Impact of R&D innovation and political background on corporate growth: A study based on private listed companies in China.

Based on a review of related concepts and theories this study investigates the different impacts of research and development (R&D) innovation and political background on corporate growth in a particular context. Unlike other studies, we integrate these two factors. We empirically analyze 6079 sets of data from 1292 A-share private manufacturing enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2012 to 2019. The results show that these factors directly impact corporate growth and have heterogeneous effects at different enterprise growth levels. We find the effect of R&D innovation on corporate growth is more pronounced for young firms. These findings highlight the need for firms to adjust their investments in R&D innovation and political backgrounds at different stages of development to adapt to different markets and political environments.

Evolving methodology of national tobacco control investment cases.

BACKGROUND: This article describes an investment case methodology for tobacco control that was applied in 36 countries between 2017 and 2022. METHODS: The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) investment cases compared two scenarios: a base case that calculated the tobacco-attributable mortality, morbidity and economic costs with status quo tobacco control, and an intervention scenario that described changes in those same outcomes from fully implementing and enforcing a variety of proven, evidence-based tobacco control policies and interventions. Health consequences included the tobacco-attributable share of mortality and morbidity from 38 diseases. The healthcare expenditures and the socioeconomic costs from the prevalence of those conditions were combined to calculate the total losses due to tobacco. The monetised benefits of improvements in health resulting from tobacco control implementation were compared with costs of expanding tobacco control to assess returns on investment in each country. An institutional and context analysis assessed the political and economic dimensions of tobacco control in each context. RESULTS: We applied a rigorous yet flexible methodology in 36 countries over 5 years. The replicable model and framework may be used to inform development of tobacco control cases in countries worldwide. CONCLUSION: Investment cases constitute a tool that development partners and advocates have demanded in even greater numbers. The economic argument for tobacco control provided by this set of country-contextualised analyses can be a strong tool for policy change.

Does corporate governance and balance sheet feature influence the financial policy of cooperatives? PLS-SEM approach.

Effective financial policy minimizes business risk, increases the net present value of the Company's investment programs and increases value for shareholders. However, the impact hasn't yet been examined in the research area. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate, how corporate governance and balance sheet aspects affect the financial policy of cooperatives in south-western Ethiopia using the PLS-SEM model. Information covering three years from 2020 to 2022 was gathered from 145 cooperatives. The study used corporate governance and balance sheet features as the latent factors that affect the dependent variable cooperative financial policy measured by both short-term debt and long-term debt. Managerial characteristics were used as the control variables. The study discovered that corporate governance has negative and significant effect on the financial policy of cooperatives in southwest Ethiopia. The study also revealed that balance sheet features have significant and positive effect the financial policy of cooperatives in southwest Ethiopia. Additionally, managerial characteristics' have a significant impact on the financial policy and balance sheet features but have no impact on the corporate governance of cooperatives. The study concludes that the financial policy of cooperatives in southwest Ethiopia is significantly influenced by all aspects of corporate governance, balance sheet features, and management characteristics'. The study advises cooperatives to consider managerial characteristics', corporate governance, and balance sheet characteristics while establishing their financial policy.

Driving force of value reversal in Chinese overleveraged firms: The mechanism and path of private placement.

To stimulate economic growth, China has launched multiple economic stimulus plans in recent years, intensifying corporate debt financing and subsequently elevating the leverage levels. Addressing and effectively reducing the leverage levels of our country's enterprises has emerged as a pressing issue in the trajectory of our economic development. This paper primarily investigates the drivers, pathways, and mechanisms for reversing the over-leveraged values of enterprises. Key findings include: (1) Excessive indebtedness exerts a negative impact on corporate value, with the suppressing effect intensifying as the degree of over-leverage increases; (2) Over-leveraged enterprises can effectively decrease their debt levels and enhance their value through private placement. Further research suggests that this mechanism operates by amplifying the operational leverage of over-leveraged enterprises post private placement and alleviating financing constraints, thereby elevating corporate value. (3) Compared to non-state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises exhibit higher levels of indebtedness. Among over-leveraged firms, enhancements in corporate governance and increased investment efficiency can positively transform corporate value. This study offers valuable insights for the ongoing supply-side structural reforms and governance guidance from the regulatory bodies.

Piercing the corporate veil system and creditors protection: Based on the investigation of debt paying ability--Empirical evidence from the 2005 Company Law amendment.

