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This paper aims to explore the pathways of carbon transfer in 200 US corporations along with the motivations that drive such transfers. The particular focus is on each firm’s embeddedness in the global value chain (GVC) and the influence of environmental law, operational costs and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The insights gleaned bridge a gap in the literature surrounding GVCs and corporate carbon transfer.

The methodology comprised a two-step research approach. First, the authors used a two-sided fixed regression to analyse the relationship between each firm’s embeddedness in the GVC and its carbon transfers. The sample consisted of 217 US firms. Next, the authors examined the influence of environmental law, operational costs and CSR on carbon transfers using a quantitative comparison analysis. These results were interpreted through the theoretical frameworks of the GVC and legitimacy theory.

The empirical results indicate positive relationships between carbon transfers and GVC embeddedness in terms of both a firm’s position and its degree. From the quantitative comparison, the authors find that the pressure of environmental law and operational costs motivate these transfers through the value chain. Furthermore, CSR does not help to mitigate transfers.

The findings offer insights for policymakers, industry and academia to understand that, with globalised production and greater value creation, transferring carbon to different parts of the GVC – largely to developing countries – will only become more common. The underdeveloped nature of environmental technology in these countries means that global emissions will likely rise instead of fall, further exacerbating global warming. Transferring carbon is not conducive to a sustainable global economy. Hence, firms should be closely regulated and given economic incentives to reduce emissions, not simply shunt them off to the developing world.

Carbon transfer is a major obstacle to effectively reducing carbon emissions. The responsibilities of carbon transfer via GVCs are difficult to define despite firms being a major consideration in such transfers. Understanding how and why corporations engage in carbon transfers can facilitate global cooperation among communities. This knowledge could pave the way to establishing a global carbon transfer monitoring network aimed at preventing corporate carbon transfer and, instead, encouraging emissions reduction.

This study extends the literature by investigating carbon transfers and the GVC at the firm level. The authors used two-step research approach including panel data and quantitative comparison analysis to address this important question. The authors are the primary study to explore the motivation and pathways by which firms transfer carbon through the GVC.

This chapter reviews the competition between full-service carrier (FSC) and low-cost carrier (LCC) in China. More importantly, we discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on FSC–LCC competition. Specifically, the airlines' route choices and also the market contact between FSCs and LCCs in China are examined and discussed. Our review results suggest that, despite the rapid growth of the independent LCC Spring Airlines and the establishment of new subsidiary LCCs by FSCs, China's LCC sector still plays relatively minor roles compared with many fully deregulated markets. Subsidiary LCCs serve more as competitive tools for their parent FSCs, primarily deployed on their parent FSCs' routes to jointly compete against rival FSCs. This competition is primarily focused on niche regional markets rather than engaging in full-scale competition. Spring Airlines also strategically avoided direct head-to-head competition with FSCs before the pandemic by mainly connecting with the secondary cities. However, the pandemic has introduced significant changes, notably the network differentiation between FSCs and LCCs in mainland China. With the relaxation of government's regulations on airline route entries into hub airports during pandemic, Chinese LCCs have shifted their focus toward serving more dense routes, especially those connected to the top five cities. This shift has led to an intensified head-to-head competition between LCCs and FSCs following the outbreak of the pandemic. Such a process is likely to continue in the years to come. This chapter's discussions could also provide new insights into LCC development and the impact of the pandemic on FSC–LCC competition interactions to supplement existing literature studying other major airline markets.

Purpose: The primary purpose is to discuss the productivity and digitalisation interaction at the theoretical level, analyse the productivity and digitalisation differences between the European Union (EU)-14 and EU-13 countries, and evaluate the digitalisation impact on the manufacturing sector labour productivity of the EU countries.

Need for study: The average added value created per capita in new EU countries (EU-13) is one-third lower than in old EU countries (EU-14). To increase productivity, manufacturing companies must adapt to modern trends and take advantage of industrial digitisation opportunities. Digitisation can improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and improve product quality, allowing continuous monitoring and analysis of production data, enabling informed decisions and faster problem-solving.

Methodology: Analysis of scientific literature, comparing viewpoints, insights, and conclusions. The empirical study includes calculating rates of change of indicators, differences between EU-14 and EU-13, and structural analysis. The impact of digitisation on the productivity of EU countries is studied by creating a correlation matrix and using regression analysis: ordinary least square models.

Findings: EU-13 countries are behind EU-14 in labour productivity and manufacturing digitalisation. Digitalisation positively impacts productivity per employee. A faster increase in digitisation, industrial robot use, and e-commerce sales could significantly increase productivity in EU-13, reducing productivity differences between countries.

