Malin Song

Market competition, green technology progress and comparative advantages in China

Purpose Technical progress is an important technique within improving China’s comparative advantages, as new and renewable technologies will be beneficial for energy security. Productive technical progress and green technical innovation are necessary to improve working conditions and productivity of industries. Therefore, the propose of this paper is to study technical progress in China under such harsh competitive circumstances, as well as types of technical progress that can be promoted, productive technical progress or green technology progress, and how technical progress will affect China’s competitive advantages. Design/methodology/approach Performing a Multi-index Multi-factor Constitutive model based on a sample of 468 Chinese industries, and divides the industries into 4 categories. Findings-Results indicate that there is a “U-shape” relationship between green technology progress and comparative advantages and an inverted “U”-shape relationship between the intensity of market competition and compa...

Calculation of China’s environmental efficiency and relevant hierarchical cluster analysis from the perspective of regional differences

Abstract With the measuring results of environmental efficiency as a basis, redundancy rates of labor, capital stock, energy consumption and three kinds of industrial wastes in each province are calculated respectively by using hierarchical cluster analysis, which suggests that China can be divided into three kinds of economic-environmental zone, namely, intensively-developed zone, optimally-developed zone and slowly-developed zone. Analysis of redundancy rates indicates that the key to improvement of environmental efficiency is to reduce resource waste and emission of three kinds of industrial wastes. Environmental efficiency of the four main regions in China is measured with inter- and inner-differences among them. A downtrend in efficiency is found for all four regions with efficiency value the biggest for the East, bigger for the Northeast, less for the West and the least for the Central. The above quantitative analysis is helpful when new policies are established to improve environmental efficiency of each province in the future.

A new space‐time correlation coefficient and its comparison with Moran's Index on evaluation

Purpose – This article aims to discuss the binary matrix of spatial association which is suggested by Moran, and proposes a new method of the definition of the w matrix to obtain a new space‐time correlation coefficient considering the correlation of both time and space.Design/methodology/approach – From the perspective of the multi‐dimension of space and time, this article proposes a new computational method of a correlation coefficient considering both temporal and spatial factors, based on the analysis of the characteristics of Morans Global Index and Morans Local Index. The number of patents granted in mainland Chinas provinces and municipalities is taken as an example of multi‐dimensional analysis.Findings – The results of quantitative analysis using this space‐time correlation coefficient show that the outcomes calculated by this new correlation coefficient are not only highly correlated with Morans Index, but also have advantages in analyzing the trends of both spatial and temporal indicators s...

Influence of basic research investment on corporate performance: Exploring the moderating effect of human capital structure

Purpose n n n n nThe purpose of this paper is to add to the existing research about how corporate performance is influenced by their basic research (BR) investment. On this basis, the authors examined the moderating effect of human capital structure (HCS) on the relationship between BR investment and corporate performance. n n n n nDesign/methodology/approach n n n n nHypotheses were tested using static and dynamic models to analyze a large-scale data of Chinese A-share listed companies. n n n n nFindings n n n n nThis study provides empirical evidence that contributes to the research about how private BR investment influences corporate performance in the digital age. In addition, human resource is an important dynamic ability for enterprise development. Based on the dynamic capability theory, further research finds that the human resources practice on the knowledge stock can enhance the company’s dynamic capability, thereby enhancing the company’s core competitiveness. n n n n nResearch limitations/implications n n n n nThe results may be affected by the context of the data set. This study considers the influence of private research investment type on corporate performance, further studies considering the influence of specific contextual variables, such as corporate industry differences, could yield richer insights that would help validate the results of this study. n n n n nPractical implications n n n n nThis study provides useful information for managers. As well as increasing the investment in the BR of enterprise and creating the necessary conditions to increase the competitiveness of enterprise, they should strive to adjust the structure and quality of researchers involved in BR projects. n n n n nOriginality/value n n n n nThis research contributes to the enterprise’s BR investment and the management of human capital resource. It points that the investment of BR positively influences the corporate performance. In addition, the increasing of high-skilled labor’s proportion positively promotes the promotion of BR investment on corporate performance.