This paper uses the difference-in-differences model to research how the "piercing the corporate veil" system marked by the 2005 Company Law amendment affects the level of corporate creditor protection. The research results show that private enterprises and local state-owned enterprises are sensitive and significant to this legal amendment. In contrast, local state-owned enterprises are more sensitive and have a stronger motivation to protect the interests of creditors. The motivation of companies with weaker profitability for creditor protection lasts not only for the year of law revision but also extends to the year of implementation. With the law's implementation, the growth effect of creditor protection for local state-owned enterprises has become more significant. Further analysis shows that the main findings of this article are more significant in companies with larger debt scales, companies with a higher year-on-year growth rate of operating income, companies with controlling shareholders, and companies with higher stock market capitalization. From an empirical research view, this paper explains the economic effect and mechanism of the whole corporate personality under the complete system and adds economic evidence for how the law acts on the capital market.

Safe Food Supply Chain as Health Network: An Evolutionary Game Analysis of Behavior Strategy for Quality Investment.

There is a natural relation between human health and the quality of their food and drinks, and elevating the quality input level of food production for all enterprises within the food supply chain system forms the foundation for preventing various potential food safety risks that may be encountered. Unlike the previous research on quality investment of food production by enterprises, this paper probes into the evolutionary routes of the behavior strategy selection of subjects in the food supply chain and the preconditions for the equilibrium points of the social co-governance system. It takes the approach of establishing a tripartite evolutionary game model of food suppliers, food manufacturers and consumers on the basis of the social co-governance framework, in view of the above, this paper focuses on the influence of the reputation mechanism and the market contracts among supply chain subjects on the selection of a behavior strategy for quality investment by enterprises under the condition of lawful regulation by government. The results show that every subject selects their own behavior strategy on the basis of the balance of their respective interests. The net disbursement incurred by enterprises for quality investment and the costs of participation in governance by consumers constitute the dominant factors that influence both enterprises' selection of a behavior strategy and the level of social co-governance. Compared with the increase in economic punishment imposed on suppliers for production of risky food raw materials, it is more efficient to control food safety risks by lowering the costs of quality investment by suppliers. Accordingly, this paper proposes advice on policy in an attempt to provide inspiration for preventing and controlling food safety risks.

The role of ICT investment, digital financial inclusion, and environmental tax in promoting sustainable energy development in the MENA region: Evidences with Dynamic Common Correlated Effects (DCE) and instrumental variable-adjusted DCE.

His research investigates the interplay among investment in Information and Communication Technology [ICT], digital financial inclusion, environmental tax policies, and their impact on the progression of sustainable energy development within the Middle East and North Africa [MENA] region. Recognizing the distinctive hurdles impeding sustainable energy advancement, effective policy formulation and implementation in MENA necessitate a comprehensive understanding of these variables. Employing a Dynamic Common Correlated Effects [DCE] model alongside an instrumental variable-adjusted DCE approach, this study explores the relationship between ICT investment, digital financial inclusion, environmental tax, and sustainable energy development. The DCE model facilitates the analysis of dynamic effects and potential correlations, while the instrumental variable-adjusted DCE model addresses issues pertaining to endogeneity. The results indicate that both ICT investment and the promotion of digital financial inclusion significantly and positively impact sustainable energy development in the MENA region. Additionally, the study underscores the importance of environmental tax implementation in fostering sustainable energy advancement, highlighting the critical role of environmental policy interventions. Based on these findings, governmental prioritization of ICT investment and initiatives for digital financial service integration is recommended to bolster sustainable energy growth in MENA. Furthermore, the adoption of efficient environmental tax measures is essential to incentivize sustainable energy practices and mitigate environmental degradation. These policy recommendations aim to create a conducive environment for sustainable energy progression in the MENA region, contributing to both economic prosperity and environmental conservation.

Participatory methods used in the evaluation of medical devices: a comparison of focus groups, interviews, and a survey.

BACKGROUND: Stakeholder engagement in evaluation of medical devices is crucial for aligning devices with stakeholders' views, needs, and values. Methods for these engagements have however not been compared to analyse their relative merits for medical device evaluation. Therefore, we systematically compared these three methods in terms of themes, interaction, and time-investment. METHODS: We compared focus groups, interviews, and an online survey in a case-study on minimally invasive endoscopy-guided surgery for patients with intracerebral haemorrhage. The focus groups and interviews featured two rounds, one explorative focussing on individual perspectives, and one interactive focussing on the exchange of perspectives between participants. The comparison between methods was made in terms of number and content of themes, how participants interact, and hours invested by all researchers. RESULTS: The focus groups generated 34 themes, the interviews 58, and the survey 42. Various improvements for the assessment of the surgical procedure were only discussed in the interviews. In focus groups, participants were inclined to emphasise agreement and support, whereas the interviews consisted of questions and answers. The total time investment for researchers of focus groups was 95 h, of interviews 315 h, and survey 81 h. CONCLUSIONS: Within the context of medical device evaluation, interviews appeared to be the most appropriate method for understanding stakeholder views since they provide a scope and depth of information that is not generated by other methods. Focus groups were useful to rapidly bring views together. Surveys enabled a quick exploration. Researchers should account for these methodological differences and select the method that is suitable for their research aim.

