Current Articles

2025, Volume 40,  Issue 2

Management and Corporate Performance
The Impact of Public Data Openness on Innovation in Private Enterprises
LI Changying, WANG Man, ZHANG Shuai
2025, 40(2): 4-21.
Abstract:
As the main body of science and technology innovation, private enterprises are an important force in promoting the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy. Based on the data from private listed companies on A-share markets of Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2007 to 2022, and utilizing the quasi-natural experiment of public data openness platforms established by provincial governments, this study constructs a multi-period difference-in-difference model to empirically investigate the impact and mechanisms of public data openness on private enterprises innovation. The research shows that public data openness promotes innovation in private enterprises and increases the number of their patent applications by an average of 7.8%. This impact is realized through two mechanisms: improving the market competition environment and reducing business risks. The promoting effect of public data openness on private enterprise innovation is more significant for the younger enterprises, and the enterprises with higher digitization levels, lower levels of competition in the industry, and in regions with higher levels of intellectual property protection. In addition, public data openness prompts private enterprises to adopt substantive and collaborative innovation strategies, and enhances their business performance and market value. This study provides empirical evidence for a deeper understanding of the innovation-driving mechanisms of public data openness and offers important policy implications for optimizing the public data supply system and promoting the high-quality development of private enterprises.
Strict Financial Regulation and Corporate Cash Holdings
PENG Yuliu, DU Xiaoling, CHEN Yongliang
2025, 40(2): 22-38.
Abstract:
In the context of comprehensively strengthening financial regulation, the economic effects of strict financial regulation deserve attention. Leveraging administrative penalty data from China's banking sector and financial data of A-share listed companies from 2006 to 2022, this study empirically examines the impacts of banking regulatory penalties on corporate cash holdings. The findings reveal that banking regulatory penalties significantly diminish corporate cash reserves, and this conclusion remains valid after addressing endogeneity issues and a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analyses indicate that banking regulatory penalties mainly reduce corporate cash holdings by strengthening the supervisory role of banks as corporate creditors (referred to as the supervision effect) and increasing the marginal cost of cash holdings (referred to as the cost effect). The detrimental effects of regulatory penalties on cash holdings vary across enterprises based on their property rights nature, asset characteristics, long-term financial equity holdings, and regional financial development. Further analysis indicates that banking regulatory penalties prompt companies to reduce cash and cash equivalents while increasing trading financial assets, consequently diminishing the financial income derived from cash holdings. This research contributes to valuable insights for enhancing financial regulation, reinforcing compliant and prudent operation of banks, and optimizing the decision-making on corporate cash holdings.
Chairman's Marriage Match and Family Business Innovation
CHEN Yuan, HE Xiaogang
2025, 40(2): 39-55.
Abstract:
How to incentivize family businesses to actively drive innovation is one of the vital strategic issues for achieving high-quality economic development and Chinese-style modernization. Based on the data from Chinese listed family businesses from 2008 to 2020, this study examines the impact of social capital alignment between the chairmen and their spouses on innovation in family business, and further investigates the moderating effects of different types of family member involvement. The findings reveal that when the chairmen and their spouses exhibit "assortative mating" in social capital, the innovation level of family businesses significantly declines; the key mechanism lies in the agency problems between the family and the enterprise, generating a crowding-out effect on innovation. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the inhibitory effect of "assortative mating" on innovation is mitigated in regions with stronger government innovation policies and higher levels of social trust. Additionally, family member involvement moderates the relationship between marital matching and corporate innovation: spousal involvement exacerbates the innovation-suppressing effect of "assortative mating", while the involvement of children and parents alleviates this negative impact. By introducing marital matching into the research of family business, this study provides critical insights into fostering innovation under specific marital structures.
Economic Theory and Exploration
The Impact of the Integration of Digital and Real Economy on the Green Transformation of Urban Development Mode
KUANG Chang'e, DI Yaxuan
2025, 40(2): 56-69.
Abstract:
Based on the panel data from 279 prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2022, this study employs a coupling coordination model and a double machine learning model to empirically examine the impact mechanism of the integration of digital and real economy on the green transformation of urban development mode. The findings indicate that the integration of digital and real economy can effectively empower the green transformation of urban development mode, and this conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism tests show that the integration of digital and real economy can effectively promote the green transformation of urban development mode through green technological progress, industrial diversification and agglomeration, and labor allocation optimization. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that this integration has the greatest impact on the green transformation of urban development mode in the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration, while the smallest impact on the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. The research findings provide theoretical support for the pathways through which the integration of digital and real economy empowers the green transformation of urban development mode, and offer empirical evidence for the green development of urban agglomerations and resource-based cities.
Building Supply Chain Resilience: The Role of Intra- and Extra-Chain Social Capital under Digital Transformation
WEI Qi, ZHENG Zhongrong, GUO Zisheng
2025, 40(2): 70-82.
