This paper provides a systematic review of the foundational contributions made by Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt, the 2025 Nobel laureates in Economics, to the understanding of “innovation-driven economic growth”. The three scholars jointly constructed a systematic framework for understanding how innovation drives economic growth from different dimensions: Mokyr, adopting a historical perspective, profoundly revealed the importance of the institutional environments and cultural beliefs that sustain innovation, emphasizing the foundational role of an open knowledge ecology and a culture of growth in nurturing sustained innovative dynamism; meanwhile, Aghion and Howitt, building on the Schumpeterian growth model, transformed the insight of “creative destruction” into verifiable micro-mechanisms, articulating the inverted-U relationship between competition and innovation and the “escape-competition effect”, which means firms engage in “quality‐ladder” type innovations in pursuit of monopoly rents, thereby constructing a dynamic balance between creation and destruction. Their research inherits and extends the theoretical traditions of Solow, Romer, Schumpeter, and the institutional school, collectively demonstrating that sustained economic growth depends on an ecosystem that fosters innovation, tolerates failure, and ensures the free flow of knowledge. The institutional implications for China’s new era of innovation-driven high-quality economic development are as follows: To achieve a strategic shift from the “catch-up paradigm” to the “frontier paradigm”, it is necessary to move beyond simply increasing research and development investments. The focus must be on fostering a culture that encourages exploration, establishing a fair and competitive market mechanism, and implementing tailored industrial policies that align with different stages of development. These efforts will lay a solid institutional and cultural foundation for leading innovation.

Creating synergistic value is a determinant of M&A performance, and corporate social responsibility (CSR), as an informal system, is a useful complement to the formal system of market economy. In the M&A process, the CSR coordination between the M&A initiator and the M&A target is a key driver for generating synergies and has a significant impact on M&A performance. Based on the perspective of CSR alignment, this paper uses a combination of multiple regression and response surface analysis to fully utilize binary information to comprehensively consider the effects of different matching combinations of CSR between both M&A parties on M&A performance. It is found that the higher the level of CSR consistency between the two parties, the better the M&A performance, and the M&A performance of the “high-high” CSR consistency combination is significantly better than that of the “low-low” consistency combination. This paper further finds that the effect of CSR consistency on M&A performance is stronger when both parties are in the same province, the same industry, or when the top executives of both parties have a graduate degree. The results reveal the underlying mechanism of how CSR alignment creates synergistic value and affects M&A performance, deepen the matching-based antecedents of M&A synergy, and provide theoretical and empirical evidence for the selection of M&A targets and the implementation of CSR strategies.

In the background of global warming and low-carbon-economy transition, the banking system is faced with rigorous challenges, and evaluating the impact of climate change on the banking system is closely related to financial stability, and the impact on the bank active risk-taking behavior is one of important perspectives. This paper uses the temperature anomaly as a proxy of climate change, and conducts an empirical analysis using a micro panel dataset with 74 listed banks from 2003 to 2022. The results indicate that, increases in temperature anomalies significantly reduce bank active risk-taking; Banks with higher asset adequacy ratio have higher tolerance for climate shocks, but the size of banks does not play a significant moderating role. This paper also discusses the non-performing loan ratio and the balance-sheet capacity channels for the impact of climate change on bank risk-taking. For the non-performing loan ratio channel, increases in temperature anomalies raise the non-performing loan ratios and result in the “credit squeeze” behavior, and thus decrease active risk-taking. For the balance-sheet capacity channel, increases in temperature anomalies harm the balance-sheet capacity of banks by lowering prices of risky assets, and thus restrain active risk-taking. This paper confirms the effects of climate change on bank risk-taking and the underlying mechanism, and provides policy supports for regulators to maintain financial stability and to increase the ability of banks to serve the real economy in the era of climate change.

