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Previous studies demonstrate that market-oriented reform has contributed significantly to China's economic growth from the efficiency-based economic view. But some argue that state-owned firms have access to policy information, scarce resources, and government support, and thus state-owned firms might foster innovation. This study tries to find out either market force or state ownership helps improve firms' R&D efficiency.

Using data from China's high-tech industry, we employed the fixed-effect stochastic frontier model and the spatial panel Han-Philips linear dynamic regression model to investigate the relationship between market-oriented reform and the dynamic evolution of R&D efficiency in both temporal and spatial dimensions. Moreover, we examined whether the relationship is affected in a state-owned economy and an industry protection environment.

The results indicate the following: (1) the R&D efficiency of China's high-tech industry has improved steadily and has converged gradually across its regions during the market-oriented reform; (2) the marketization degree is positively correlated with R&D efficiency and its regional convergence; (3) the state-owned economy and industry protection have significantly weakened the ability of market forces to shape R&D efficiency — i.e. they reduce, rather than enhance, R&D efficiency.

This investigation helps understand the drivers of R&D efficiency in transition economies, and the findings are also helpful in defining the boundaries and constraints of market forces.

The processes of convergence are particularly challenging in the Sub-Saharan African frameworks, considering the diversity of contexts and endogenous particularities. Creating conditions to support these nations to improve their socioeconomic dynamics and performance requires additional contributions from international organisations, governments and the scientific community. In this scenario, this paper aims to analyse the convergence process in Sub-Saharan African countries over the past three decades.

To achieve these objectives, data from the World Bank were considered for the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita over the period 1990–2021. This statistical information was assessed through panel data approaches based on the models from the convergence theory. Specifically, the concepts of sigma and beta convergence were addressed, as well as the concept of catch-up rates.

The findings obtained highlight evidence of the existence of clubs of convergence among the Sub-Saharan African countries and the processes of catching up. These results may be relevant support for the policymakers and international funds and programmes.

This research provides a new perspective on the convergence of GDP per capita in Sub-Saharan African countries, based on an analysis focused on groups of countries identified on the basis of catch-up rates. This approach presents a way of dealing with the different specificities of these nations.

This study aims to analyze the convergence of environmental degradation clubs in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In addition, this study also analyzes the influence of renewable energy and foreign direct investment (FDI) on each club as an intervention to change the convergence pattern in each club.

This study analyzes the club convergence of environmental degradation in an effort to find out the distribution of environmental degradation reduction policies. This study uses club convergence with the Phillips and Sul (PS) convergence methodology because it considers multiple steady-states and is robust. This study uses annual panel data from 1998 to 2020 and ASEAN country units with ecological footprints as proxies for environmental degradation. After obtaining the club results, the analysis continued by analyzing the impact of renewable energy and FDI on each club using panel data regression and the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology model specification.

Based on club convergence, ASEAN countries can be grouped into three clubs with two divergent countries. Club 1 has an increasing pattern of environmental degradation, while Club 2 and Club 3 show no increase. Club 1 can primarily apply renewable energy to reduce environmental degradation, while Club 2 requires more FDI. The authors expect policymakers to take into account the clubs established to formulate collaborative policies among countries. The result that FDI reduces environmental degradation in this study is in line with the pollution halo hypothesis. This study also found that population has a significant effect on environmental degradation, so policies to regulate population need to be considered. On the other hand, increasing income has no effect on reducing environmental degradation. Therefore, the use of renewable energy and FDI toward green investment is expected to intensify within ASEAN countries to reduce environmental degradation.

This research is by far the first to apply PS Club convergence to environmental degradation in ASEAN. In addition, this study is also the first to analyze the influence of renewable energy and FDI on each club formed, considering the need for renewable energy use that has not been maximized in ASEAN.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the high-quality development (HQD) strategy of Chinese mineral resource enterprises, which is important for Chinese mineral resource enterprises to improve the efficiency and benefit of resource utilization, reduce the intensity of resource and energy consumption and gradually form resource-saving and environment-friendly enterprises.

This study establishes an evaluation index system with four dimensions: economy, environment, society and management innovation. The entropy value method assigns weights to them and then uses the system dynamics (SD) model for case simulation.

The results of the SD simulation conclude that the fulfillment of social responsibility and the implementation of management innovation can accelerate the realization of HQD of mineral resource enterprises; profitability plays a crucial role in economic indicators; the improvement of energy-saving volume has the most significant impact on environmental benefits; the social contribution is the key element to measure social indicators; and the sales rate of core products has the most significant impact on the benefits of management innovation.

