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This chapter builds on the authors’ research into the internationalization of China’s higher education (HE) as soft power with “Chinese characteristics” (Lo & Pan, 2020). It rethinks the “Chinese characteristics” in contemporary China’s internationalization of HE as soft power, by contextualizing them in the historico-cultural rootedness that legitimizes the sense of Chinese exceptionalism in the Party-state’s global re-emergence. It also sheds light on the tension and paradox therein through analyzing the conflicts generated by the Party-state’s attempts at re-globalizing the Chinese world order alongside the Westphalian system. In addition to integrating the soft-power concepts coined by Joseph Nye (1990) with the dimensional perspectives on the internationalization of HE framed by Jane Knight (1997), this study also puts in China’s perspectives that stand in contrast to, and yet in confluence with, some of the current norms and values being espoused by the West. In so doing, it demonstrates the potentiality of employing comparative lenses that cut across times, spaces and cultures in the research into internationalization of HE as soft power with national characteristics.

Theories frequently used by researchers’ only offer limited insight, they do not explain why some multinationals continue to invest in some countries despite being rated low on the reasons explained by economic and comparative advantage theories. The paper examines the attractiveness of Australia as an investment destination for US based multinational corporations. By using Porter’s national advantage theory and other variables of country attractiveness, it examines what makes Australia an attractive destination. Within the fast moving consumer goods industry, Australia was found to be attractive for three reasons: incentives offered by the government, low risk and cultural distance. There is evidence that culture has an effect on the choice of foreign investment venture structure well ahead of market size, tariffs, growth and location to cultural similarity. The aim was not only to generate ideas for future more rigorous research but also to investigate the impact critical to elements, such as culture, that make foreign investments attractive.

This chapter reflects on our recent research into China’s soft power in international education, using Confucius Institutes as a case study. It first reveals how we have framed our research in the related field and the methodological issues concerned. It will then analyze the theories and concepts that have been taken as the lenses through which China’s soft power ideas and strategies were compared and contrasted with the theories and/or practices prevalent in the West, while highlighting their implication for the fear of the “China threat.” Finally, we will conclude with the potential areas of further research in the related area of study in the years to come. It is hoped that this chapter will contribute to the development of research in international and comparative education that helps readers to explore in-depth the causality, implication and complication of the “China threat” in the global arena.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of environmental policy China’s national program to address climate change on carbon emission efficiency.

Based on the directional distance function, the provincial total factor carbon emission efficiency was measured. Then, the authors analyzed the effect of environmental policy on carbon emission efficiency based on a difference in difference model.

Carbon emission efficiency has been significantly improved since the environmental policy China’s national program to address climate change was put forwarded, but the positive impact in different periods and regions is different. In addition, the environmental policy improves the carbon emission efficiency through the reduction of energy intensity and adjustment of the industrial structure.

This is the first time to use difference in difference model to use a difference in difference model to quantitatively assess the influence of environmental policy China’s national program to address climate change on carbon emission efficiency.

This paper aims to explore the pathways of carbon transfer in 200 US corporations along with the motivations that drive such transfers. The particular focus is on each firm’s embeddedness in the global value chain (GVC) and the influence of environmental law, operational costs and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The insights gleaned bridge a gap in the literature surrounding GVCs and corporate carbon transfer.

The methodology comprised a two-step research approach. First, the authors used a two-sided fixed regression to analyse the relationship between each firm’s embeddedness in the GVC and its carbon transfers. The sample consisted of 217 US firms. Next, the authors examined the influence of environmental law, operational costs and CSR on carbon transfers using a quantitative comparison analysis. These results were interpreted through the theoretical frameworks of the GVC and legitimacy theory.

The empirical results indicate positive relationships between carbon transfers and GVC embeddedness in terms of both a firm’s position and its degree. From the quantitative comparison, the authors find that the pressure of environmental law and operational costs motivate these transfers through the value chain. Furthermore, CSR does not help to mitigate transfers.