Practical implications: This study highlights the need for policy promoting digitisation innovation, particularly in EU-13 countries, to be implemented by both national and EU-based economic development and regional and cohesion institutions.

This study aims to examine the effects of multidimensional factors of platform features, group effects and emotional attitudes on social media users’ privacy disclosure intention.

This study collected the data from 426 respondents through an online questionnaire survey and conducted two approaches of structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) for theoretical hypothesis testing and configuration analysis of the data.

The results show that social media platform features (rewards of information disclosure, personalized service quality and data transparency), group effects (group similarity, group information interaction and network externality), individual emotional attitudes (trust and privacy concern) and control variable (gender) have a significant impact on privacy disclosure intention, as well as trust and privacy concern play mediating roles. Additionally, the fsQCA method reveals five causal configurations that explain high privacy disclosure intentions. Furthermore, the study reveals that male users pay more attention to platform features, while female users are more inclined to group effects.

This study attempts to construct a comprehensive model to examine the factors that affect users' intention to disclose their privacy on social media platforms. Drawing on the cognition-affect-conation model and multidimensional development theory, the model integrates multidimensional factors of platform features, group effects, trust and privacy concern to complement existing theoretical frameworks and privacy disclosure literature. By understanding the complex dynamics behind privacy disclosure, this study helps platform providers and policymakers develop effective strategies to ensure the vitality and momentum of the social media ecosystem.

Research and Development (R&D) activities are important for technological innovation and present opportunities for entrepreneurship. These activities depend on the flow of funding. This paper aims to review approaches used in R&D project selection and budget allocation.

This study conducts a systematic review, examining the content of 60 relevant papers (spanning 2000–2022) concerning public R&D budget allocation. The analysis focuses on allocation methodology, R&D output evaluation, budget allocation efficiency and the management of uncertainty in the allocation process.

The systematic review reveals different methods proposed for allocating government R&D budgets. These methods range from classical optimization, multi-criteria analysis and hierarchical analysis to techniques such as balanced scorecard, data envelopment analysis and analytic hierarchy process, including fuzzy approaches. Recent trends indicate an increase in the use of advanced optimization, integration and simulation algorithms. Performance indicators for reflecting R&D project outputs or goals can be categorized into four main groups: output (e.g. publications, patents, graduates), outcome, productivity (e.g. citations, patent references, articles and patents per capita) and sector-specific metrics.

Future research directions in government R&D budget allocation may include optimizing allocation to maximize social, economic and political benefits, developing ranking models, decision-making frameworks, simulations and evaluations of factors influencing allocation type and strategy. Additionally, there is a growing interest in novel budget allocation algorithms leveraging artificial intelligence and self-adjusting meta-heuristic algorithms.

The systematic review showed that some important research gaps in (government) R&D budget allocation could be considered in future studies; for example, long-term social, economic and political benefits in budget allocation optimization models, comprehensiveness of allocating government R&D budgets to universities, higher education and research institutes, R&D budget allocation to strategic technology development, e.g. renewable energy sector, supply chain issues and renewable energy value chain; new budget allocation algorithms based on artificial intelligence and self-adjusting meta-heuristic algorithms; methods for optimizing the structures of government budget allocation to R&D, considering executive and regulatory conflicts.

It is unclear what constitutes the tourism live streaming (TLS) servicescape and how it affects users' travel intention (TI). The study aims to explore the composition of the TLS servicescape, the influence mechanism of the TLS servicescape on users' TI and the formation of users' TI.

Based on stimulus organism response theory (SOR), we develop a mediation model to explore the influence of TLS servicescape on users' TI. This study collected data from 432 Chinese TLS users through an online questionnaire, and we used the structural equation model and the SPSS PROCESS macro to test the proposed model. In addition, we tested the variable relationships using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

TLS servicescape is a second-order variable that can be categorized into physical element (PE), social element (SOE), symbolic element (SYE) and natural element (NE). TLS servicescape influences TI by affecting social presence (SP) and customer engagement (CE). The fsQCA reveals seven combinations of PE, SOE, SYE, NE, SP and CE that form a high TI for TLS users.

Using multiple data analysis methods, the study emphasizes the significance of the TLS servicescape for TLS. It explores how to evoke users' TI in TLS and provides a reference for TLS marketing.

Past research is mixed on family small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) use of external advisors and the limited empirical evidence is confined to developed markets. Drawing on the knowledge-based view of the firm, this research focuses on the “familiness” characteristic of SMEs and their use of external accountants as advisors in an emerging marketplace. Using internal resources for basic tasks is proposed to strengthen this relationship from a managerial cognition lens. Focusing also on SME internalization, this research probes the performance ramifications of using external accountants as advisors.

Hierarchical regression is used to test the hypotheses. The mediation hypothesis is tested by bootstrapping the indirect effect. The interaction hypothesis is visualized with simple slope analysis.

