Food system resilience thinking: from digital to integral.

The current food system is directly influenced by the increase in environmental problems and nutritional inequality globally. Financial and political collapses, health crises, excessive urbanization, and rapid industrialization are some of the principal factors threatening the food supply's security. The food system needs a profound transformation to avoid ecosystem destabilization and a global food crisis. Concerning this transformation, we are certain that the first step for a successful food system change is global resilience thinking. To reach an integrated food system, we proposed introducing the resilient concept linked with other known concepts, such as circular economy and sustainability. A resilient food system can recover over time, ensuring the supply of sustainable and quality food and access to all. This would mean redesigning the value chains in the food system, re-educating consumers to implement a healthier diet, and introducing technology such as digital innovation. Re-evaluating these relevant points, redesigning the focus of the food system, not only for economic efficiency but also including significant trade-offs, or valuing other services in the food system, are essential to reaching the desired resilience. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Priorities for science to overcome hurdles thwarting the full promise of the 'digital agriculture' revolution.

The world needs to produce more food, more sustainably, on a planet with scarce resources and under changing climate. The advancement of technologies, computing power and analytics offers the possibility that 'digitalisation of agriculture' can provide new solutions to these complex challenges. The role of science is to evidence and support the design and use of digital technologies to realise these beneficial outcomes and avoid unintended consequences. This requires consideration of data governance design to enable the benefits of digital agriculture to be shared equitably and how digital agriculture could change agricultural business models; that is, farm structures, the value chain and stakeholder roles, networks and power relations, and governance. We argue that this requires transdisciplinary research (at pace), including explicit consideration of the aforementioned socio-ethical issues, data governance and business models, alongside addressing technical issues, as we now have to simultaneously deal with multiple interacting outcomes in complex technical, social, economic and governance systems. The exciting prospect is that digitalisation of science can enable this new, and more effective, way of working. The question then becomes: how can we effectively accelerate this shift to a new way of working in agricultural science? As well as identifying key research areas, we suggest organisational changes will be required: new research business models, agile project management; new skills and capabilities; and collaborations with new partners to develop 'technology ecosystems'. © 2018 The Authors. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

The impact of digital financial inclusion on bank performance: An exploration of mechanisms of action and heterogeneity.

The use of digital technology by banks and other financial institutions to facilitate financial inclusion is referred to as digital financial inclusion. This fusion of digital finance and traditional banking methods has the potential to impact banks' operational effectiveness. This study uses the panel effects model to examine the link between digital financial inclusion and bank performance in 30 Chinese provinces from 2012 to 2021. This research uses kernel density estimation to examine the spatial-temporal growth patterns of both variables. The mediator variable in examining how digital financial inclusion affects bank performance is risk-taking. Finally, the paper analyses the regional heterogeneity of the impact. It presents the following conclusions: (1) In China, digital financial inclusion and bank performance have constantly increased, with noticeable regional variances in their development levels. This regional inequality has widened gradually since 2018, yet it has not resulted in polarization. (2) The significant positive correlation between digital inclusive finance and banking performance indicates that banking performance tends to increase with the enhancement of digital inclusive finance. (3) Digital financial inclusion impacts bank performance, with risk-taking as a moderator. The spread of digital financial inclusion services enhances banks' willingness to take risks, enhancing overall efficiency. (4) Digital financial inclusion boosts bank performance in the Northwest, South, North, and East regions while lightly inhibiting it in the Central region. Based on the findings, this study makes bank and government suggestions.

Assessing the net financial benefits of employing digital endpoints in clinical trials.

In the last few decades, developers of new drugs, biologics, and devices have increasingly leveraged digital health technologies (DHTs) to assess clinical trial digital endpoints. To our knowledge, a comprehensive assessment of the financial net benefits of digital endpoints in clinical trials has not been conducted. We obtained data from the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) Library of Digital Endpoints and the US clinical trials registry, ClinicalTrials.gov. The benefit metrics are changes in trial phase duration and enrollment associated with the use of digital endpoints. The cost metric was obtained from an industry survey of the costs of including digital endpoints in clinical trials. We developed an expected net present value (eNPV) model of the cash flows for new drug development and commercialization to assess financial value. The value measure is the increment in eNPV that occurs when digital endpoints are employed. We also calculated a return on investment (ROI) as the ratio of the estimated increment in eNPV to the mean digital endpoint implementation cost. For phase II trials, the increase in eNPV varied from $2.2 million to $3.3 million, with ROIs between 32% and 48% per indication. The net benefits were substantially higher for phase III trials, with the increase in eNPV varying from $27 million to $40 million, with ROIs that were four to six times the investment. The use of digital endpoints in clinical trials can provide substantial extra value to sponsors developing new drugs, with high ROIs.