Does green investment affect environment pollution: Evidence from asymmetric ARDL approach?

Pollution in the environment is today the biggest issue facing the globe and the main factor in the development of many fatal diseases. The main objective of the study to investigate green investments, economic growth and financial development on environmental pollution in the G-7 countries. This study used annual penal data from 1997 to 2021. The panel NARDL (Non-linear autoregressive distributed lag) results affirm that the positive change of green investment and negative shock in green investment have a significant and positive association with environment pollution in G-7 nations. Our findings provide more evidence for the long-term asymmetry between financial development and environmental performance. However, the findings confirm that a positive modification in financial development has a positive and significant effect on environment pollution. Whereas negative shock in financial development is negative and insignificant relationship with environment pollution. Moreover, the outcomes of the study reveal that both positive shock in gross domestic product growth and negative shock of economic growth have a significant and positive link with environment pollution in G-7 countries. According to the findings, by lowering carbon dioxide emissions, green investments reduced environmental pollution in the G-7 nations over the long and short term. Moreover, it is an innovative research effort that provides light on the connection between green investments, financial development, and the environment while making mention to the EKC in G-7 countries. After all these, our recommendation is to increases green investment expenditures to reduce environmental pollution in the G-7 nations based on our findings. Additionally, one important way for the nation to achieve its sustainable development goals is to improve advancements in the financial sector.

Brain activity of professional investors signals future stock performance.

A major aspiration of investors is to better forecast stock performance. Interestingly, emerging "neuroforecasting" research suggests that brain activity associated with anticipatory reward relates to market behavior and population-wide preferences, including stock price dynamics. In this study, we extend these findings to professional investors processing comprehensive real-world information on stock investment options while making predictions of long-term stock performance. Using functional MRI, we sampled investors' neural responses to investment cases and assessed whether these responses relate to future performance on the stock market. We found that our sample of investors could not successfully predict future market performance of the investment cases, confirming that stated preferences do not predict the market. Stock metrics of the investment cases were not predictive of future stock performance either. However, as investors processed case information, nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activity was higher for investment cases that ended up overperforming in the market. These findings remained robust, even when controlling for stock metrics and investors' predictions made in the scanner. Cross-validated prediction analysis indicated that NAcc activity could significantly predict future stock performance out-of-sample above chance. Our findings resonate with recent neuroforecasting studies and suggest that brain activity of professional investors may help in forecasting future stock performance.

The cost of inaction on health equity and its social determinants.

Rising levels of inflation, debt and macrofiscal tightening are putting expenditures on the social sectors including health under immense scrutiny. Already, there are worrying signs of reductions in social sector investments. However, even before the pandemic, evidence showed the significant returns on investments in health equity and its social determinants. Emerging data and trends show that these potential returns have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic - investments in social determinants can mitigate widespread reductions in human capital and the increasing likelihood of costly syndemics, while promoting access to healthcare innovations that have thus far been inequitably distributed. Therefore, we argue that, despite immediate fiscal pressures, this is exactly the time to invest in health equity and its broader social determinants, as the returns on such investments have never been greater.

Association of Park Renovation With Park Use in New York City.