The continuous refinement of production segmentation has transformed global trade patterns, offering new opportunities for developing economies to integrate into global production networks and elevate their positions in the value chain. This study applies social network analysis to explore the effects of production network development on value chain positioning and the underlying mechanisms, using node centrality metrics for the equipment manufacturing industry and the OECD’s world input-output table. The findings reveal that greater embeddedness of the equipment manufacturing industry in export networks promotes upward mobility in the value chain, while import network involvement has the opposite effect. However, the positive influence of export networks outweighs the negative impact of import networks, resulting in a net positive effect of production network centrality. The impact of production network integration on value chain status varies across industries and time periods. Mechanism tests highlight the critical roles of government regulation and R&D innovation in enabling the equipment manufacturing industry to enhance its value chain status. Furthermore, the influence of production networks on value chain positioning is non-linear, shaped by factors such as the interaction between depth and diversity of embedding, import and export networks, the Matthew effect, and crowding-out effects. This analysis underscores the complexity of production network dynamics and their transformative potential for value chain advancement.

Individual low-carbon behaviors serve as a pivotal point in promoting carbon emission reduction at the consumption end and driving green transformation at the production end. Achieving the integration of “cognition-participation-diffusion” in urban residents’ low-carbon behaviors is crucial for ensuring the effectiveness of this pivotal point. Drawing on the involvement theory, this paper defines the concept of low-carbon involvement from the perspective of the whole process from cognition to behavior. Taking urban residents as the research object, this paper explores the dimensions of low-carbon involvement by using the qualitative research of the grounded theory, constructs a model of the influencing factors of urban residents’ low-carbon involvement. Furthermore, through empirical research, it analyses the influencing factors and underlying mechanisms of urban residents’ low-carbon involvement. The results show that low-carbon involvement includes four dimensions: low-carbon cognitive involvement, low-carbon information involvement, low-carbon behavior involvement, and low-carbon involvement in influencing others. The degree of low-carbon involvement of urban residents is at a medium level, among which, the mean of low-carbon behavior involvement is the highest, and the mean of involvement in influencing others is the lowest. In terms of influencing factors of low-carbon involvement, the perception of low-carbon utility is the main factor affecting low-carbon involvement, which directly affects the four dimensions of low-carbon involvement. Individual and social factors have different degrees of significant influence on the perception of low-carbon utility, and some factors affect low-carbon involvement through the perception of low-carbon utility. The findings provide important insights for understanding and promoting low-carbon behaviors among urban residents.

Due to multiple factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, weakened expectations, and geopolitical conflicts, an increasing number of firms are experiencing organizational decline. Innovation is not only a key driver of the upgrading and high-quality development of Chinese manufacturing firms, but also an important means of reversing declining performance. However, in the face of decline, firms exhibit considerable heterogeneity in their innovation activities. This study utilizes panel data from Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2013 to 2020 and employs hierarchical regression analysis and Bootstrap methods to examine the mechanisms of how organizational decline influences innovation activities, as well as the moderating role of slack resources. The results indicate that organizational decline does not directly promote innovation activities; rather, it influences them by altering firms’ risk preferences. Risk-taking fully mediates the effect of organizational decline on innovation activities, and this mediating effect is contingent upon the firm’s slack resources. Specifically, slack resources play a dual-path moderating role in the mediating effect of risk-taking: on the one hand, they weaken the positive impact of organizational decline on risk-taking, while on the other hand, they enhance the positive effect of risk-taking on innovation activities. These findings provide practical insights for the innovation recovery of declining firms facing the dual challenges of resource reduction and eroding organizational legitimacy.

A critical gap remains in understanding the valuable issue of how to achieve AI innovation and advance it further. Based on the TOE framework, this study employs fsQCA and PSM methods to analyze Chinese listed firms (2018—2023), examining how configurations of technical factors (technological breadth, technological depth), organizational factors (ICT capabilities, AI stock, AI age), and environmental factors (regional AI ecological environment, industry ICT innovation atmosphere) influence AI innovation and subsequently shape firms’ high-quality development. Our findings reveal that AI stock serves as a necessary condition, and identify three high-level innovation paths: dynamic learning, self striving, and collaboration. The incremental effect test results of the configuration show that compared with the net effect of antecedent conditions, the configuration results have a better explanatory strength for AI innovation. The multi-period QCA results indicate that the changes in the three paths respectively present “emergent trajectories”, “buffer-dominant trajectories”, and “dominant trajectories”. High-level AI innovation triggered by multiple configurations has different effects on the high-quality development. The paper expands the research on the antecedents of AI innovation from a configuration perspective, provides a new explanatory for the “modern productivity paradox” of AI, and provides inspiration for firms on how to leverage AI innovation to foster and develop new qualitative productivity.