Based on the few studies on the evaluation of the development strategy of mineral resource enterprises, this study establishes an evaluation index system that considers the interactions between indicators, combines the entropy value method with SD and uses the SD model to comprehensively and systematically analyze the impact and degree of each factor on the HQD of mineral resource enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current practices in security convergence among and between corporate security and cybersecurity processes in commercial enterprises.

This paper is the first phase in a planned multiphase project to better understand current practices in security optimization efforts being implemented by commercial organizations exploring means and methods to operate securely while reducing operating costs. The research questions being examined are: What are the general levels of interest in cybersecurity and corporate security convergence? How well do the perspectives on convergence align between organizations? To what extent are organizations pursuing convergence? and How are organizations achieving the anticipated outcomes from convergence?

In organizations, the evolution to a more optimized security structure, either merged or partnered, was traditionally due to unplanned or unforeseen events; e.g. a spin-off/acquisition, new security leadership or a negative security incident was the initiator. This is in contrast to a proactive management decision or formal plan to change or enhance the security structure for reasons that include reducing costs of operations and/or improving outcomes to reduce operational risks. The dominant exception was in response to regulatory requirements. Preliminary findings suggest that outcomes from converged organizations are not necessarily more optimized in situations that are organizationally merged under a single leader. Optimization may ultimately depend on the strength of relationships and openness to collaboration between management, cybersecurity and corporate security personnel.

This report and the number of respondents to its survey do not support generalizable findings. There are too few in each category to make reliable predictions and in analysis, there was an insufficient quantity of responses in most categories to allow supportable conclusions to be drawn.

Practitioners may find useful contextual clues to their needs for convergence or in response to directives for convergence from this report on what is found in some other organizations.

Improved effectiveness and/or reduced costs for organizational cybersecurity would be a useful social outcome as organizations become more efficient in the face of increasing levels of cyber security threats.

Convergence as a concept has been around for some time now in both the practice and research communities. It was initially promoted formally by ASIS International and ISACA in 2005. Yet there is no universally agreed-upon definition for the term or the practices undertaken to achieve it. In addition, the business drivers and practices undertaken to achieve it are still not fully understood. If convergence or optimization of converged operations offers a superior operational construct compared to other structures, it is incumbent to discover if there are measurable benefits. This research hopes to define the concept of security collaboration optimization more fully. The eventual goal is to develop and promote a tool useful for organizations to measure where they are on such a continuum.

This paper examines how key actors in the UK food system (FS) understand the role of the local food sector in relation to FS resilience.

Discourse analysis was used to assess and compare the framings of the UK FS in 36 publications released during Covid-19 from alternative food networks (AFNs) actors and from other more mainstream FS actors, including the UK government.

The analysis shows that AFNs actors perceive the UK FS as not resilient and identify local FSs as a route towards greater resilience (“systemic” framing). In contrast, other food actors perceive the UK FS as already resilient, with the role of local food limited to specific functions within the existing system (“add-on” framing). The two groups converge on the importance of dynamic public procurement and local abattoir provision, but this convergence does not undermine the fundamental divergence in the understanding of the role of “the local” in resilient UK FSs. The local food sector’s messages appear to have gone largely unheard in mainstream policy.

The paper presents an analysis of public sector reports focused on the UK FS released during the Covid-19 pandemic years 2020–2021. The corpus inclusion criteria mean that publications during this period which focus on other food sector issues, such social injustices, climate change and health, were not included in the analysis, although they may have touched upon local food issues. The authors further recognise that Covid-19 had a longer lasting effect on FSs than the years 2020–2021, and that many other publications on FSs have been published since. The time span chosen targets the time at which FSs were most disrupted and therefore aims to capture emerging issues and solutions for the UK FS. The authors’ insights should be further validated through a more complete review of both public reports and academic papers covering a wider base of food-related issues and sectors as well as a broader timespan.

A comparison of how different FS actors understand the importance of local food, especially in relation to resilience, has not been undertaken to date. The findings raise important questions about the disconnect between AFN actors and other actors in the framing of resilience. Considering the need to ensure resilience of the UK FS, this study's findings raise important insights for UK food policy about the “local food blindspot” and for food movement actors wishing to progress their vision of transformative change.

This paper aims to investigate the role of corporate governance on the bank profitability of Indian banks vis-à-vis South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations.

For the Corporate Governance Index, the authors examined board accountability, transparency and disclosure and audit committee, while Tobin’s Q, return on equity and return on assets are used to measure the bank’s profitability. The study used a two-stage analysis based on balanced panel data for robust findings. Sample of this study consists of 60 commercial banks from India and 60 banks from SAARC nations for the period of 2009–2021. This study used panel regression and a generalized method of moment approach using the CAMELS framework on banking industry-specific variables to determine their respective impacts.

