust empirical evidence that improvements in road density, port efficiency, and multimodal connectivity significantly increase bilateral trade flows. Using provincial-level panel data and an instrumental variable (IV) strategy based on historical colonial transport networks as an instrument for contemporary infrastructure quality, our baseline estimates indicate that a 10% increase in infrastructure connectivity raises bilateral trade by 6.8–9.4%, with effects persisting over a 2–3 year horizon. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the trade-enhancing effects are most pronounced for manufactured goods and mining outputs, consistent with Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) sector-specific investment patterns. Our findings survive a battery of robustness checks including alternative infrastructure measures, synthetic control methods, and spatial error corrections. The results carry important policy implications for infrastructure-led development strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The impact of Vietnamese consumers' sense of environmental responsibility on green purchasing behavior
Amid escalating environmental challenges in Vietnam, understanding the drivers of green consumption has become increasingly important. This study examines the influence of Environmental Responsibility (ER) on Green Purchase Behavior (GPB) through an integrated framework that incorporates both mediating and moderating mechanisms. Specifically, Green Perceived Value (GPV) and Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) are modeled as mediators, while Cognitive Effort Saving (CES) and External Incentive Policies (EIP) are introduced as moderators. Using survey data from 438 Vietnamese consumers, the proposed model is tested via Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and multi-group analysis. The findings demonstrate that ER significantly affects GPB both directly and indirectly through GPV and PBC. Moreover, the strength of these relationships increases under conditions of higher CES and stronger EIP. By integrating the Value–Belief–Norm (VBN) theory with the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study advances the understanding of sustainable consumption behavior in emerging markets. The results also provide practical implications for policymakers and firms to design interventions that lower cognitive barriers and strengthen institutional support for green consumption.
A Text Analysis Approach for Assessing Annual Report Quality: A Comparative Case Study of Vietnamese and Chinese Companies
This study develops and validates a multidimensional framework for assessing corporate annual report quality through advanced text analysis, with a comparative focus on Vietnam and China, two dynamic yet institutionally distinct emerging markets. Leveraging a corpus of 60 English-language annual reports (2020–2024) from listed companies across seven industries, we extract 13 textual indicators spanning readability, sentiment, thematic focus, and disclosure volume. These indicators are integrated into an Annual Report Quality Index (ARQI) using a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) framework that combines the Entropy Weight method for objective indicator weighting and the PROMETHEE method for nonlinear ranking. A two-tier research design enables both cross-industry characterization and a focused intra-industry banking case study, where three systemically important banks from each country are compared. Results reveal significant disparities: Chinese banks demonstrate consistently higher and more stable ARQI scores, reflecting greater institutional maturity under the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) framework. Vietnamese banks exhibit greater volatility but a clear upward convergence trend, particularly after 2022, suggesting adaptive responses to evolving disclosure regulations such as Circular 22/2019/TT-BTC. Component-level analysis shows that Chinese reports excel in risk transparency, sentiment stability, and thematic integration, while Vietnamese reports demonstrate emerging strengths in sustainability and digital transformation narratives. An internal consistency test confirms strong alignment between ARQI scores and task group assessments (Pearson’s r = 0.927, p < 0.001), validating the index’s reliability. This study contributes a scalable, replicable methodology for assessing narrative disclosure quality and provides empirical evidence on how institutional contexts shape corporate communication in emerging Asian economies. The ARQI framework offers practical utility for investors seeking transparent information, corporate managers aiming to benchmark reporting practices, and regulators striving to enhance market transparency.
Green Technology Innovation, Carbon Emissions, and High-Quality Development of Manufacturing Firms: Mechanisms and Empirical Evidence
High-quality development of enterprises is a critical issue in China’s pursuit of a modern development paradigm. Against this backdrop, green technology innovation plays a vital role in achieving carbon reduction targets and promoting high-quality development. Focusing on the pathways through which green technology innovation drives high-quality development in manufacturing firms, this study constructs an analytical framework of “green technology innovation—carbon emissions—high-quality development” using data from Chinese listed manufacturing companies from 2015 to 2024. Empirical tests are conducted using baseline regression, mediation effect, and threshold models. The results show that green technology innovation significantly promotes high-quality development in manufacturing firms. Carbon emissions play a positive mediating role, accounting for 56.22% of the total effect. Moreover, the impact of green technology innovation on high-quality development exhibits a single-threshold effect, characterized by an insignificant effect in the early stage and a significantly strengthened effect in the later stage. Accordingly, policy recommendations are proposed, including strengthening innovation support and providing differentiated policy provisions.
High-quality development of manufacturing firms
Research on Quality Evaluation of Landscape Resources and Its Spatial Visualization in the Chengdu-Chongqing Yangtze River Tourism Corridor
The Chengdu-Chongqing Yangtze River Tourism Belt is a core area for the construction of the Yangtze National Cultural Park. Scientifically evaluating its landscape quality is of great significance for regional cultural and tourism integration and ecological value conversion. This paper constructs an 8-indicator evaluation system containing two dimensions of visual perception and resource endowment, coupling Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and GIS spatial analysis technology to quantitatively measure and spatially visualize the corridor landscape quality. The results show that: (1) The spatial differentiation of landscape quality is significant, showing a gradient pattern of "High in East, Low in Middle, Stable in West". The high-value area is concentrated in the Fuling to Wushan section of Chongqing, and the low-value area is embedded in the Chongqing main city urban area. (2) Indicator weights show that Openness and Naturalness are the dominant factors, with a combined weight of over 42%, indicating that visual corridor permeability and ecological endowment authenticity are the core of quality evaluation. (3) The high-intensity urbanization process produces a "double shielding" effect on the core high-weight factors, which is the main cause of the "collapse" of landscape quality in the middle section. Based on this, a segmented differentiated control strategy of strict protection in the east section, restoration and improvement in the middle section, and optimization and enhancement in the west section is proposed, so as to provide a scientific basis for the planning of the Yangtze National Cultural Park.