Based on the organizational ecology theory, we analyze the growth path of startups from the perspective of ecological niche, combine the incubation characteristics of startups, introduce opportunity and resource development as mediating variables, and market dynamics as moderating variables, and analyze the role mechanism of the relationship between the incubator and the ecological niche enhancement influence of startups. The empirical analysis is conducted with a sample of 386 startups residing in the incubator, and the results of the study show that: the incubator support has a significant positive influence on the relationship between the resource patchwork and a significant inverted U-shape relationship with the evaluation of opportunities; the relationship between the resource patchwork and the evaluation of opportunities has a significant positive influence on the ecological status enhancement of the startups. Incubator support has a significant inverted U-shaped relationship with the ecological status enhancement of startups, and indirectly affects the ecological status enhancement of startups through the resource patchwork and opportunity evaluation. In addition, market dynamics negatively moderate the indirect effect of resource pooling. The findings of this study fill the gap of organizational ecology theory in the field of entrepreneurial growth, and provide practical guidance on how startups can become gazelles by occupying advantageous ecological niches.

Green innovation is an important driving force for the high-quality transformation and development of the economy. But can corporate strategic differences promote corporate green innovation? Using sample data from A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2023, this paper empirically examines the impact of corporate strategic differences on corporate green innovation and its mechanism, the results show that：(1) Corporate strategic differentiation has a significant negative impact on green innovation, and the greater the strategic differentiation, the lower the green innovation；(2) Intermediary mechanism test finds that the higher the strategic differentiation, the higher the first agency cost and external financing constraints. At the same time, it will lead to an increase in the risk of debt default, thereby suppressing the green innovation capability of enterprises；(3) Heterogeneity tests show that, the negative impact of strategic differentiation on green innovation mainly exists in non-state-owned enterprises, low growth enterprises, strategic conservative enterprises, and non high pollution industries. The conclusions of the above research enrich the literature on the driving factors of corporate green innovation and the economic consequences of strategic differences, and provide important insights for local governments in implementing targeted green innovation incentive and guidance policies, and for enterprises to seize market opportunities and enhance their green innovation capabilities based on their own characteristics and strategic positioning.

The differential order pattern is an important feature of traditional Chinese culture, and innovation and transformation are the major challenges faced by family businesses. This paper takes China’s listed family businesses from 2008 to 2018 as a research sample to explore the impact of family executives’ kinship order pattern on the innovation performance of family businesses. This paper draws the following conclusions: (1) the family executives’ kinship order pattern can improve the innovation performance of family businesses, (2) the institutional environment weakens the positive relationship between the family executives’ kinship order pattern and the firm’s innovation performance, (3) the parental authority helps to strengthen the positive relationship between the family executives’ kinship order pattern and the firm’s innovation performance, and (4) through the mechanism test, it is found that the family executives’ kinship order pattern improves the innovation performance of family businesses by alleviating agency problems and financing constraints, (5) further research shows that in high-tech enterprises, the positive impact of the family executives’ kinship pattern on the firm’s innovation performance is more significant, and the family-shareholders’ kinship pattern is significantly positively correlated with the family-executives’ kinship pattern. This paper is based on the local culture of China, which is helpful to expand the research perspective of family business innovation.

Frustration in the workplace is a common organizational phenomenon, but people react to it in very different ways, with some people retreating from difficulties while others facing them head on. Previous studies generally suggest that workplace frustration leads to employees perceiving threat, which results in negative behaviors such as avoidance and withdrawal. Conversely, some studies suggest that workplace frustration can stimulate employees to challenge their potential, resulting in positive behaviors such as taking charge. To reconcile these contradictions, this paper, based on trait activation theory, follows the logical path of ‘situation×trait → appraisal → behavior’ to explore why employees react differently when encountering frustration. This paper employs the situational experiment and the paired questionnaire survey of multi-source and multi-wave points. The research reveals that: (1) The interaction between workplace frustration and external locus of control positively influences withdrawal behavior through hindrance appraisal; (2) The interaction between workplace frustration and internal locus of control positively influences taking charge through challenge appraisal; (3) Positive supervisor developmental feedback weakens the positive moderating effect of workplace frustration on employees with an external locus of control; (4) Positive supervisor developmental feedback enhances the positive moderating effect of workplace frustration on employees with an internal locus of control. This study explains the internal mechanism and intervention conditions of the frustration curse and frustration sharpening effect, and shows that the locus of control traits form different cognitive appraisals when processing cues for work frustration, thus explaining the actual phenomenon that employees in the workplace face frustration to form completely different behaviors. It also provides a theoretical explanation and practical insights for the organization to intervene in the impact of work frustration on employee behavior.