The findings of this study suggest that board accountability is positive and significantly affects the profitability of banks as indicated by return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q. In contrast, the audit committee has a positive and insignificant impact on return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q, while transparency and disclosure have a negative and significant impact on these metrics. Furthermore, the country dummy result shows a significant positive impact on all the bank performance parameters, implying that Indian banks have the highest degree of convergence with corporate governance as compared to other SAARC nations.

This study provides insight to the regulators, policymakers and financial institutions to evaluate the role of corporate governance in emerging economies. However, the findings of the study should be interpreted with caution, as the results are sensitive to the disparity between India and other SAARC nations' government policies, climatic circumstances and cultural or religious traditions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to gauge the performance of Indian banks vis-à-vis SAARC nations using the CAMELS framework approach. Further, findings of this study suggest some novel evidence tying corporate governance quality with the profitability of banks among SAARC nations.

The motivation for this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of some of the important and trending topics in the sport industry. Besides this, to consider the changing landscape of ownership, strategies and organisation of several types of sports in the contemporary environment, there is a need for deeper contextual knowledge of how different sport/s, leagues, clubs, associations, teams etc. own, organise and strategise at local to national to regional to international contexts.

This paper introduces the special issue on the sport industry that welcomes four interesting contributions of focusing on the important themes related to the sport industry. They include (1) digital transformation and needed capabilities, (2) fan engagement in a digital way using social media, (3) network convergence of business, entertainment and geo-politics through sports ownership and finally (4) the relevance and relation of social capital in the organisational strategy of sports organisations.

Four generic insights related to the themes and emerging trends in marketisation, ownership and digitalisation strategies in the sport industry are introduced in this paper. The first insight is that sports digitalisation and politicisation significantly impact the strategising, organising and networking activities of sports owners to foster value capture. Secondly, owners’ performance duality of marketisation of their sports clubs and vested business interests unravels the paradoxes of idealism and profit-maximisation. Thirdly, individual sports stars position themselves as an influential platform of value creation through on-field performance, social engagement and self-interests. Finally, the fourth insight is that the dual aims of sporting on-field success and profit making of large capital-funded sports clubs endanger the autonomy and governance of sports bodies/associations and an equitable sporting competition environment.

This paper provides an overview and reflections on the contributions of the papers in this special issue. The papers give different perspectives on how sport has been influenced by the development in society (1) with increasing digitalisation influencing organising of sport clubs and strategies for engaging fans, and (2) the influence of marketisation and politics in ownership strategies. As such, four insightful reflections are developed based on the originality of the contributions and the related extant literature presented on the themes of marketisation, ownership and digitalisation of the sport industry.

In today's complex and rapidly changing business environment, cross-boundary growth is increasingly critical to the survival or even success of organizations. The purpose of this study is to examine the forming mechanism of firm’s cross-boundary growth by integrating the two important antecedent factors of performance pressure and managerial discretion into a united framework and theoretically analyze the direct role of performance pressure on firm’s cross-boundary growth as well as reveal the moderating role of managerial discretion. Also, the authors select listed manufacturing companies in China as samples to empirically test the research hypotheses.

The authors design a multiple regression model to perform empirical analysis by using a panel of 4,002 year-observations in 1,334 listed manufacturing companies between 2013 and 2016. The sample data sources mainly come from the Wind Database, which is mainland China's leading financial database and software services provider. The hypotheses proposed are tested by adopting a panel data set of the listed manufacturing companies of China.

Empirical results show that performance pressure has a positive effect on the cross-industry growth and cross-domestic regional growth but a negative effect on the cross-international regional growth, and managerial discretion has a different moderating effect. Specifically, capital intensity strengthens the positive effect of performance pressure on cross-industry growth but weakens the negative effect of performance pressure on cross-international regional growth. State ownership enhances the positive effect of performance pressure on cross-domestic regional growth but decreases the negative effect of performance pressure on cross-international regional growth. CEO duality increases the negative impact of performance pressure on cross-international regional growth.

This study provides several implications for top executives, including how to dialectically consider the double-edged effect of performance pressure on cross-boundary growth of firms, create an appropriate environments of managerial discretion and design the types of cross-boundary growth strategies that top executives can follow in the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity era.

Although the relevant literature highlights the importance of performance pressure, it has not been related to the cross-boundary growth of firms. This paper makes an incremental contribution to the literature on the forming mechanisms of firm’s cross-boundary growth by providing an important perspective of performance pressure to firm growth determinants and taking into account the moderating role of managerial discretion.