Abstract:To address the uncertainty in hydrogen demand, this study develops a chance-constrained stochastic multi-objective optimization model covering the entire green hydrogen supply chain—production, transmission, storage, and utilization—aiming to minimize total system cost and maximize renewable energy consumption. The model optimizes the spatial layout, technology selection, and evolution pathways of provincial hydrogen production, transmission, and storage in China for 2022–2040. Results indicate that, under a compromise decision preference with a 99% confidence level, China’s green hydrogen production reaches 41.94 million tons by 2040, with 58.8% produced by alkaline electrolysis (ALK). Hydrogen transmission increases from 22,400 tons in 2022 to 1.26 million tons, with 80.1% transported via liquid hydrogen tank trucks and pure hydrogen pipelines. Hydrogen storage expands from 10,300 tons to 56.35 million tons, with the annual growth rate exceeding 461.6% from 2038 onward. Spatially, Inner Mongolia emerges as the largest hydrogen-producing province (20.3%), Anhui and Fujian as major hydrogen storage hubs (21.1% and 17.3%), northeastern and northwestern provinces as key exporters (56.9%), and central China as the main recipient region (36.7%). Increasing the confidence level significantly raises both total costs and water consumption, peaking at CNY 12.07 trillion and 476 million m3, respectively. Therefore, China should promote region-specific large-scale green hydrogen deployment by expanding proton exchange membrane (PEM) and solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) production capacity, establishing hydrogen production hubs in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, and Anhui, strengthening transmission corridors in the northeast and northwest, and developing storage facilities in Qinghai, Ningxia, and Shanxi to foster an integrated green hydrogen supply chain.

Abstract:The rapid development of the digital economy has profoundly influenced investor trading behavior and stock price volatility. This study constructs an investor sentiment index based on stock forum posts from Eastmoney Guba and examines how investor sentiment moderates the price responses of individual stocks to news events. Empirical results show that stock price movements following news releases exhibit sentiment-dependent patterns: under optimistic sentiment, stock prices tend to overreact (rise first and fall later), while under pessimistic sentiment, prices tend to drift downward. Portfolio analysis confirms the existence of sentiment-driven mispricing: the annualized excess return of the “pessimistic sentiment & positive news” portfolio over the “optimistic sentiment & negative news” portfolio reaches 6.8% after deducting short-selling costs. Furthermore, order imbalance is identified as a key transmission channel through which investor sentiment affects post-news price responses. The sensitivity of order imbalance to investor sentiment is significantly greater than to news tone. In over 47% of the cases (conservatively estimated), the direction of order imbalance is driven by sentiment, while news tone only affects its magnitude. These findings are robust across various specifications and provide new empirical evidence on sentiment-driven market behavior in China, offering important insights into asset pricing mechanisms in the digital economy era.

Abstract:The deepening of industry-finance data sharing has fostered a new paradigm of platform governance underpinned by trust mechanisms and transparent pricing, which is crucial for activating the market for data as a factor of production. Given the dual role of banks as both market participants and platform governors within the data-sharing ecosystem, this paper proposes a "bank-chain-leader" architecture for an industry-finance data-sharing platform. Based on this framework, we develop a bank-led, signal?state?dependent option pricing model to systematically characterize the optimal pricing mechanism for banks valuing industrial data. Our findings indicate that under the implicit transmission of signals, an enhanced individual informativeness effect prompts banks to lower the option"s strike price and increase the vesting ratio. Regarding the location and precision effects, if the signal indicates that the enhanced marginal explanatory power of data stems from its endogenous value, banks should lower the strike price and increase the vesting ratio; conversely, if it arises predominantly from external environment improvements, the opposite strategy should be adopted. Furthermore, a bank"s initial data endowment and data scale both exhibit a U-shaped relationship with the optimal strike price and an inverted U-shaped relationship with the optimal vesting ratio. There exists a structural compatibility range for the proportion of industrial credit?quality data; within this range, both pricing metrics decrease monotonically as the proportion rises, whereas they increase outside of it. Moreover, when multi-dimensional external signals are explicitly embedded into the pricing system, the adjustment to the strike price depends on the relative dominance of the location versus precision effects, whereas the vesting ratio adjustment is primarily driven by the precision effect. Finally, the dominant nodes of these two effects and the critical threshold for the precision effect are dynamically modulated by exogenous variables, including macroeconomic cycles, heterogeneity of bank data endowments under varying accounting performance, and sensitivity to sustainability thresholds.

