This study explores the proclivity of institutional investors in China towards highESG stocks amidst the growth of ESG investment funds. Using A-share data from 2015-2022 and a Tobit model analysis, it is found that these investors indeed favor such stocks, particularly under extensive analyst coverage and in non-state-owned firms. However, rating discrepancies can impact this preference. The attraction lies in reduced operational risks and improved net profits. Notably, independent investors show a stronger ESG preference, especially within high-pollution industries. Thus, fostering ESG investment among institutional investors can improve resource allocation in China's capital market, favoring eco-friendly companies.

Financial technology, also known as Fintech, is transforming our daily life and revolutionizing the financial industry. Yet at present, consensus regarding the effect of Fintech on green bonds market is lacking. With novel data from China, this study documents robust evidence showing that Fintech development can significantly boost green bonds issuance. Further analysis suggests that this promotion effect occurs by empowering intermediary institutions and increasing social environmental awareness. Additionally, we investigate the heterogeneous effect and find that the positive relation is more pronounced for bonds without high ratings and in cities connected with High-Speed Railways network. The results call for the attention from policymakers and security managers to take further notice of Fintech utilization in green finance products.

The relationship between corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance and its value has garnered increasing attention in recent times. However, the utilization of ESG scores by rating agencies, a critical intermediary in the linkage between ESG performance and value, presents challenges to ESG research and investment as a result of inherent subjectivity, hysteresis, and discrepant coverage. Fortunately, news can provide an objective, timely, and socially relevant perspective to augment prevailing rating frameworks and alleviate their shortcomings. This study endeavors to scrutinize the influence of ESG-related news on the Chinese stock market, to showcase its efficacy in supplementing the appraisal of ESG performance. The study's findings demonstrate that (1) the stock market is significantly impacted by ESGrelated news; (2) ESG-related news with different attributes (sentiments and sources) have notably diverse effects on the stock market; and (3) the heterogeneity among enterprises (industries and ownership structures) affects their ability to withstand ESGrelated news shocks. This study contributes novel insights to the comprehensive and objective assessment of corporate ESG performance and the management of its media image by providing a vantage point on ESG-related news.

While the popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has brought signiffcant proffts, legal practitioners have been exposed to unanswered legal concerns behind the frenzy of NFT transactions. Generally, such concerns include those related to the applicability of copyright to NFTs, the legal relationship between an NFT and the tokenized work, and the copyrights associated with the NFT in transactions. TTe Hangzhou Internet Court released the ffrst NFT-related copyright case, setting a course for the subsequent judicial and business practice of IP-related NFTs nationally and internationally. With these general considerations in mind, the paper brieffy introduces what non-fungible tokens are and how they relate to copyright law. Speciffcally, by interpreting the ffrst NFT-related copyright decision in detail, the paper addresses the legal status of NFT and NFT transactions from the perspective of Chinese Copyright Law, with particular focus on the liability of online platforms and the applicability of the exhaustion doctrine.

This study attempts to shed new light on how the state as a minority shareholder can affect the tax planning of non-state-owned enterprises(non-SOEs). We examine publicly traded non-SOEs in China and find that non-SOEs are more tax avoidance when the government is a minority shareholder, indicating that minority state ownership has played a "shelter effect" on tax avoidance of non-SOEs. Further analysis shows that the sheltering effect of minority state ownership is more prominent for firms located in areas with more social burden, worse tax enforcement and firms with stronger incentive to avoid taxes. Furthermore, non-SOEs with minority state ownership increase excessive capital expenditure and employ redundant employees, but still have higher firm value. Overall, our findings suggest the state as a minority shareholder shapes the tax-planning activities of non-SOEs in a “two-way favor exchange” manner and it is beneficial for non-SOEs to maintain a close relationship with the government in China where the government controls key resources.

This study investigates how economic policy uncertainty (EPU) affects venture capital (VC) contract terms. Using a unique database of contracts between VCs and entrepreneurial firms in China, we provide evidence that VCs include more investor-friendly covenants in contracts when EPU increases. Our findings hold across a battery of robustness checks, including addressing endogeneity concerns and using alternative EPU measures. Our mechanism analysis shows that higher investment risk and increased VCs’ bargaining power might be plausible reasons why EPU positively affects the presence of investor-friendly covenants in VC contracts.

This study investigates the impact of CIO on the Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. Our analysis is based on a panel dataset comprising 2395 Chinese listed companies throughout the period from 2007 to 2020. Evidence from empirical results shows that CIO is positively correlated with ESG performance. In other words, CIO enhance the corporate ESG performance. The issue of endogeneity was duly considered, and appropriate measures were made to address it. Furthermore, robustness tests were conducted, and the findings remained consistent and reliable. The examination of the mechanism indicates that CIO enhance internal control quality that facilitates the advancement of ESG activities within firms. This paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by examining the impact of external governance systems on the promotion of ESG activities in Chinese enterprises. This study adds to the existing body of scholarship on the implications of Common institutional ownership. Findings recommend several possible policy and economic ramifications that might support Chinese enterprises in their endeavors to incorporate ESG initiatives and contribute to the overall sustainability of society.

This paper improves the expected return variable and the corresponding trend factor documented by Han, Zhou, and Zhu (2016) and reveals the incremental predictability of this novel expected return measure on stock returns in the Chinese stock market. Portfolio analyses and firm-level cross-sectional regressions indicate a significantly positive relation between the improved expected return and future returns. These results are robust to the short-, intermediate-, and long-term price trends and other derived expected returns. Our improved trend factor also outperforms all trend factors constructed by other expected returns. Additionally, we observe that lottery demand, capital states, return synchronicity, investor sentiment and information uncertainty can help explain the superior performance of the improved expected return measure in the Chinese stock market.

As digital technologies proliferate, firms increasingly leverage digital transformation strategically, necessitating new orientations attuned to digital technological change. This study investigates how digital orientation (DORI)- the philosophy of harnessing digital technology scope, digital capabilities, digital ecosystem coordination, and digital architecture configuration for competitive advantage – influences firms’ environmental, social, and governance performance (ESG_per). Analysis of Chinese A-share firms from 2010-2019 reveals DORI is associated with superior ESG_per, operating through the mediating mechanism of enhanced digital finance (DIFIN) as a fund-providing facilitator for sustainability initiatives. Additional analysis uncovers important heterogeneities – private firms, centrally owned state-owned enterprises, politically connected, and emerging companies exhibit the strongest DORI - ESG_per linkages. Prominently, the study findings are validated through a battery of robustness tests, including instrumental variable methods, and propensity score matching. Overall, the results underscore the need for firms to purposefully develop multifaceted digital orientation and furnishes novel theoretical insights and practical implications regarding DORI’s role in improving ESG_per.

This article examines the impact of the Green Financial Regulatory Policy on corporate strategic ESG behavior against the backdrop of the 2017 policy integration of “green finance” into the Macro-Prudential Assessment by the central bank. The research identifies that GFRP may shift corporate focus towards the disclosure of ESG performance while neglecting the actual practices of ESG engagement, potentially inducing firms to engage in ESG greenwashing. It is further posited that corporate green perception and executives’ environmental backgrounds serve as primary mechanisms in this dynamic. Additionally, the policy efficacy of GFRP on strategic ESG behavior exhibits heterogeneity