Can digital technology innovation contribute to firms' market value?

With the rapid development of digital technology, digital technology innovation has become a core driver of China's economic development. Thus, this study uses A-share listed companies from 2003 to 2021 as the research sample. The digital patents of firms are identified to portray the level of digital technology innovation by matching the digital economy industry classification code, national economy industry classification code, and IPC number. Considers the economic effect of digital technology innovation from the perspective of firm market value. It is found that digital technology innovation significantly contributes to the increase in firm market value, and this finding still holds when robustness tests are performed. Mechanistic tests have shown that digital technology innovation affects firm market value by driving digital transformation, promoting productivity, and enhancing market profitability. Further analysis reveals that digital technology innovation has a more significant effect on increasing firm market value for large, non-state, capital-intensive, technology-intensive and low internal control costs firms. This study verifies the enabling effect of digital technology innovation on the development of the real economy at the micro level, and provides insights for the optimization of China's digital technology innovation policies and the formulation of firms' digital development strategies.

Cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of a digital technology-driven hierarchical healthcare screening pattern in China.

Utilization of digital technologies for cataract screening in primary care is a potential solution for addressing the dilemma between the growing aging population and unequally distributed resources. Here, we propose a digital technology-driven hierarchical screening (DH screening) pattern implemented in China to promote the equity and accessibility of healthcare. It consists of home-based mobile artificial intelligence (AI) screening, community-based AI diagnosis, and referral to hospitals. We utilize decision-analytic Markov models to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of different cataract screening strategies (no screening, telescreening, AI screening and DH screening). A simulated cohort of 100,000 individuals from age 50 is built through a total of 30 1-year Markov cycles. The primary outcomes are incremental cost-effectiveness ratio and incremental cost-utility ratio. The results show that DH screening dominates no screening, telescreening and AI screening in urban and rural China. Annual DH screening emerges as the most economically effective strategy with 341 (338 to 344) and 1326 (1312 to 1340) years of blindness avoided compared with telescreening, and 37 (35 to 39) and 140 (131 to 148) years compared with AI screening in urban and rural settings, respectively. The findings remain robust across all sensitivity analyses conducted. Here, we report that DH screening is cost-effective in urban and rural China, and the annual screening proves to be the most cost-effective option, providing an economic rationale for policymakers promoting public eye health in low- and middle-income countries.

How does the digital economy affect the development of the green economy? Evidence from Chinese cities.

The digital economy may accelerate the upgrading of industrial structures and boost regional innovation output, effectively contributing to China's green economic transformation. The impact of the digital economy on developing the urban green economy is analyzed using data from 280 cities across China from 2010-2019. Using a fixed-effects model and the Spatial Durbin model, the digital economy is found to have a significant impact on urban green economy development. This result is shown to be robust to various factors. There is significant regional variability in the impact of the digital economy on green economic growth, with the strongest impact in the northeast, followed by the central and western regions. Meanwhile, non-resource-based cities and policy pilot cities have a more pronounced role in promoting the digital economy. The intermediate transmission chain of industrial structural upgrading and regional innovation output fosters the growth of the urban green economy via the digital economy. Regional innovation production is responsible for 30.848% of this growth, with the intermediate effect of industrial structural upgrading contributing to 38.155%.

Fintech and investment risk of digital finance: mediating role of clean energy and green bonds through the dynamics of spill over.

This study examines how financial technology (FinTech) and green bonds have affected the ability of firms to finance energy efficiency measures by using data obtained from a subset of Chinese companies listed on the A-share market between 2011 and 2021. We apply the quantile-on-quantile method, which allows us to examine the interdependence of time series in each economy separately and yields data on the global and national levels indicating the relationship between the variables. The results show that an increase in both direct and indirect financing for businesses, as well as inter-bank competition, can greatly mitigate the financial limitations that firms suffer as a result of FinTech expansion. Our estimates show that the energy efficiency of the countries we chose improves when they are financed with green bonds across all quantiles of the data. Organizations not owned by the state, SMBs, and the more rapidly developing eastern half of China promise to benefit the most from the moderating effect of FinTech because of the faster pace of development there. The immediate ameliorating effect that financial technology has on reduced lending criteria mostly benefits businesses with either a strong innovation rate or a poor social responsibility performance rate. This is because businesses sharing either of these features are more likely to experiment and develop new products. Both theoretical and practical repercussions of this finding are explored.

Digital finance and M&As: An empirical study and mechanism analysis.