Abstract:The digital era brings new opportunities and great challenges to the development of enterprises, and there is a lack of new management models for digital survival in existing practice and theoretical research. Therefore, this study explores and summarizes the key elements of organizational behavior in the digital era with reference to behaviorist theories and neo-behaviorist models, based on the concept of "synergy & symbiosis" in the digital era. Through an in-depth analysis of the key elements and management processes of collaborative value-added, this paper proposes a management model that can distinguish and relate the internal and external scenarios of the organization - the "synergy & symbiosis integrated model". This model is different from the previous "rational model", "normative model" and "open system model", and is based on the "synergy & symbiosis model". The model further takes into account the continuous emergence of scenarios inside and outside the organization under digital technology, and the significant differences between internal & external scenarios, based on the exploration of digital survival and digital transformation practices of enterprises. The proposed model is expected to provide a methodology for understanding the dual-driven evolution of organizations based on "synergetic network - digital intelligence symbiosis".

Abstract:The high-quality development of China’s economy relies on the effective resolution of excess production capacity and the continuous improvement of resource allocation efficiency. As a key component of China’s bankruptcy legal system, the bankruptcy adjudication system plays a vital role in fostering healthy competition among firms, achieving efficient resource allocation, and building a high-quality supply system. This study based on a quasi-natural experiment of the phased regional pilot establishment of liquidation and bankruptcy courts across China, scientifically examines the potential impact and mechanisms of bankruptcy adjudication reform on resource allocation efficiency from the perspective of corporate cost stickiness. Using a multi-period difference-in-differences model, this study finds that the establishment of liquidation and bankruptcy tribunal significantly alleviated the cost stickiness of local firms. This suggests that the bankruptcy trial reform improves the quality and efficiency of bankruptcy proceedings, which in turn enhances the resource allocation efficiency, as evidenced by the reduction in cost stickiness. The mechanism test reveals that the bankruptcy adjudication reform enhances resource allocation efficiency primarily by curbing local government administrative intervention and encouraging enterprises to engage in market-based transactions. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of bankruptcy trial reform on resource allocation efficiency is more pronounced among state-owned enterprises and zombie enterprises, as well as in firms located in regions with higher levels of legal institutionalization. In addition, the increase in bankruptcy trial reform further reduces the cost stickiness of local firms, and mainly reduces production cost stickiness rather than operating cost stickiness. Finally, this paper finds that the alleviation of the cost stickiness problem brought about by bankruptcy trial reforms is able to improve firms’ profitability and return on investment, bringing positive economic benefits to firms. In conclusion, this study unveils the mechanism through which bankruptcy adjudication reform influences the allocation of production factors at the microenterprise level, and provides timely empirical evidence and policy insights to support the deepening of supply-side structural reforms.

Abstract:The digital transformation of state-owned capital supervision is a key task in the current reform of the state-owned capital supervision system, as well as an important component of the modernization of the national governance system. This paper utilizes the quasi-natural experiment of the phased implementation of the online supervision system by the central State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) and provincial SASACs to examine how the digitalization of state-owned capital supervision affects the effectiveness of executive compensation contracts in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The study finds that the digitalization of state-owned capital supervision enhances the performance sensitivity of executive compensation in SOEs. The underlying mechanisms are promoting information flow between the SASAC and SOEs, and constraining managerial power. Heterogeneity tests reveal that a good government-market relationship, strong regulatory capacity of SASAC officials, and a high level of local digital economic development are boundary conditions for the digitalization of state-owned capital supervision to improve incentive efficiency. Further tests show that the digitalization of state-owned capital supervision weakens executive compensation stickiness, increases the sensitivity of executive compensation to ability-based outcomes rather than luck-based outcomes. This study supplements the literature on SOE reform, digital transformation, and executive compensation incentives from the perspective of innovating state-owned capital supervision method, and provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of the digitalization of state-owned capital supervision.