Charismatic leadership is given a lot of attention as one of most effective leadership styles. However, there are two faces of charismatic leadership — socialized charismatic leadership and personalized charismatic leadership. It is important to investigate the influence of the two leadership styles for constructing the correct understanding and developing the theory of charismatic leadership. Based on the social identity theory of leadership, we explore the mechanism of how socialized/personalized charismatic leadership influences subordinates’ well-being. The results show that socialized charismatic leadership can promote subordinates’ deep acting, and personalized charismatic leadership can promote subordinates’ surface acting; deep acting mediates the relationship between socialized charismatic leadership and subordinates’ well-being, and surface acting mediates the relationship between personalized charismatic leadership and subordinates’ well-being. In addition, subordinates’ moral identity strengthens the positive relationship between socialized charismatic leadership and subordinates’ deep acting, and weakens the positive relationship between personalized charismatic leadership and subordinates’ surface acting.

In the channel behavior theory, channel communication strategy has always been an important research topic. This study takes the cooperative relationship between manufacturers and distributors as the research context, discusses the influence of manufacturers’ use of interpersonal influence on channel cooperative performance, and explores the boundary mechanism from the perspective of firms’ multilevel social relationships according to the orderly-diversity pattern theory. We match the questionnaire data with the secondary data, and apply a variety of statistical analysis methods to test the results. The results shows that, manufacturers’ use of interpersonal influence can promote channel cooperative performance; personal relationship and government-firm relationship will strengthen the positive relationship between interpersonal influence and channel cooperative performance, and the role of government-firm relationship is greater than that of personal relationship. Interfirm relationship has no significant effect on the relationship between interpersonal influence and channel cooperative performance. Finally, this study expounds the theoretical contribution, practical enlightenment and future research prospect.

With the widespread use of AI in the workplace, AI has gradually become a collaborator in employees’ work and has a profound impact on employees’ behavioral performance. The impact of AI use on employees’ work performance still needs to be explored in depth. Based on social cognitive theory, this paper explores the mechanism of how AI use influences employee work performance from the functional perspective and the relationship perspective respectively. An independent research is conducted using scenario experiment method and questionnaire method. The results of scenario experiments show that AI use has a positive impact on employee work performance. The questionnaire results show that AI use has a positive impact on employee work performance through width self-efficacy, and AI use will also have a positive impact on employee work performance through process participation. Width self-efficacy and process participation play a mediating role in the impact of AI use on employee work performance. The indirect effect of AI use on employee performance through breadth self-efficacy and process participation is stronger when AI training is stronger.The research results further expand the research on the impact of AI use on employee performance, providing practical implications for employee performance management in the intelligent workplace.

Work withdrawal behavior is a common phenomenon in the workplace, posing potential risks to both organizational and individual performance. While previous studies have explored the key role of leader reward in shaping employee behavior, there has been relatively less focus on the consequences of leader reward omission. Given the prevalence nature of laissez-faire leadership (e.g., leader reward omission) in practice, its impact on employees’ work withdrawal behavior cannot be ignored. Drawing upon conservation of resources theory, the current study explores how and when leader reward omission fosters employees’ work withdrawal behavior by examining organization-based self-esteem as a mediator and perceived overqualification as a moderator. The final sample consists of 317 employees who participated in two-wave surveys. The results show that: (1) leader reward omission has a positive effect on employees’ work withdrawal behavior; (2) organization-based self-esteem mediates the relationship between leader reward omission and work withdrawal behavior; (3) perceived overqualification moderates the relationship between leader reward omission and organization-based self-esteem, such that the relationship is stronger when perceived overqualification is high rather than low; and (4) perceived overqualification also moderates the indirect effect of leader reward omission on employees’ work withdrawal behavior through organization-based self-esteem, with this indirect effect beingamplified at high levels of perceived overqualification. This study not only deepens the understanding of the formation process of work withdrawal behavior, but also provides insights and guidance for organizations aiming to effectively reduce employees’ work withdrawal behavior.