Importance: Equity-driven citywide park redesign and renovation, such as the Community Parks Initiative (CPI), has the potential to increase park use and opportunities for physical activity in underserved communities. Objective: To evaluate changes in patterns of park use following park redesign and renovation in low-income New York City (NYC) neighborhoods. Design, Setting, and Participants: The Physical Activity and Redesigned Community Spaces study was a prospective quality improvement preintervention-postintervention study design with matched control parks. Thirty-three intervention and 21 control neighborhood parks were selected based on specific criteria related to poverty rates, population growth, and population density in park neighborhoods and not having received more than $250 000 in investment in the past 2 decades. Data were collected at baseline (prerenovation) and 2 follow-up points (3 months and 1 year post renovation) between June 5 and December 4 from 2016 to 2022. Participants were individuals observed as users of study parks. Intervention: The CPI, which involved the redesign and renovation of neighborhood parks by the municipal government of New York City. Main Outcomes and Measures: Main outcomes encompassed park use and physical activity levels assessed using the well-validated System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities. Park use was quantified by total number of park users, categorized by age group (≤20 years vs ≥21 years), sex, and physical activity level (sitting or standing vs walking or vigorous activity). Changes in outcomes between groups were compared via the generalized estimation equation. Results: A total of 28 322 park users were observed across 1458 scans. At baseline, 6343 of 10 633 users (59.7%) were 20 years or younger, 4927 of 10 632 (46.3%) were female and 5705 (53.7%) were male, and 4641 of 10 605 (43.8%) were sitting or standing. Intervention parks showed more net park users compared with control parks from baseline to the final follow-up (difference-in-difference relative rate ratio, 1.69 [95% CI, 1.22-2.35] users/scan; P = .002). The association was driven by a significant increase in adult users at intervention parks and overall decrease in all users at control parks. Park users engaging in sitting or standing at intervention parks increased (difference, 4.68 [95% CI, 1.71-7.62] users/scan; P = .002) and park users engaging in walking or vigorous physical activity at control parks decreased (difference, -7.30 [95% CI, -10.80 to -4.26] users/scan; P < .001) over time. Conclusions and Relevance: In this quality improvement study, park redesign and renovation were positively associated with park use in low-income neighborhoods. However, park renovations may need to be accompanied by other programmatic strategies to increase physical activity.

What influences the performance of carbon emissions in China?-Research on the inter-provincial carbon emissions' conditional configuration impacts.

The severe global warming issue currently threatens humans' existence and development. Countries and international organizations have effectively implemented policies to reduce carbon emissions and investigate low-carbon growth strategies. Reducing carbon emissions is a hot topic that academics and government policy-making departments are concerned about.Through necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fsQCA), this paper investigates local governments' configuration linkage effect and path choice to improve carbon emission performance from six dimensions: energy consumption, industrial structure, technological innovation, government support, economic development, and demographic factors. The research findings include the following: (1) Individual condition does not represent necessary conditions for the government's carbon performance. Among the two sets of second-order equivalence configurations(S and Q) (five high-level carbon performance configurations), those dominated by economic development or low energy consumption can produce high-level carbon performance. Therefore, the six antecedent conditions dimensions work together to explain how the government can create high levels of carbon performance. (2)According to the regional comparison, China's eastern, central, and western regions exhibit similarities and differences in the driving forces behind high carbon emission performance. All three regions can demonstrate carbon emission performance when all the factors are combined. However, when constrained by the conditions of each region's resource endowment, the eastern region emphasizes the advantage of economic and technological innovation, the central region favors government support and demographic factors, and the western region prefers upgrading industrial structure based on a specific level of economic development.

The effectiveness of emerging markets' legal structure in explaining financial development.

This article examines the role of legal structure in explaining financial development in twenty-three emerging markets, which has not been explored in institutional economics literature before. This study relied on Pedroni, and Kao cointegration tests, which is followed by the renowned panel cointegration technique. The results of the Pedroni and Kao cointegration tests show that the variables understudy is cointegrated in the long-run. These findings are confirmed by the panel cointegration showing that legal structure (LS) has positive impact on financial development (FIND) in long-run that support Law and Finance, and New Institutional Economics theories in emerging markets. This study is the first to directly examine the long-run impact of LS on FIND in emerging markets, and the result remains consistent across alternative measure of FIND. The findings of this study have important policy implications for emerging markets. Policymakers should focus on creating a legal environment that is conducive to financial development. This includes strengthening the legal framework, improving regulatory regimes, and promoting market autonomy. Additionally, policymakers should work to attract foreign investment, which can help spur economic growth and development in emerging markets. The findings of the study are consistent across battery of robustness testing.

What factors affecting investment decision? The moderating role of fintech self-efficacy.

This study aims to determine, from the perspective of investors, the factors that predict Islamic unit trust (IUT) investment intentions. Additionally, this paper examines the moderating effect of fintech self-efficacy (FSE) on the relationship between attitude and investment intention. A total of 392 data were collected from IUT investors in Malaysia and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that subjective norms have the highest impact on investment intention, followed by attitude and FSE, while religiosity is not significantly associated with investment intention in Islamic unit trust funds. Attitude significantly mediates religiosity-intention and Islamic financial literacy-intention relationships. FSE significantly moderates the attitude-intention relationship. The results shed light on the key factors that increase investing behavior and have direct managerial implications with regard to marketing strategies and target markets. These findings suggest that IUT service providers should take the lead in attracting customers through effective and targeted marketing initiatives, particularly by enhancing customers' FSE and capabilities. This study provides empirical evidence on the interrelationships between Islamic financial literacy, religiosity, and FSE in examining investors' behavior using the Theory of Planned Behavior framework. The study explores the moderating role of FSE on the relationship between attitude and investment intention.