Chengdu-Chongqing Yangtze River Tourism Belt
Analysis and Improvement of Pricing Models for Bilateral Media Platforms
In the context of increasingly intense competition among digital platforms, the strategic pricing behavior of two-sided media platforms has attracted considerable academic attention. The pricing model for two-sided platforms proposed by Amaldoss et al. provides a theoretical foundation for understanding the interaction among consumer heterogeneity, multi-homing behavior, and advertising strategies. However, a series of idealized assumptions within the model present limitations when applied to real-world scenarios. This paper offers a systematic review and critical analysis of the model, identifying key issues in aspects such as consumer representation, advertiser behavior, platform strategy space, and market structure assumptions. Based on these insights, several extensions are proposed, including the introduction of continuous advertising aversion levels, endogenous attention allocation mechanisms, advertiser heterogeneity and budget constraints, asymmetric platform capabilities, and a dynamic game framework. Through structural modifications and mechanism enhancements, the model’s behavioral realism and practical explanatory power are significantly improved, offering valuable references for the development of platform pricing theory and its practical implementation.
Study on the Coordination Mechanism of Blockchain-Based Cross-Chain Traceability Systems for Food Supply Chains
Addressing the issues of insufficient information sharing and low coordination efficiency in food supply chain cross-chain traceability, this study proposes a coordination mechanism based on blockchain technology. We innovatively construct a Stackelberg game model consisting of a "pork supply chain" (upstream) and a "frozen dumpling supply chain" (downstream). By introducing the concept of the "cost threshold effect," we quantify the critical conditions for investment in blockchain technology and propose, for the first time, a "Blockchain Technology Investment Decision Matrix" to define the technical adaptation boundaries under various cost-preference combinations. Numerical simulations validate the effectiveness of blockchain in reducing inventory costs for the upstream supply chain and expanding the potential market for the downstream supply chain. The findings reveal a significant cost threshold for blockchain application and suggest that enterprises should dynamically adjust investment strategies based on a dual-dimensional "cost-preference" framework—for instance, prioritizing deployment for high-value-added products or sharing costs through consortium chains for SMEs. This research provides a theoretical framework for coordination mechanisms and empirical evidence for government subsidy policies and corporate investment optimization.
GIS-Based Ecological Sensitivity Analysis of Baoji City
Optimized territorial development and intensive land use constitute an important part of ecological civilization construction. Ecological sensitivity analysis provides an important basis for optimizing territorial spatial planning and land-use development, while also contributing to the sustainable development of the regional ecological environment. With the support of GIS technology, this study selected five ecological sensitivity factors, namely elevation, slope, water bodies, NDVI, and land-use type. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed to determine factor weights, and spatial overlay analysis was used to quantitatively assess ecological sensitivity. The results were classified into four categories: highly sensitive, moderately sensitive, low-sensitive, and non-sensitive areas. On this basis, a comprehensive analysis of each ecological sensitivity zone was conducted, yielding both single-factor and integrated ecological sensitivity assessment results for Baoji City. Finally, corresponding suggestions for zoned protection and development were proposed for the construction of the Guanzhong Plain Urban Agglomeration.
From Scrolling to Travelling: How TikTok's Micro-Gamification and Recommendation Cues Shape Destination Visit Intentions Among Nepalese Users
The rapid proliferation of short-video platforms like TikTok has transformed how individuals discover and select travel destinations, particularly in emerging markets such as Nepal, where tourism is vital for economic growth. This thesis investigates the psychological mechanisms through which TikTok's content influences users' intention to visit destinations. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response paradigm, the study integrates two rarely combined sets of antecedents: micro-gamification mechanisms (mastery and narratives) and recommendation cues (perceived accuracy and perceived serendipity) for TikTok context. These four stimuli are hypothesized to trigger two parallel psychological states—cognitive flow experience and affective destination attachment—which jointly explain users’ intention to visit a portrayed destination. A survey of 218 active TikTok users was analysed through PLS-SEM. Results show that perceived recommendation serendipity (β = 0.331, p < 0.001) and accuracy (β = 0.319, p < 0.001) are the strongest drivers of destination attachment, while mastery enhances both attachment (β = 0.234, p < 0.01) and flow (β = 0.276, p < 0.01). Narratives exert only marginal influence on flow experience while insignificant for destination attachment. Flow experience (β = 0.416, p < 0.001) and destination attachment (β = 0.312, p < 0.001) significantly predict visit intention, with both partially mediating the stimulus–response chain. Post-hoc multi-group analysis (MGA) indicates no significant gender moderation, suggesting model generalizability across demographics. Control variables like age and income showed negligible influence. The study advances tourism-psychology theory by modeling a complete S-O-R sequence for short-form video platforms and offers evidence-based guidance to destination marketers, content creators, and platform engineers in emerging markets.