The results indicate that the familiness of SMEs is positively associated with the use of external advisors, and thereby, with high performance. SMEs with higher international exposure also use these external advisors to a greater degree. Family SMEs that have a focused use of internal resources for basic tasks benefit more from the use of external accountants for advising tasks.

This research sheds light on how family involvement in management influences firm performance, showing the moderating role of the use of internal advisors for basic tasks and the mediating role of the use of external accountants for advising. We add to the knowledge-based view by describing how family SMEs can utilize internal and external knowledge resources simultaneously.

In the context of green development in China, the circumstance in which Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings function has changed. As an important external governance mechanism of sustainable development, ESG ratings can also be a two-edged sword for the implementation of carbon emission reduction. This research examines the connection of ESG ratings and corporate carbon emission reduction in the context of green development. This present study postulates that the impact of ESG ratings on carbon emission reduction performance in the context of green development is inverted U-shaped.

To obtain empirical evidence for the hypotheses proposed, this study makes an empirical test based on the two-way fixed effects model. The data is taken from listed Chinese manufacturing firms between 2012 and 2021.

The study reveals that there is a significant inverted U-shape relationship between ESG ratings and carbon emission reduction performance in the context of green development. Managerial myopic behaviour plays a positive moderating role in the above relationship. In addition, it makes the inflection point of inverted U-shaped curve move to left. Heterogeneity analyses show that the above inverted U-shaped relationship is more significant for firms that don’t hire CEO with environmental protection background or big four accounting firms.

In the background of green development, this study helps to understand dual influence of ESG ratings on corporate carbon emission reduction deeply. It is beneficial to guide enterprises to utilize ESG ratings mechanism reasonably, thus enhancing the effectiveness of carbon emission reduction. This study provides decision-making reference for government to accelerate low-carbon transformation in microcosmic field.

The emergence of live streaming commerce has injected promising impetus into rural development and attracted many rural streamers. This study aims to explore the influencing factors of rural streamers’ engagement intentions to help promote the sustainable development of rural live streaming commerce.

Grounded in the extended valence framework, this research employs a mixed-methods approach encompassing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. In the qualitative phase, the authors conduct in-depth interviews with 15 rural streamers, employing data coding techniques to uncover underlying factors. Subsequently, in the quantitative phase, the authors analyze survey data from 282 rural streamers, subjecting hypotheses to validation through structural equation modeling.

The findings derived from the analysis of both interviews and questionnaires reveal that several platform qualities, including platform rural-aiding support, perceived effectiveness of dispute resolution, perceived interactivity and platform reputation, have a positive effect on trust in the platform and validate the extended valence framework in understanding rural streamers’ live streaming intention. In addition, ties with customers have a moderating effect. Specifically, the stronger the ties with customers, the stronger the positive effect of perceived benefits and the weaker the positive effect of trust in the platform on live streaming intention will be.

This study contributes to the rural live streaming commerce literature and trust research from the sellers’ perspective and provides practical implications for policymakers and live streaming platform managers on enhancing rural streamers’ participation.

Over recent years, public health threats, economic losses and crises of confidence resulting from adverse events along the global food chains have pressured food traceability systems to operate more efficiently. Based on that, this paper aims to expand the body of knowledge on the connection between Industry 4.0 technologies and food chain traceability and how they have been integrated.

Before conducting a systematic literature review (SLR), we consulted academic experts in traceability and Industry 4.0 technologies to define the leading 4.0 technologies adopted. We then developed protocols and criteria for article selection. Based on the developed codebook, we performed a content analysis, refining it through discussions with experienced researchers.

This paper identified seven Industry 4.0 technologies applied in conjunction with support and device systems. These combinations hold promise for generating value for food chain traceability systems. Value for the food supply chain originates from five sources: trust, process improvement, data processing, security, sustainability and regulation. Besides, three barriers to implementing such traceability technologies were identified: resources, lack of structure, stakeholders and values.

While this study focused specifically on the food chain, the technology combinations, values, barriers and categories identified herein can inform analyses for other chains, e.g. the pharmaceutical chain. Moreover, due to the recent growth of this topic, some existing values and barriers may not have been fully explored and the technology combinations may vary slightly.

The results of this study provide food chain professionals with a comprehensive understanding of the values and corresponding barriers associated with employing Industry 4.0 traceability technologies. This knowledge can be leveraged to develop effective strategies and implement improvements in traceability, thereby benefiting society and addressing identified barriers.

This study expands the literature on using Industry 4.0 technologies for traceability in food chains, providing valuable directions to build safer, more efficient, transparent and potentially more sustainable food chains. Additionally, we provide promising avenues for future research.