The highly controversial audit quality of listed companies in China is highlighted in recent years by one after another defaulted company with high deposits and loans. This paper makes an empirical analysis of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2018, and systematically verifies the low-level audit quality problems existing in the companies with high deposits and loans, highlighting the potential dangers of this financial anomaly. Further analysis also explores the mitigation mechanism from the internal governance mechanism and external governance channels of the companies. This paper also explores the path of “high deposits and loans” affecting audit quality. The research results show that improving the size and independence of the audit committee can effectively improve the audit quality of the companies with high deposits and loans, and the greater the short selling pressure faced by the companies and the higher the media attention can also significantly improve the audit quality of the companies with high deposits and loans. At the same time, “high deposits and loans” affects audit quality through audit collusion.

Financial statement fraud of listed companies is seriously threatening the stability of the global economy. Existing studies rarely consider the relationship between listed companies and other financial entities. It remains to be explored whether these relationships can enhance the accuracy of fraud detection. This paper proposes a detection method considering the relationship between listed companies. This method constructs a knowledge graph to depict common management, concerted action, and common related party relationships. Through knowledge reasoning, a homogeneous network is extracted. Integrating the features from the homogeneous network with the company’s own characteristics, a fraud detection model is constructed using the Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM). This paper conducts an empirical test based on the real data of China’s A-share listed companies from 2016 to 2020. The empirical results indicate that the network features related to interrelationships contribute to improved accuracy in financial statement fraud detection. In comparison with other machine learning methods, LightGBM methods considering the relationships exhibits better performance.

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the question of how to prevent and resolve corporate debt risks. As an important tool to serve the high-quality development of the real economy, supply chain finance has also received widespread attention. Using the data of A-share listed companies, this paper examines the role of supply chain finance in preventing debt risk from the perspective of maturity mismatch of investment and financing. It is found that the implementation of supply chain finance strategy can significantly restrain enterprises from maturity mismatch of investment and financing, and the effect of two-way supply chain finance and digital supply chain finance is better. Extended test finds that supply chain finance reduces maturity mismatch of investment and financing by increasing operating cash flow and equity financing. The inhibitory effect of supply chain finance on maturity mismatch of investment and financing is more significant for enterprises with weak long-term debt financing capabilities and strong short-term debt financing capabilities. The inhibitory effect of supply chain finance on maturity mismatch of investment and financing can reduce the business risk and financial risk of enterprises, and improve the financial performance and investment efficiency. This paper not only enriches and expanded the research on the mechanism of supply chain finance serving the real economy and the influencing factors of maturity mismatch of investment and financing, but also provides empirical evidence and policy reference for enterprises and government departments to scientifically reduce corporate debt risks, prevent systemic financial risks and better use supply chain finance to serve the high-quality development of the real economy.

Green bonds are conducive to solving the contradiction between economic development and environmental protection. In order to further promote the development of green bonds, local governments have successively issued preferential policies, but do preferential policies really improve the environmental benefits of green bonds? This paper takes the green bonds issued by A-share listed companies from 2016 to 2023 as a sample, constructs a quantitative function for calculating environmental benefits of green bonds, and uses a multi period double difference model to study the impact of local government preferential policies on the environmental benefits of green bonds. The findings show that: (1) Local government preferential policies can significantly improve the environmental benefits of green bonds, and direct preferential policies have a more significant effect on improving the environment; (2)Local government preferential policies improve the environmental benefits of green bonds by easing financing constraints, enhancing investor confidence, and strengthening media supervision; (3) The “two-carbon” strategy has an effect of incentivizing local governments to enhance environmental benefits through preferential policies, and the improvement effect is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises and enterprises in areas where green finance is highly developed and environmental governance is robust. This paper has important theoretical value for understanding how local government preferential policies affect the environmental benefits of green bonds, and also provides reference for regulatory authorities to improve green bond preferential policies.

