Chinese multinationals on the New Silk Route: Managing political risk by branding the nation

Though Chinese multinational enterprises (CMNEs) have brought investment and opportunities to countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, there has been scepticism regarding the content and context of their investment. On the one hand, infrastructural development contributes to GDP formation and enhances the efficiency of productive inputs where international trade enhances technology and export development, which jointly provides a path to economic growth. On the other hand, critical issues such as debt sustainability and national sovereignty among countries that have gone through the decolonization process mean that CMNEs need to grasp the implication of political risk when investing. This article focuses on South and Southeast Asia, where China has historical socio‐economic relationship, and proposes a nation branding model combining tradition and modernity which can be the way forward for CMNEs to mitigate political risk in relation to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) investment. Nation branding of BRI could be seen as a continuity of China's unfinished business in globalization that has preceded the modern polity; nevertheless, there is a need to communicate a coherent and authentic message that reflects the reality of business operations.     

Local integration and co‐evolution of internationalizing Chinese firms

This study investigates the integration of internationalizing Chinese firms into local host markets. We explore the market‐driven investment of a new wave of Chinese private and local state‐owned firms in Australia since 2012, which has replaced the initial large‐scale investment in resources by central state‐owned enterprises. Using an in‐depth analysis of nine Chinese firms operating in various sectors of the Australian market, we argue that market integration, adaptation, and bilateral institution‐building through co‐evolution and empowerment of local subsidiaries of Chinese multinational enterprises results in entrepreneurial autonomy and characterizes a new generation of Chinese investors. We propose that Chinese multinational subsidiaries have transferred domestic practices to the Australian market and have reconfigured domestic and host market resources to gain a competitive advantage in their original investment industry and new industries. Our study advances middle‐range theory building and provides a practical understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of Chinese investors, their potential to disrupt local markets, and their responsiveness to market‐oriented institutional guidance. The results of this study suggest that the bilateral institution‐building and resource reconfiguration capabilities of Chinese enterprises can be transferred to other developed and developing markets, including Belt and Road Initiative countries.     

Feeling hungry? let's order through mobile! examining the fast food mobile commerce in China

This study proposes a unique framework that aids to enrich online shopping experience (psychological and monetary gains) and accelerates fast food mobile commerce (m-commerce). The extended technology acceptance model (TAM) is applied while the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) paradigm served as the predominant framework combined with the acquisition-transaction utility theory. This study investigates the mobile website quality, website brand equity (stimulus) influence on (PEOU) and (PU) (organism) to predict Chinese consumer intention to use fast food mobile commerce (response). A total of 936 respondents were participated while data were collected using a convenience sampling technique in China. Results reveal that all dimensions of mobile WQ (i.e., service quality, system quality, and information quality) and Website BE (i.e., brand image, perceived quality, brand association, and brand loyalty) (stimulus) significantly substantially influence PEOU and PU (organism) toward the acceptance of online fast food shopping (response). Digital Coupon Proneness (an accelerator) substantially moderates the relationship between PEOU, PU, and intention to use fast food m-commerce. Based on the assumptions of acquisition-transaction utility theory, category-specific (fast food) digital coupon proneness increase m-commerce for online fast food buying– a novel contribution of the study. Furthermore, research provides unique managerial insights for the industry to utilize the maximum potential of m-commerce in the fast-food industry.     

Research on a diagnostic system of rural vitalization based on development elements in China

In 2017, the Chinese government implemented a national strategy of "Rural Vitalization" that sought to realize full-scale rural vitalization. However, is it possible to achieve vitalization for all the villages in China? How should their development potential be determined? This paper identified and analyzed the "element-composite" messages of rural development based on 99 exemplary sites of “Beautiful Villages” in China. Combined with the projection pursuit classification method, a diagnostic system of rural vitalization was established; then, Dehua County was taken as a case study for an in-depth analysis. Based on national data analysis, the final results indicated that livelihood resources (LR), agglomeration effects (AE), location and transportation (LT), cultural/natural landscapes (CN), and economic circumstance (EC) are essential elements for successful rural development. Additionally, EC was the only exogenous element, while the remaining elements were endogenous. Furthermore, the villages with better EC presented urbanization rates of 38∼82 % and Engel coefficients of 29∼41 % in their counties; exemplary sites lacking LR, CN, LT, and AE account for 13.13 %, 19.19 %, 26.26 %, and 60.61 % respectively, so the indispensability of these elements decreases progressively in sequence. Only 2 % of villages rely on single element for success, therefore, the composite pattern of development element was also critical; 10 out of 16 types were found to successfully facilitate village development, among which, the type of R-a-L-C (32.32 %) and R-A-L-C (15.15 %) were considered as the greatest potential patterns for vitalization. Finally, by means of the diagnostic system, the ratio of representative villages for high-low potential in Dehua County is evenly split; then, development paths, and land use policies that match with paths were proposed, on the basis of development potential and “element-composite” condition of themselves.     

