It is time for optimal distinctiveness: Corporate social responsibility engagement under dynamic competitive effects during the COVID-19 crisis

Firms tend to seek optimal distinctiveness when choosing CSR engagement timing. Building on the perspectives of optimal distinctiveness and competitive dynamics, this paper explains why firms' CSR engagement timing toward a certain event is affected by dynamic competitive effects. That is, to achieve optimal distinctiveness, focal firms pay more attention to their main competitors that are similar in market, size and resources. We apply a discrete-time survival analysis of 869 Chinese listed firms' CSR engagement action toward the COVID-19 pandemic during the first half of 2020. The results support the mechanism that when a highly similar competitor engages in CSR activities, it raises the probability that the focal firm engages itself beyond levels based solely on its own characteristics and common time-dependent factors.     

Does investor sentiment affect fund crashes? Evidence from Chinese open-end funds

This paper aims to detect the impact of investor sentiment on the open-end fund crashes, drawing on the open-end stock funds and partial stock funds of China for the 2009–2019 period. The results show that the rise of investor sentiment will significantly increase the risk of the open-end fund crashes, which remains valid after robustness tests. Further researches indicate that the market timing and stock selection abilities of fund managers weaken the positive impact of investor sentiment on the open-end fund crashes, and the market illiquidity promotes the positive impact of investor sentiment on the open-end fund crashes.     

The impacts of share pledging on firm investment timing and valuation

This paper applies a model in the real options framework to analyze the impacts of controlling shareholder’s share pledging on corporate investment timing and valuation. We find that the optimal investment timing shows an inverted U-shape with the pledge ratio, indicating that share pledging exacerbates firms’ over-investment and worsens firms’ under-investment. Furthermore, share pledging hurts firms’ option value unless active measures are taken to control the pledging risks. The maintenance requirement can keep controlling shareholder from irrational early investments and protect investors from severe wealth losses. In addition, our work can provide testable empirical implications.     

行业关联、外资进入与出口质量——来自中国企业的微观证据

外资合理利用对实现我国本土企业技术进步和转型升级具有重要意义,文章聚焦外资的行业关联从出口升级的视角再次探讨这一问题。文章运用中国工业企业数据库、海关统计数据库和投入产出表的匹配数据,从行业内水平溢出、产业间垂直关联等多个维度系统研究了外资进入对我国企业出口产品质量的影响。文章发现:(1)外资进入显著促进企业出口产品质量升级,外资水平溢出、前向关联和后向关联的质量提升效应均显著,其中后向关联效应最大。(2)外资水平溢出、前向关联和后向关联对企业出口产品质量提升的影响渠道分别通过研发效应、中间品投入效应和市场规模效应得以实现。(3)异质性结果表明,外资进入对非国有企业、一般贸易企业、东部地区企业以及与外资技术差距较小企业的出口质量提升作用更为突出。文章为外资利用与企业出口质量关系提供了更为丰富的微观证据和理论依据,能够为当前中国新一轮高水平对外开放下引资政策调整和优化提供一定的政策启示。     

多模终端待机低功耗设计

如今的移动通信网络是由多种制式及多个频段融合而成的多模网络，对于商用终端而言，多种难题交织在一起，其中待机时长是必须要解决的一个关键问题。为此，不同于传统增大电池容量的方法，采用降低待机功耗的策略：时域的时隙控制、频域的电流控制、睡眠和唤醒的电源门控制、低频时钟高频化，其中高频时钟校准低频时钟是降低睡眠态功耗的关键措施。这一系列方案的实施，使得终端在多模实际网络环境下的待机电流小于5 mA，终端的待机低功耗达到了有竞争力的商用水平。     

What role should public firms play in the upstream market?

We investigate the upstream public firm's desirable option of production timing in the vertically related upstream market. We find that multiple equilibria may exist, including the Cournot-type and Stackelberg-type, with different degrees of privatization in the presence of upstream firms' efficiency gap. These equilibrium outcomes are also influenced by the intensity of downstream market competition. We further show the corresponding optimal degree of privatization in different phases of gradual privatization.     

The use of multinomial choice analysis in international business research

Many strategic decisions made by firms involve a choice among several discrete alternatives. International Business (IB) scholars are often interested in modelling the factors that potentially influence these (multinomial) choices: these factors might include not only characteristics of the firms making the choices but also attributes of the alternative choices. This paper provides a succinct and intuitive introduction to the possible applications of multinomial choice models in IB research. We briefly outline the theory behind discrete choice modelling, and then explain how multinomial choice models may be estimated (including how the datasets need to be formatted) and how the significance of the coefficient estimates as well as the diagnostic statistics may be tested and interpreted.     

Exploring household financial strain dynamics

Rising energy and food prices are causing living standards to fall across Europe and straining household budgets. The longer-term outlook for households is unclear as the dynamics of financial strain are not well understood. We address four important research questions on financial strain dynamics by applying a dynamic random coefficients probit model with duration and occurrence dependence to De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) Household Survey panel data. We find no evidence that households become habituated or sensitised to financial strain over time unlike in studies of responses to stress. Entry into household financial strain is less likely when the household can cope by increasing earnings from work or by borrowing from family and friends but not by the economically inactive entering employment. Our third result is that the persistence of financial strain can be explained by a mutually-enforcing negative cycle through worse health but not through marital conflict or more short-sighted and risk averse decision-making. Finally, we find that neither income or wealth shocks affect financial strain in contrast to other studies. Further research into understanding the experience of financial hardship is warranted in the light of the economic challenges caused by the current cost of living crisis.