Long-term shareholder perks and stock price reaction.

This study aimed to examine the impact and source of announcements introducing additional long-term shareholder perks on stock prices of Japanese listed companies. We produced more precise analysis results by categorizing the total sample into favorable change and unfavorable change sample. As a result, we found that long-term shareholder perks have a positive impact on stock prices through the expansion of the shareholder base in the case of a favorable change, whereas there is no negative impact on stock liquidity due to an increased number of long term individual shareholders. On the contrary, in the case of an unfavorable change, we found a weak trend of shrinkage in the shareholder base due to individual shareholders' defection and a consequent decrease in stock liquidity. In the case of a favorable change, the long-term shareholder perks program functions as a means to increase the number of shareholders and encourage them to hold the shares for a longer period of time.

Spatio-temporal heterogeneity of China's import and export trade, factors influencing it, and its implications for developing countries' trade.

This study constructed a multidimensional indicator system to evaluate spatio-temporal heterogeneity of China's import and export trade of 31 provinces from 2000 to 2022. This study describes the distribution of China's import and export trade by using location Gini coefficient and exploratory spatial analysis. Additionally, Multiple linear regression was used to ascertain the extent of contribution by various factors on the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of import and export trade. The simulation results show that inter-provincial import and export trade displayed distinct spatio-temporal differentiation characteristics with a prominent east-to-west disparity from 2000 to 2022. The trade links between various regions of the country have gradually strengthened, with a corresponding high correlation to the level of economic development. GDP, financial expenditure, freight transportation volume, technology market turnover, foreign investment, and disposable income of all residents, significantly influence the per capita export and import volume. In general, it is suggested that China and developing countries should take effective measures to promote balanced trade development, strengthen regional cooperation and coordination, and promote green trade and sustainable development.

Private equity investment in health care delivery, Australia, 2008-2022.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the scale of private equity investment in Australian health care delivery assets (clinics, hospitals, imaging facilities, other doctor-led health care services). STUDY DESIGN, SETTING: Extraction of information about private equity acquisitions of hospitals, clinics, imaging centres and in vitro fertilisation facilities in Australia, 2008-2022, from a commercial database (PitchBook), supplemented by information from publicly available online media sources. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number and value of private equity acquisitions of health care assets, 2008-2022; numbers of clinic parent company and clinic acquisitions, 2017-2022. RESULTS: A total of 75 private equity acquisitions of health care delivery assets in Australia during 2008-2022 were identified; the annual number rose from three acquisitions in 2008 to eighteen in 2022. During 2008-2010, five of seven acquisitions were of in vitro fertilisation providers; during 2020-2022, 22 of 39 acquisitions were of clinics or clinic groups, including eleven of eighteen in 2022. The total value of the 39 acquisitions for which purchase price could be ascertained (52%) was $24.1 billion. During 2017-2022, the clinic specialty with the greatest number of private equity acquisitions was general practice (256 of 446 clinics purchased within acquisitions). Seven companies owning ophthalmology clinics (24 clinics) were acquired by private equity. Four private equity acquisitions during 2017-2022 included 60 oncology clinics, all related to a single clinic group. CONCLUSIONS: The number of private equity acquisitions of Australian health care delivery assets increased during 2008-2022. Doctors should be aware of the motivations and dynamics of private equity companies, as they are increasingly likely to interact with these firms and assets owned by these firms.

Improving new energy subsidy efficiency considering learning effect: A case study on wind power.

Subsidy policies are instrumental in driving the development of new energy. However, the effective allocation of new energy subsidies over time is challenging given fiscal constraints. This study addresses this challenge by considering the learning effect associated with the new energy industry. A two-stage dynamic programming model is proposed to capture the investment decision-making process of companies under new energy subsidy policies and government subsidy setups. Theoretical findings suggest that company investment decisions in new energy are influenced by a guiding principle: The subsidy rate should be negatively correlated with the variation rate of production scale increment (VRPSI). We calibrate this investment decision principle using wind power data from 14 countries. According to this principle, excessive subsidy rates may result in a low VRPSI, thereby diminishing future investment profitability in the new energy industry and leading to subsidy inefficiency. Upon investigating the efficiency of annual subsidy allocation, we find that the subsidy rates were potentially set too high in 2014, 2016, and 2017. Furthermore, the government should exercise caution regarding an inefficient subsidy pattern whereby companies invest in new energy only when the subsidy rate exceeds a certain threshold, neglecting traditional power sources. It is crucial to note that although this study uses wind power industry data for calibration and simulation, the theoretical model can be broadly applied to other new energy industries and emerging industries with increasing marginal net profit.