Individual behavior serves as the cornerstone of digital economic activities. Gaining an accurate understanding of the behavioral patterns and characteristics within the digital economy is imperative for its stable, healthy, and orderly progression. With college students as participants, this study employs a randomized control trial within the WeChat “One Hop” mini-game to empirically investigate the influence of network externalities on individual behavior within the digital economy. The findings are as follows: (1) Network externalities have a significant positive impact on players’ gaming behavior. (2) Network externalities have a “network effect” and an “acquaintance effect” on individual behavior, and these two effects are complementary and substitutable. (3) Network externalities do not trigger continuous irrational behavior in individuals. Players will not completely ignore personal information due to the “acquaintance effect” in online games. As players develop gaming habit and gather experience, their decision-making process is increasingly guided by their intrinsic preferences. These research conclusions contribute to the understanding of the operation patterns and logic of the digital economy, offering important insights for developers of digital products and relevant management departments.

The word-of-mouth manipulation in the supply chain financing of e-commerce platform under the Internet environment is a problem that cannot be ignored. This paper respectively formulates and solves the supply chain decision models under the two conditions that the supplier has no capital constraint or has capital constraint and the e-commerce platform provides financing services. The influence of word-of-mouth manipulation on the supply chain equilibrium decision-making and operational efficiency is analyzed, and the relationship between the financing strategy of the e-commerce platform and the role of word-of-mouth manipulation is discussed. The research shows that: (1) Under certain conditions, word-of-mouth manipulation will drive suppliers to actively improve product quality, thus beneficial to both suppliers and e-commerce platforms. (2) When the unit word-of-mouth manipulation cost is within a certain range or the degree of word-of-mouth manipulation is lower than a certain threshold, the manipulation will produce “Information Effect” and consumers will make more effective purchase decisions to meet their certain needs. (3) E-commerce platforms can control the dual influence of word-of-mouth manipulation and the boundary of consumers’ utility gains and losses by adjusting the financing interest rate. The research results show that in the supply chain financing operation of e-commerce platform, the key to win public praise and enhance product reputation is to improve product quality, and the e-commerce platform should develop reasonable financing strategies to effectively control and optimize the e-WOM information, so as to achieve a win-win situation between supply chain members and consumers.

As an emerging business model driven by the digital economy, social e-commerce exhibits a unique value creation mechanism that holds significant importance for enterprise and market development. However, existing research on its internal logic and operational mechanisms remains insufficient. From the perspectives of value creation, ecosystems and related theories, this study employs a multi-case grounded theory approach, selecting Mengxiang Group, Dehui Haowu, and Xiyu Xiaobai as research subjects. Following a “cause-behavior-result” analytical framework, the study identifies five core categories: value creation drivers, community channel construction, rapid technology iteration, stakeholder empowerment and social e-commerce value creation. It constructs a mechanism model of social e-commerce value creation and proposes five theoretical propositions. The findings reveal that social e-commerce enhances value co-creation capabilities through community channel construction and rapid technology iteration, achieves value expansion through stakeholder empowerment and resource collaboration, and attains sustainable value creation through ecosystem value co-creation. This study deepens the understanding of value creation logic within decentralized operational models, extends platform ecosystem and stakeholder theories, and provides theoretical support for designing sustainable social e-commerce models. Additionally, it offers practical guidance for policy development and industry standardization.

Enterprises evolved from Chinese culture are organic wholes rooted in relationships. When dealing with environmental changes, they depend on trust among members to define the order and boundary of daily activities. Trust dominated by value logic may undermine harmonious relational identity and is not conducive to the sustainable and healthy development of enterprises. Therefore, this paper adopts a dual case analysis method to explore the mechanism of the generation of trust based on Zhongyi and enterprises’ growth. The findings are as follows: First, Zhongyi provides behavioral restraint for trust in daily interaction activities. Second, due to Beirang of actors in organizations, the humble leadership style and the humility of members form the practice of Zhongxin in the common emotion. It is further found that Zhongyu Daoyi promotes the organization to “think in the same place”, and mobilizes the integrated power of hierarchy. Xinyu Benfen promotes members to “work together” by maintaining relations, thus strengthening the ability to grasp opportunities of organizational development and quickly regain health when hit by unexpected events. Research shows that trust in accordance with Daoyi promotes the growth of enterprises in the maintenance of harmonious relationships.