With the rapid growth and wide application of digital technology, enterprises have entered the digital era with both opportunities and challenges existing. Mergers and acquisitions are one of the most efficient ways to integrate resources and achieve profit growth, giving enterprises advantages in competing in the new mode of economic growth. Based on this, this research tries to explore whether the development of digital finance will contribute to the emergence of M&As activities through combining M&As data of the Chinese stock market with the digital finance inclusion index between 2012 and 2020. The results show that the development of digital finance largely influences M&As activities through lower acquirers' financial constraints. We further replace digital finance with three sub-indexes including coverage breadth, usage depth, and digitalization level to explore the impact of different dimensions of digital finance on M&As. Results show that coverage breadth plays a more important role. In addition, heterogeneity tests reveal that the relationship between the development of digital finance and M&As activities varies significantly. The influences of digital finance on private and western and central enterprises are more significant compared with state-owned and eastern enterprises. According to the study, since the development of digital finance can be an efficient way to ease financial constraints and boost M&As activities, the government should promote the development of digital finance while companies strive to make the most use of it.

Quantifying an influence of green credit on digital technology innovation: financial perspective of a China's case study.

This paper examines the impact of green credit (GC) on digital technology innovation based on Chinese enterprises using panel data from 1990 to 2016. The study collected panel data from the 40 Chinese firms listed on the Beijing and Wuhan stock markets. Manufacturing companies were selected because they mainly contribute to green credit from pre- and post-policy periods. First, in the "two high and one surplus" sectors, the application of China's Green Credit 2012 could significantly increase total factor digital technology innovation by 1.21%. Results show a considerable drop in the variable values of digital technology innovation, 61.3%; green credit policy, 10.45%; leverage, 21.0%; and green innovation, 85.4%. The results of the absolute value of standard error after matching is much lower than 20.0%, demonstrating that the variable features of the two sets of samples are similar. In conclusion, GC's impact on the FDI of capital was asymmetrical, reflecting various impacts on businesses with various types of property rights and sizes.

Can the digital economy development achieve the effect of pollution reduction? Evidence from Chinese Cities.

As a new economic form, the digital economy is not only empowering new impetus to economic growth, but also reshaping specific business forms of economical operation. Therefore, we conducted an empirical test to verify the impact and mechanism of pollution reduction in the digital economy, based on the panel data of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2019. The results show that, first the development of the digital economy indeed has the positive effect of realizing pollution reduction. The results of mediating effect test indicate the influence mechanism mainly rely on promoting the upgrading of industrial structure (structural effect) and upgrading the level of green technology innovation (technical effect). Second, the results of regional heterogeneity analysis show that the emission reduction effect of digital economy development on four pollutants is characterized by weakness in the east and strong in the west in regional distribution. Third, the development of digital economy has a threshold effect on the level of economic development to achieve its pollution reduction effect. Further identification of the threshold effect indicates that the higher the level of economic development, the better in emission reduction effect.

Digital finance and regional green innovation: the perspective of environmental regulation.

The relationship between digital finance and regional green innovation has been partially confirmed, yet the role of environmental regulation in it remains unexplored. Therefore, this paper examines the impact of digital finance on regional green innovation and tests the moderating role of environmental regulation using Chinese city-level data from 2011 to 2019 as a research sample. The results show that digital finance can significantly promote regional green innovation by alleviating regional financing constraints and increasing regional R&D investment. Besides, digital finance has apparent regional difference effects (the contribution of digital finance to regional green innovation is greater in eastern China than in western China, and the development of digital finance in neighbouring regions has a negative transmission effect on local green innovation). Finally, environmental regulation positively moderates the relationship between digital finance and regional green innovation. This paper explores the relationship between digital finance and regional green innovation from the perspective of environmental regulation, providing empirical evidence to promote regional green innovation.

Project-based maturity assessment model for smart transformation in Taiwanese enterprises.

As smart technology proliferates, enterprises must engage not only in the transformation of intelligence but contend with pressure do so as soon as possible. Smart transformation is critical for manufacturing enterprises in the development of smart manufacturing. This study addressed the gap between maturity models and project management by designing an effective assessment framework for smart transformation. It adopts the Smart Industry Readiness Index, created by the Singapore Economic Development Board, as a maturity assessment model to analyze enterprises' smart transformation and formulate project management strategies. Enterprises can use this model to examine the maturity level of their transformation and assess scope for improvement in their project strategies and implementation barriers. This study focuses on Taiwanese enterprises using data collected from 165 valid questionnaires and subjected to a cluster analysis. Enterprises were divided into three categories. The results reveal that, first, most enterprises' smart transformation is at an immature or medium-maturity level, and is therefore amenable to further improvement. Second, inconsistent with research findings, many enterprises invest in transformation projects but fail to advance these projects to maturity. Third, most enterprises' project management plans fail to meet actual transformation needs. Using the thematically oriented maturity model proposed in this study, Taiwanese enterprises can effectively evaluate the maturity of their transformation projects. In conclusion, the study highlights that Taiwanese enterprises must identify more effective external resources to strengthen their competitiveness.