Abstract:As global green and low-carbon challenges intensify,?sustainable radical innovation (SRI)?in these sectors has become crucial for business survival. However, first-mover firms face a unique?“legitimacy-differentiation” paradox—a disruptor’s dilemma—when pursuing radical innovation, unlike their latecomer counterparts. Drawing upon?optimal distinctiveness theory?and?liminal movement theory, this study constructs a process model detailing how first-movers cope with this dilemma. Our findings reveal three core mechanisms. First, first-mover firms sequentially adopt legitimacy strategies of creating external linkages, augmenting green meaning, and leveraging in-depth co-creation, exhibiting a progressively escalating logic from initiation , transmission to collaboration. They also employ differentiation strategies of anchoring value direction, extending value chains, and designing value spaces, demonstrating a leaping logic from point, line to surface. Second, as this asymmetric process unfolds, first-movers achieve?optimal distinctiveness?through a?liminal movement?characterized by contextualized deployment, leadership projection, and dynamic adjustment between legitimacy and differentiation needs. Third, the iterative achievement of optimal distinctiveness enables firms to realize sequential?“front-to-back” technology integration?and?“top-down” technology deepening?within green and low-carbon core technologies. This paper contributes to the literature on radical innovation by first-movers in core technology within the Chinese context and refines the internal mechanisms of optimal distinctiveness through the lens of liminal movement.

Abstract:In an increasingly volatile business environment, firms often face severe resource constraints. The interactions among stakeholders drive dynamic adjustments of firm boundaries and foster value co-creation. Existing studies, however, have insufficiently examined the interactive mechanisms linking human resource boundary evolution and value co-creation. This paper investigates Hema’s employee sharing model to explore how firms’ human resource boundaries evolve and interact with value co-creation across different stages, as well as the underlying decision logics. The findings reveal that in the emergency stage, firms adopt a resource bricolage strategy to expand human resource boundaries and achieve business value co-creation through value transformation driven by boundary enlargement. In the normalization stage, firms rely on digital platforms to implement resource-environment reconfiguration, achieving boundaryless human resource integration and realizing both business and social value co-creation through the synergistic expansion of scale and capability boundaries. The study further elucidates two decision logics of value co-creation: resource bricolage follows an effectual logic, whereas resource-environment reconfiguration follows a causal logic. The digital platform, through the evolutionary mechanism of “resource connection–collaboration–response–network,” acts as the key driver of firms’ logical transformation and value co-creation. This research provides new theoretical insights into how firms can construct value co-creation mechanisms and achieve strategic transformation from a resource-interaction perspective.

Abstract:With the increasingly complex international environment, the innovation environment in which Chinese enterprises are rooted is deeply changing. Based on the entity list system of the United States, this paper systematically discusses whether and how overseas technology blockade affects the innovation quality of Chinese enterprises. Specifically, this paper takes the entity list catalog from 2004 to 2021 as the observation object, manually identifies the listed Chinese companies subject to the technological blockade of the United States, and explores the innovation quality as the entry point. The empirical test found that being included in the entity list can stimulate enterprises to carry out high-quality innovation and improve the quality of innovation. According to the mechanism test, being included in the entity list has a positive effect on the innovation quality of enterprises mainly by improving the willingness of enterprises to innovate independently, the awareness of intellectual property protection, and resource acquisition. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect is more obvious when the enterprise has a high density of technology elements, belongs to the key industry supported by the government, and has overseas business. The extended test shows that the impact of US sanctions on Chinese entities on the quality of innovation is different in different periods and intensities. In addition, the threshold effect test results show that there is an approximate U-shaped relationship between entity list system and innovation quality. Finally, this paper also finds that the inclusion of enterprises in the entity list also has a spillover effect, which can improve the innovation quality of other enterprises in the same industry and in the same city. The research conclusion of this paper has important theoretical and practical significance, not only provides a comprehensive and novel insight for understanding the economic effect of entity list, but also provides important micro-empirical evidence for how governments and enterprises cope with technology blockade and realize scientific and technological self-reliance.

Abstract:The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasizes that promoting high-quality economic development is the primary task in building a modern socialist country in all respects, while digital economy agglomeration serves as an important driving force and an essential pathway to achieving this goal. However, “agglomeration can be both a blessing and a curse,” and how digital economy agglomeration influences high-quality development through spatial effects and underlying mechanisms remains an unexplored topic. This study first measures the levels of digital economy agglomeration and high-quality development across 282 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2019. It then employs the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) to empirically examine the spatial effects and transmission mechanisms of digital economy agglomeration on high-quality development. The results reveal that digital economy agglomeration exerts significantly positive “local effects” and “neighboring effects” on high-quality development, demonstrating a pattern of “spatial resonance,” although such geographically proximate effects exhibit a wave-like attenuation with increasing distance. Mechanism analysis further shows that digital economy agglomeration promotes both local and neighboring high-quality development through green technology spillovers and market integration, while it facilitates the inflow but suppresses the outflow of innovation factors across regions. Based on these findings, this study provides policy implications for advancing digital economy agglomeration, fostering coordinated regional high-quality development, and promoting Chinese-style modernization.