Abstract:
In the VUCA era, supply chain disruptions have become increasingly frequent. Maintaining supply chain resilience has emerged as a critical imperative for Chinese enterprises pursuing high-quality development. Although the existing research has explored factors influencing supply chain resilience, limited attention has been paid to the distinct roles of heterogeneous social capital. This study categorizes social capital into extra-chain and intra-chain types, grounded in supply chain ontology. Through an empirical analysis of the data of A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2022, it is found that both types of social capital positively enhance supply chain resilience, with intra-chain social capital exhibiting a more pronounced effect. Mechanistically, extra-chain social capital strengthens resilience primarily by bolstering corporate financing capacity, whereas intra-chain social capital operates through mitigating credit risks. Further research indicates that the moderating role of corporate digital transformation mainly lies in guiding social capital to break through the intra-chain and extra-chain boundary, enabling extra-chain social capital to play a more significant role in reducing credit risks, while intra-chain social capital enhances financing capabilities. This study offers theoretical and practical insights for strengthening supply chain resilience management of Chinese enterprises.
Theoretical Logic and Promotion Paths of New Quality Productive Forces Empowering Global Value Chain Upgrading
YIN Jian, XIA Weiyi, CAO Xiang
2025, 40(2): 83-89.
Abstract:
Against the backdrop of accelerating changes unseen in a century and the systemic restructuring of the global industrial landscape, the global value chains (GVCs) are facing numerous challenges, including the imbalances in benefits, structural rigidity, and fragmentation and reconstruction. From the perspective of new quality productive forces, this paper analyzes the path that new quality productive forces helps China to promote the leapfrogging in GVCs. Subsequently, it constructs a three-dimensional analytical framework of "revolutionary technological breakthroughs-innovative allocation of production factors-in-depth industrial transformation and upgrading", to deeply analyze the intrinsic theoretical logic of how new quality productive forces empower the leapfrogging in GVCs. Finally, addressing the triple practical challenges China currently faces: industrial development bottlenecks, transformation dilemmas, and institutional constraints, the paper proposes specific pathways, such as implementing targeted policies to build a new layout for a modern industrial system, coordinating efforts to accelerate the high-end, intelligent, and green transformation of industries, and precisely adapting to construct a new paradigm of production relations. These pathways aim to provide a solid theoretical foundation and actionable policy references for China to achieve the leapfrogging in GVCs.
Fiscal and Public Administration
The Mechanisms of Long-Term Care Insurance in Improving the Mental Health of the Elderly: The Effects of Health Support and Intergenerational Emotional Support
ZHANG Qian, ZHOU Chunxia, LI Chunqiu
2025, 40(2): 90-103.
Abstract:
With the increasingly severe aging situation in China, the health problems of the elderly, especially mental health issues, have become pressing social challenges that need to be resolved. Long-term care insurance (LTCI) as an important social policy to improve the living standards of the elderly, is featured with a dual nature of safeguarding health and compensating economy. Based upon the panel data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this study employs a difference-in-differences (DID) model and finds that the LTCI significantly improves the mental health of the elderly, reducing their depression symptom scores by an average of 10.92%. Mechanism analysis indicates that LTCI enhances the mental health of the elderly through the health support effect and the intergenerational emotional support effect. Heterogeneity results show that LTCI has a more significant effect on the elderly in the full-coverage insurance participants, female elderly, single-child families, and low-income households. This study suggests it is necessary to refine the grading and categorized service standards of LTCI and strengthen the familial emotional support, in order to improve the mental health of the elderly.
How to Optimize the Business Environment with the Combination of Policy Tools: Configuration Analysis Based on 46 Cities
LIU Cong, GAO Jin
2025, 40(2): 104-117.
Abstract:
Optimizing the business environment is a major development strategy to achieve high-quality economic and social development, as well as a feasible measure for local governments to enhance urban productivity and competitiveness. Based on the case policy analysis, the important factors affecting the effectiveness of optimizing the business environment are clarified, and the causal path and mechanism of optimizing the business environment are analyzed by coincidence analysis. The study found that optimizing the business environment requires the organic combination of supply, environment and demand-oriented policy tools to work together, the optimization of the business environment cannot be separated from the support and reinforcement of government services, financial support, factor allocation, tax incentives, market shaping, legal system construction, organizational security and other factors. The three single causal chains and four double causal chains of each factor and configuration reveal and explain the logical mechanism of optimizing the business environment. Therefore, the government needs to continue to expand the market scale, constantly improve the allocation of factors, increase financial support, implement laws and regulations, and strengthen the rule of law, to boost the practice and innovation in optimization of the urban business environment.
Tax Incentives and Institutional Responses to Data Asset Transactions
WENG Wuyao, SONG Jiahao
2025, 40(2): 118-128.
Abstract:
Reviewing the regulations related to the transaction of data assets in China's tax system reveals that such problems in the transaction of data assets as vague definition of transaction nature, high tax burden, difficulties in identification and supervision may result in excessive tax risks in transactions of data assets. In practice, the specialized legislation or amendment for data tax are not conducive to the exertion of incentive function, and the solution to the lack of standardization and effectiveness of local policies, the significant fluctuation of data asset value and the uncertainty of interest ownership. In view of the virtual, replicable and non-exclusive characteristics of data assets, China's tax system can regulate and incentivize data asset transactions by the relevant details and deduction rules in the current income tax law and the value-added tax law, systematically optimizing and adjusting tax policies, adapting data point pricing and platform collection and management responsibilities.