Sustainable Transformation of Land-Based Economic Development in the Era of Digital Revolution.

Biotechnology will play a key role in transforming current land-use systems alongside the digital revolution by using five strategies: enhancing productivity at the farm or plantation level, replenishing degraded land, enabling landscape management for resilience, upgrading and diversifying downstream activities, and creating new value propositions.

Spatial technologies to strengthen traditional testing for SARS-CoV-2.

Advanced spatial and digital technologies may help us to take fuller advantage of limited testing resources to monitor the infection status of a large population in a cost-effective manner. Moreover, they may provide additional evidence to supplement results of nucleic acid testing (NAT) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to decrease false-negative and false-positive rates.

Global value chains and international pharmaceutical policy.

OBJECTIVES: This paper analyzes ICT diffusion in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since new paradigms emerge in the industry towards precision medicine and fasten the digitalization of health care, it is necessary to measure the changing value system, especially between life science and the IT industry. METHODS: The global value chain (GVC) concept is used and data are extracted from the Trade in Value Added (TiVa) dataset (June 2015) from the GVC-OECD project on interconnectivity of economics and industry. A number of indicators were selected: Foreign value added share of gross exports, % of ICT imported in chemicals as a final product, either exported or in use in domestic demand. Trade data are analyzed for two industries: chemical industry, including pharmaceuticals, and the ICT industry for a group of countries: USA, Switzerland, France, Germany, UK and Japan. RESULTS: Only 0.5 to 1% of value added embodied in final chemicals and chemical products can be attributed to the ICT industry. An additional analysis shows higher prices of connectivity for services in the USA versus Japan and Germany, on a price index for a basket of broadband services (fixed and wireless, OECD 2013); this may also reflect the open model of US innovation with more transactions. CONCLUSIONS: Fast digitalization of life science requires new measures. TiVa dataset is useful for some IT equipment, but not sufficient for all forms of digital economy. The value chain concept is useful for pricing mobile computing in pharmaceuticals, but needs specific data on connectivity. Complementary datasets (e.g. EU KLEMS) can also track ICT investment in chemicals.

La transformación digital y su papel en la reactivación con transformación económica y del empleo en América Latina y el Caribe post COVID-19 / Digital transformation and its role in the reactivation with economic and employment transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean post COVID-19

Este artículo argumenta que la transformación digital, y la correspondiente computación en la nube, puede ayudar no solo a la reconstrucción y reparación de los daños de la pandemia, sino a reducir el legado de brechas y trampas del desarrollo que caracterizan a los países de la región, porque ofrece muchas oportunidades de acelerar la productividad, el empleo de calidad, la competitividad de las PYMES, las capacidades del talento humano, el suministro de servicios públicos, la innovación, el mejoramiento de los sistemas de salud, y en general, el bienestar de la población. El futuro es digital, y entre más se tarden los países en aumentar no solo el acceso sino el uso inteligente y masivo de las oportunidades de la nueva economía digital, más retrasarán el aprovechamiento de sus enormes beneficios, incluyendo la posibilidad de escapar de las cuatro trampas del desarrollo en que se encuentra la región, que de manera muy útil y acertada identificó el Reporte de Perspectivas Económicas de América Latina 2019: 2 la trampa de la productividad, la trampa de la vulnerabilidad social, la trampa de las bajas capacidades institucionales y la trampa ambiental. Todas las cuales están relacionadas con la bien conocida "trampa del ingreso medio"

Accelerating the journey to self-reliance through strategic investments in digital technologies: a digital-health vision for action from the U.S. Agency for International Development

This Digital-Health Vision for Action charts a course to sharpen the investments in digital technologies by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to unlock significant gains for health institutions, health workers, citizens, and host governments in low- and middleincome countries (LMIC) alike. Consistent with USAID's Digital Strategy, the goal of this Vision is to move the Agency beyond an era of funding characterized by fragmented pilots and siloed, program­specific information-technology systems, and toward a future shaped by investments in health strategies led and managed at the country level, and in systems that host governments and their local partners can operate, expand, and sustain independently over time. This Vision, and the strategic shift in approach it signals, is essential to enabling the Journey to SelfReliance1 in USAID's partner countries in a digitally enabled 21st century