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This paper studies the determinants for the desirability of the public-private partnership (PPP) mode in infrastructure development.

The author manually collects data on over 12,000 PPP projects in China, and regard the successful transition and abnormal termination as signals for the mode’s desirability and undesirability, respectively. Then, guided by relevant theories in the literature, the author investigates the impact of various project characteristics on the projects’ successful transition and abnormal termination.

First, execution-stage projects in industries where government support is indispensable, or where quality improvement is more important than cost reduction, face higher likelihood of abnormal termination. But such negative effects are mitigated if state-owned enterprises (SOEs) participate in the social party. Second, the structure of social party matters. The participation by private firms in the social party increases the termination likelihood, while the decentralization of the social party decreases it. Third, pre-execution projects with government payment or subsidies are more likely to enter into the execution stage.

Regulations on participation by SOEs in PPPs, such as policy [2023 No. 115] announced by State Council, should take industrial heterogeneity into consideration.

Using a large sample, the author empirically tests the seminal PPP-related theories in the literature. The author also uncovers some unique stylized facts about PPPs in China, especially the impact of SOE participation in the social party on PPP survival.

The purpose of this paper is to understand urban sculpture venues that emerged in the recent decade and their connections to the on-going entrepreneurial urban policies and urban strategies in Shanghai. How does this phenomenon relate to Shanghai’s urban policies? How does urban sculpture development reflect the nature and characteristics of the urban sculpture authority?

Case study is the major research method used to achieve an in-depth understanding of the developmental processes, mechanisms and characteristics of urban sculpture projects. Three cases were selected and studied using purposeful sampling methods, including Duolun Road Sculpture Project (2002), the Shanghai International Sculpture Center (2006) and the Jing’an Sculpture Park (2009).

A twofold main argument is established in this paper. Urban sculpture venues emerged as a new type of instrument to advance urban entrepreneurial policies; the use of this instrument, however, also involves politics in that art politically transforms the features and functions of open spaces in Shanghai.

Although scholarly interest in exploring cultural development through urban planning in the Chinese context is evident, urban sculpture planning (termed as “urban sculpture” in the Chinese ideological context) in Chinese metropolitan cities, in particular, is an unexplored topic, and thus leaves a gap in the knowledge. This paper introduces a new conceptual model, i.e., “aesthetic regime,” to describe the role of the urban sculpture authority in the development of the urban sculpture scene. It looks at the artistic representation of artworks, design of the sculpture venues, functionality of the artworks and social mechanisms for the actualization of these projects. An evolutional trend of the three sites across the decade is concerned.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the government efforts in criminalising and combating bank fraud and corruption in China and their policy implications.

An integrated method is used to gather the data for this study, including government documents, statutes, congressional reports, legal cases, news reports, online survey and interviews with key policy‐makers, investigators and prosecutors.

This research finds that a major problem of bank fraud and corruption in China is the gigantic web of government officials, bank insiders and criminal businesses in committing fraud. The harshness of the Chinese law has not automatically resulted in making the struggle against bank fraud more effective. Law, enforcement and punishment are not certain, predictable, and applied consistently in order to deter fraud. Political, ideological and legal differences have hindered China's pursuit of escaped criminals in foreign countries.

This paper indicates that a three‐pronged approach – deterrence, prevention and education – is needed to address bank fraud and corruption. The industry's preventive efforts are of far greater importance than any extreme penalty. There is a need for a reconstruction of business ethics to ensure willing compliance with the law by individuals and organizations.

The paper is of value to law enforcement policy‐makers, banking regulators, financial institutions and academic researchers with interests in bank fraud and corruption issues.

This paper has the purpose of looking into the role that financing and abandonment options play in the value of Chinese real estate development projects.

The paper is based on library research, which is used to support and extend the authors' personal knowledge and experience.

The paper finds that financing and abandonment options create important value in the real estate projects of China, and produce enormous profits for the developers.

The paper indicates that the Chinese government should improve the legislative and regulatory frameworks to control excessive value produced by the financing and abandonment options, and restrict the ability of developers to amass social wealth by exploiting legal loopholes.

The paper examines the financing and abandonment options embedded in Chinese real estate development projects, measures the specific value of the two options based on a case study, and analyzes some factors affecting the value of the two options.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the motive of family‐controlled firms to pay cash dividends in China.

Using some econometrical models, the paper designs and conducts a series of empirical research on cash dividends behavior, thus acquiring credible empirical data.

Using a sample of 204 family firms, the motive of family‐controlled firms to pay cash dividends was investigated. Dividend ratio was found to decrease with the separation of ultimate ownership and control right; this may reflect the tunneling motive of the family owners. Different from others, it was also found that high‐growth firms pay more dividends and that the family doing so may want to build a high reputation for the friendly treatment of minority investors for future financing.