The findings offer insights for policymakers, industry and academia to understand that, with globalised production and greater value creation, transferring carbon to different parts of the GVC – largely to developing countries – will only become more common. The underdeveloped nature of environmental technology in these countries means that global emissions will likely rise instead of fall, further exacerbating global warming. Transferring carbon is not conducive to a sustainable global economy. Hence, firms should be closely regulated and given economic incentives to reduce emissions, not simply shunt them off to the developing world.

Carbon transfer is a major obstacle to effectively reducing carbon emissions. The responsibilities of carbon transfer via GVCs are difficult to define despite firms being a major consideration in such transfers. Understanding how and why corporations engage in carbon transfers can facilitate global cooperation among communities. This knowledge could pave the way to establishing a global carbon transfer monitoring network aimed at preventing corporate carbon transfer and, instead, encouraging emissions reduction.

This study extends the literature by investigating carbon transfers and the GVC at the firm level. The authors used two-step research approach including panel data and quantitative comparison analysis to address this important question. The authors are the primary study to explore the motivation and pathways by which firms transfer carbon through the GVC.

Nowadays, China is one of the most important destinations for international expansion of firms from all over the world. Based on the traditional theory on foreign direct investment and the resource‐based view of the firm, this paper analyzes the influence of various tangible and intangible firm‐specific factors on the choice amongst three different modes of entry into China: representative office, joint venture and wholly‐owned subsidiary. The results obtained suggest that the size of the investing firm, its performance as well as its experience regarding the country have a positive influence on the choice of types of foreign direct investment that involve a high level of resources commitment. In addition, the specific aim of the project affects these relationships.

This study aims to develop a framework to identify and prioritize the key factors in automation and artificial intelligence (AI) implementation in the hospitality and tourism industry.

This paper used the analytic hierarchy process, a multi-criteria decision-making method, to prioritize the factors influencing automation and AI implementation. This paper developed a model with five criteria (human knowledge, services, robotics applications, internal environment and institutional environment) and 23 sub-criteria obtained from previous studies. This paper designed a questionnaire in the form of pairwise comparisons based on the proposed hierarchical structure. This paper used a nine-point ranking scale to show the relative significance of each variable in the hierarchy and tested the model among staff from 35 five-star hotels and top-rated tourism agencies in the United Arab Emirates.

Human knowledge, services and robotics applications were the most significant factors influencing automation and AI implementation. Practitioners and researchers in the hospitality and tourism industry could apply the proposed framework to develop sustainable strategies for implementing and managing automation and AI. The proposed framework may also be useful in future studies examining AI implementation in the hospitality and tourism industry.

This paper developed a framework for policymakers that identifies and could help to overcome some of the challenges in implementing automation and AI in the hospitality and tourism sector around the world. The results provide an agenda for future research in this area.

酒店业和旅游业中的自动化和人工智能

摘要

本研究旨在开发一个框架, 以确定和优先考虑酒店业和旅游业自动化和人工智能（AI）实施的关键因素。

我们使用层次分析法, 一种多准则决策方法, 对影响自动化和人工智能实施的因素进行优先排序。我们建立了一个包含五个标准（人类知识、服务、机器人技术应用、内部环境和制度环境）的模型, 并从先前的研究中获得了23个子标准。基于所提出的层次结构, 我们设计了一份以成对比较的形式进行的问卷调查。我们使用九点评分量表来说明每个标准或子标准在层级中的相对重要性, 并在阿联酋35家五星级酒店和顶级旅游机构的员工中测试了该模型。

人类知识、服务和机器人应用是影响自动化和人工智能实施的最重要因素。酒店业和旅游业的从业人员和研究人员可以应用拟议的框架来制定实施和管理自动化和人工智能的可持续战略。拟议的框架也可能有助于未来研究人工智能在酒店业和旅游业的实施。