The role of text-extracted investor sentiment in Chinese stock price prediction with the enhancement of deep learning

Whether investor sentiment affects stock prices is an issue of long-standing interest for economists. We conduct a comprehensive study of the predictability of investor sentiment, which is measured directly by extracting expectations from online user-generated content (UGC) on the stock message board of Eastmoney.com in the Chinese stock market. We consider the influential factors in prediction, including the selections of different text classification algorithms, price forecasting models, time horizons, and information update schemes. Using comparisons of the long short-term memory (LSTM) model, logistic regression, support vector machine, and Naïve Bayes model, the results show that daily investor sentiment contains predictive information only for open prices, while the hourly sentiment has two hours of leading predictability for closing prices. Investors do update their expectations during trading hours. Moreover, our results reveal that advanced models, such as LSTM, can provide more predictive power with investor sentiment only if the inputs of a model contain predictive information.     

Waste of money or growth opportunity: The causal effect of EU subsidies on Hungarian SMEs

Although EU subsidies aiming at economic development play a pivotal role not only for Hungary but for the entire European Union as well, there is a debate regarding their effectiveness in the literature. This paper investigates the impact of direct economic development subsidies extended in the context of Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund as part of the 2007–2013 programming period of the European Union on Hungarian micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Based on a micro database, we evaluate the impact of corporates’ first subsidies on various performance indicators, using a combination of propensity score matching and fixed effects panel regression. According to our results, economic development funds had a significant positive effect on the number of employees, sales revenue, gross value added and, in some cases, operating profit. However, the labour productivity of enterprises was not significantly affected by any of the support schemes. Furthermore, by explicitly comparing non-refundable subsidies (grants) and refundable assistance (financial instruments), we find that there is no significant difference in the effectiveness of the two types of subsidy.     

Corporates' strategic responses to economic policy uncertainty in China

Using a novel news‐based index of economic policy uncertainty, this paper studies the impact of economic policy uncertainty on corporate strategic positioning and corporate risk in China from 2009 to 2015. The study also investigates the impact of corporate strategic positioning on corporate risk. The results show that corporate strategic positioning and economic policy uncertainty have a significant positive impact on corporate risk. The results also explain that economic policy uncertainty increases the market risk of the firms irrespective of their corporate strategy. However, it increases the business risk of prospector firms and decreases the business risk of defensive firms. The study may help the firms to formulate and improve their strategic positioning while considering economic policy uncertainty. Our results are robust to alternate proxies of economic policy uncertainty and corporate risk.     

Exploring the influence of tourists’ happiness on revisit intention in the context of Traditional Chinese Medicine cultural tourism

Based on how tourists interpret the destination experience and on attachment theory, this study investigates the influencing mechanism of tourists' happiness on revisit intention for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) cultural tourism destinations. Three tourist samples confirm the three dimensions of tourists' happiness: positive emotions, engagement, and meaning. Two surveys were conducted to test the direct and indirect influence of tourists' happiness on revisit intention and the moderating role of tourists' health consciousness. The results show that tourists' happiness promotes memorable tourism experience and place attachment, in turn stimulating revisit intention. The results also support health consciousness as a significant moderator between happiness, place attachment, and revisit intention. The findings enrich theoretical understanding of tourists’ happiness and provide marketing and management advice for TCM cultural tourism destinations.     

社区银行的内涵特征、历史沿革与模式创新--基于中外社区银行的内容分析与案例研究

本研究梳理了社区与社区银行的概念,通过对14组代表性定义的内容分析和编码发现传统社区银行的实质就是中小型商业银行。社区隐含了社区银行的覆盖范围、服务对象和业务特征,其服务对象没有实质差别。研究提出了社区银行的四个维度和特征,分别是银行规模、覆盖范围、服务对象和业务种类。监管机构和美国提出者更关注银行规模,而研究者特别是中国研究者更重视覆盖范围。因此,“地理范围论”和“资产规模论”基本成立,而“国别论”理论差别不大,“所有制论”和“形态论”并不成立。通过案例研究和实地调研归纳出社区银行的三种主要模式：即美国的“关系信贷”、澳大利亚的“特许经营”和中国的“金融生态”模式。其中,“特许经营”模式变相扩大了银行规模和覆盖范围两个维度,而“金融生态”模式扩展和丰富了银行规模、覆盖范围和业务种类。最后,结合发达国家的先进经验,有针对性地提出四点建议,并构建了中国社区银行建设的特征与要素模型。     

人口新常态约束下特大城市的规模调控与转型升级

不同国家、不同历史时期的特大城市人口规模变动极大,运用 Kernel 密度函数对中国城市人口规模分布的分析表明,当前以城区常住人口“500万以上”为特大城市的划分标准是合理的。从城市人口规模变动的动态历程来看,该变动主要受城市产业与经济发展的影响。对中国主要特大城市实有人口规模变动的分析表明,特大城市的人口规模调控应因时因地而动,不能搞一刀切,而且人口调控政策重点应该从数量控制转向结构优化。特大城市转型升级面临着农民工供给短缺、大学毕业生相对过剩、老年和少儿非劳动力人口持续增长等人口新常态约束。在这种人口增长新常态背景下,特大城市应坚持市场化改革方向,促进政府制度创新和企业技术与管理创新是城市转型升级的根本动力。