The paper discusses investor protection matters in China.

The paper' findings provide policy implications for corporate governance reform and capital market development in China.

Corporate reputation is a major concern for CEOs globally. In Asia it is increasingly being managed strategically at the highest corporate levels. A survey of C‐suite executives in Asia, North America and Europe by Hill & Knowlton and Korn/Ferry International finds, however, that Asian executives are more focused on using corporate reputation to drive tangible business benefit than their North American and European peers. Corporate social responsibility and the broader range of stakeholders beyond customers and shareholders does not feature strongly in the corporate reputation agenda of Asian executives. The survey results indicate Asian executives are more concerned with core stakeholders, such as customers and shareholders, and bottom‐line performance and corporate governance rather than softer areas of reputation management, such as community relations and internal communications. The time has come for Asian CEOs to take a broader perspective to corporate reputation management.

The paper aims to know about energy condition’s impacts on inflation comprehensively.

This paper constructs China’s energy condition index (ECI) by bringing in three variables (China’s energy price, consumption and production) based on the financial condition index.

The result of empirical analysis shows that the index can predict China’s inflation well.

China’s ECI can predict China’s inflation well.

With the fierce competition in a knowledge economy, knowledge-intensive enterprises (KIEs) make technological progress in their catching-up processes through implementing product innovation and process innovation. In this study, the aim is to understand the determinants of enterprise innovation type in China's catch-up environment. Further, this paper intends to deal with two related questions. First, what effect does the internal knowledge base have on KIEs' technology innovation activities? Second, considering the technology gap and technology development speed, what are the different impacts of the knowledge base on the type of technology innovation activities?

This paper collected data from 212 KIEs in China through a two-stage questionnaire survey, combined with statistical data for research. The hypothesis was tested by regression analysis. Specifically, descriptive statistics and regression analysis are introduced to test the hypothetical relationship between the knowledge base and technology innovation. Meanwhile, multiple regression is used to test whether there is any difference in the influence of technology gap and technology development speed on enterprise knowledge base and technology innovation. Finally, the corresponding robustness tests are done.

This study finds that in a sample of Yangtze River Delta KIEs, firms' knowledge base influences innovation types. Specifically, the knowledge base width (KBW) and knowledge base depth (KBD) positively influence process innovation, and KBD positively affects product innovation. Regarding the effects of catch-up context factors on KIEs’ innovation choice, a wide technology gap tends to positively influence product innovation in industries with high levels of KBW. Moreover, when technology development speed is high, its potential positive influence on process innovation will be more significant for industries with deeper knowledge bases.

This paper fills the research gap that existing studies ignore the relationship between types of technology innovation and knowledge base dimensions, especially for KIEs. First, this paper deepens the understanding of the impact mechanism of KIEs' existing knowledge base on innovation activities; the unique use of resources by enterprises is the basis of enterprises' competitive advantage and will become enterprises' competitive advantage. Second, this study indicates that against different backdrops of technology gap and technology development speed, enterprises with different knowledge bases will adopt different types of technology innovation activities. Third, this paper shows that a wider technology gap provides broader innovation space, so the technology gap plays a pulling role in KBW and product innovation, thus pushing forward enterprises' technological catch-up.

The assumption that the family migrates as a unit downplays migrants’ circularity. This chapter focuses on China's rural–urban labor migrants that travel back and forth between the sites of work and home community and between places of work. I argue that migrants and their households pursue work flexibility in order to obtain the best of the urban and rural worlds, by gaining earnings from urban work and at the same time maintaining social and economic security in the countryside. Work flexibility demands flexibility in household organization, in the form of division of labor and collaboration between genders, generations, and households. Based on a study in Sichuan, I examine household biographies and narratives to identify migrants’ work and household strategies.

Migrants change jobs frequently, switch from one type of work to another and one location to another readily, and often return to the home village for months or even years before pursuing migrant work again. Not only are migrants ready to split the household between the city and the countryside, but also they frequently change from one form of division of labor to another. The inside–outside model, where the wife stays in the village and the husband does migrant work, used to be the dominant arrangement. Over time, the outside–outside model, where both the husband and wife migrate to work and leave behind other family members, is increasingly popular. This is facilitated by intergenerational and interhousehold division of labor in the form of assistance by the extended family. Intergenerational division of labor takes place when the second generation is replacing the parents in migrant work. This research's findings support the notion that rural–urban migrants are fast becoming a hybrid segment of Chinese society, playing dual roles of farmers and urban workers and straddling the peasant and urban worlds.