我们为决策者开发了一个框架, 用来识别并帮助其克服全球酒店业和旅游业实施自动化和人工智能方面的一些挑战。研究结果为今后该领域的研究提供了一个议程。

Automatización e inteligencia artificial en hostelería y turismo

Resumen

Este estudio tuvo como objetivo desarrollar un marco para identificar y priorizar los factores clave en la implementación de la automatización y la inteligencia artificial (IA) en la industria hotelera y turística.

utilizamos el proceso de jerarquía analítica, un método de toma de decisiones de varios criterios, para priorizar los factores que influyen en la automatización y la implementación de la IA. Desarrollamos un modelo con cinco criterios (conocimiento humano, servicios, aplicaciones robóticas, entorno interno y entorno institucional) y 23 subcriterios obtenidos de estudios previos. Diseñamos un cuestionario en forma de comparaciones por pares basados en la estructura jerárquica propuesta. Usamos una escala de clasificación de nueve puntos para mostrar la importancia relativa de cada variable en la jerarquía y probamos el modelo entre el personal de 35 hoteles de cinco estrellas y las agencias de turismo mejor calificadas en los Emiratos Árabes Unidos.

el conocimiento humano, los servicios y las aplicaciones robóticas fueron los factores más importantes que influyeron en la automatización y la implementación de la inteligencia artificial. Los profesionales e investigadores de la industria hotelera y turística podrían aplicar el marco propuesto para desarrollar estrategias sostenibles para implementar y gestionar la automatización y la IA. El marco propuesto también puede ser útil en estudios futuros que examinen la implementación de la IA en la industria hotelera y turística.

desarrollamos un marco para los formuladores de políticas que identifica y podría ayudar a superar algunos de los desafíos en la implementación de la automatización y la inteligencia artificial en el sector de la hospitalidad y el turismo en todo el mundo. Los resultados proporcionan una agenda para futuras investigaciones en esta área.

The kindergarten curriculum in mainland China has evolved through four periods and the current reform began in the end of 1980s. The reform aimed to transform kindergarten practice by shaping ideologies including respect for individual child, active learning, and play-based integrated curriculum. This review of research literatures shows that compared with the practice before the reform, many kindergarten teachers organize classrooms in learning centers, provide more play materials, pay time, and freedom for free play, and pay more attention to individuals. But indoor space organized in rice-seedling-bed model, teacher-led group instruction and teacher-controlled interactions are still often observed after three decades of reform efforts; there still exist great variations among kindergartens of different sponsoring bodies and in different regions. The problems resulted from the innate deficiencies of the top-down and value-priority reform, the conflicts between the advocated value and the traditional Chinese culture with emphasis on Ming-Fen, testing, and the value of children for the whole family and nation, and the unequal distribution of public resources decided by the educational institutions. Therefore, the curriculum reform is not a separate endeavor from other social changes, but a comprehensive and systematic change. To guarantee the success of the curriculum reform, the Chinese society needs cultural transformation and institutional reconstruction.

This chapter aims to explore the novelty and utility of political economy discourse, termed “neo-statism,” as an analytical lens for comparative research in higher education. Analysis is framed within the context of Hong Kong’s transition from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region under China’s sovereignty, and its shifting academic paradigms from a more or less spontaneous philosophy rooted in liberal capitalist economy to embracing neo-statism, which involves market-conforming and state-sponsored approaches to economic and social restructuring whereby the state regulates higher education in support of national integration and global power projection. The statist regulation depends heavily on its deployment of discursive legitimacy, strategic distribution of resources, organizational synergy, and elite cohesion articulated through higher education policy, research projects, and cross-border academic exchange and cooperation. The Hong Kong case suggests that comparative research in higher education should advance from the methodological aspects of the comparative approach to exploring wider theoretical spectrum, for understanding emerging politico-economic factors shaping academic paradigm in comparative contexts. Moreover, scholars who engage in the trendy internationalization in higher education should move beyond the logics of neo-liberalism, and pay closer attention to the new geopolitical realities that are changing the normative and interactive dimensions of international higher education at large.