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The performance of corporations in sustainable development is not only a concern of investors, but has also captured ever-increasing attention from consumers. However, the evidence on how these good practices would ultimately benefit brands economically remains insufficient. This study tests the causal effect between corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance, media coverage, and brand value to reveal the underlying mechanisms of how consumers would react to high ESG performance.

This study uses panel data regression analysis with a sample of Chinese A-share non-financial listed companies from 2010 to 2021. ESG performance, brand value, and media coverage are assessed with Huazheng ESG Rating, the rankings from the China’s 500 Most Valuable Brands' list published by the World Brand Lab, and media index compiled by the Chinese Research Data Services Platform (CNRDS) respectively.

This research confirmed that ESG performance positively impacted brand value in terms of profitability, and that media coverage played a role as a megaphone in this relationship. Large-scale corporates, compared to small ones, benefited more from good ESG ratings due to increased media coverage.

The findings provide evidence of the megaphone effect of media coverage on the relationship between firms’ ESG engagements and brand value in the product market, which has extended the knowledge of media’s monitoring role in the financial market. And this megaphone effect is strengthened by firm size in which larger firms have spotlight effect in draw public attention due to higher expectations in terms of social responsibility.

When recommending products to consumers, it is important to be able to accurately predict how consumers will rate them. However, existing collaborative filtering models are difficult to achieve a balance between rating prediction accuracy and complexity. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose an accurate and effective model to predict users’ ratings of products for the accurate recommendation of products to users.

First, we introduce an attention mechanism that dynamically assigns weights to user preferences, highlighting key interaction information and enhancing the model’s understanding of user behavior. Second, a fold embedding strategy is employed to segment user interaction data, increasing the information density of each subset while reducing the complexity of the attention mechanism. Finally, a masking strategy is integrated to mitigate overfitting by concealing portions of user-item interactions, thereby improving the model’s generalization ability.

The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model significantly minimizes prediction error across five real-world datasets. On average, the evaluation metrics root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) are reduced by 9.11 and 13.3%, respectively. Additionally, the Friedman test results confirm that these improvements are statistically significant. Consequently, the proposed model more accurately captures the intrinsic correlation between users and products, leading to a substantial reduction in prediction error.

We propose a novel collaborative filtering model to learn the user-item interaction matrix effectively. Additionally, we introduce a fold embedding strategy to reduce the computational resource consumption of the attention mechanism. Finally, we implement a masking strategy to encourage the model to focus on key features and patterns, thereby mitigating overfitting.

The rapid development of information technology, epitomized by AIGC and the metaverse, presents unprecedented challenges to techno-ethics, exposing society to significant risks and uncertainties. A systematic investigation and discussion of the construction of techno-ethical order become crucial under the paradigm of risk society theory. The selection of conditions and pathways for constructing a techno-ethical order under the risk society theory paradigm becomes an unavoidable and vital issue.

Drawing on risk society theory, this study employs scientometrics and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to empirically analyze the key factors and conditional pathways in the construction of techno-ethical order. Initially, a quantitative analysis is conducted on 1,490 thematic literature retrieved from CNKI and WoS to identify the hot topics and core concepts in techno-ethical research. Subsequently, QCA configuration analysis is applied to calculate eight evaluation indicators and their weights from the perspectives of government, society and individuals. Finally, the study explores the mechanisms of the impact of these indicators’ weights on the construction of techno-ethical order.

The analysis of factor weights and pathways indicates that the selection of pathways for constructing techno-ethical order is influenced both by the inherent development patterns of technology and societal systems and cultural values. Literature metrics analysis reveals an overall trend of sustained growth in techno-ethical research, indicating an unprecedented prosperity in this field. Alongside technological advancements, keywords related to “artificial intelligence” play a crucial role in current techno-ethical research. Configuration analysis demonstrates that conditional variables from the dimensions of government, society and individuals form a configuration pathway, influencing and synergistically impacting the overall level of techno-ethical order construction. Attention should be given to the mutual constraints and synergistic effects of factors related to technological development, societal systems and cultural values.

This study, grounded in the risk society theory paradigm, quantitatively explores the key factors and pathways of techno-ethical order construction in academic texts, expanding new perspectives, providing novel insights, establishing innovative methodologies and extending new boundaries in the field. Further enrichment of the dataset and in-depth discussions are warranted for continued advancement.

This study explores the spatial and temporal relationship between tourism activities and transportation-related carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the United States (US) from 2003 to 2022 using advanced geospatial modeling techniques.

The research integrated geographic information systems (GIS) to map tourist attractions against high-resolution annual emissions data. The analysis covered 3,108 US counties, focusing on county-level attraction densities and annual on-road CO₂ emission patterns. Advanced spatial analysis techniques, including bivariate mapping and local bivariate relationship testing, were employed to assess potential correlations.

The findings reveal limited evidence of significant associations between tourism activities and transportation-based CO₂ emissions around major urban centers, with decreases observed in Eastern states and the Midwest, particularly in non-coastal areas, from 2003 to 2022. Most counties (86.03%) show no statistically significant relationship between changes in tourism density and on-road CO₂ emissions. However, 1.90% of counties show a positive linear relationship, 2.64% a negative linear relationship, 0.29% a concave relationship, 1.61% a convex relationship and 7.63% a complex, undefined relationship. Despite this, the 110% national growth in tourism output and resource consumption from 2003–2022 raises potential sustainability concerns.

To tackle sustainability issues in tourism, policymakers and stakeholders can integrate emissions accounting, climate modeling and sustainability governance. Effective interventions are vital for balancing tourism demands with climate resilience efforts promoting social equity and environmental justice.

This study’s innovative application of geospatial modeling and comprehensive spatial analysis provides new insights into the complex relationship between tourism activities and CO₂ emissions. The research highlights the challenges in isolating tourism’s specific impacts on emissions and underscores the need for more granular geographic assessments or comprehensive emission inventories to fully understand tourism’s environmental footprint.

Homophily, a prominent phenomenon in social networking, profoundly shapes user behaviors on social media but has not been well studied in the livestream commerce context. This study aims to investigate its moderation role in leveraging the effects of key livestream commerce factors – perceived expertise of live streamers and perceived interaction during live streaming – on audience trust, a critical determinant of purchase intentions.

A survey was conducted among livestream shoppers on Taobao. A sample of 313 responses was analyzed. SPSS (version 29) was used for general statistical analysis. The partial least squares structural equation modeling approach with SmartPLS 4.1 software was used to assess the research model and hypotheses.

The results reveal noteworthy differential effects of homophily: it negatively moderates the expertise–trust association but positively moderates the interaction–trust relationship. When the audience perceives strong homophily with live streamers, their trust in these live streamers becomes increasingly contingent on the level of interaction, whereas the effect of perceived expertise diminishes.

The insights on the differential effects of homophily are novel to the literature. These findings extend theoretical understanding of the homophily effect and provide valuable guidance for live streamers, marketers and platforms seeking to reinforce audience trust and drive purchase intentions in livestream commerce.