In emerging markets characterized by signiffcant information asymmetry, mitigat-ing firm-level risk is paramount for market stability. While the governance role ofinstitutional investors is known, the impact of their direct, on-the-ground engagementremains underexplored. This study’s objective is to investigate how institutionalinvestor site visits, a crucial hands-on governance mechanism, affect stock returnvolatility. Using a sample of Chinese-listed A-share firms from 2012 to 2022, wefind that frequent site visits significantly reduce firm-level stock return volatility.This risk-reduction effect is more pronounced for firms with greater agency problems,poorer ESG performance, and higher expropriation risk. Our analysis, robust toendogeneity concerns, indicates this effect is driven by improved external oversight.We conclude that direct institutional engagement is a vital channel for reducinginformation asymmetry, enhancing corporate governance, and ultimately promotingmarket stability by lowering investment risk.

This study investigates how the development of digital finance influences the geographical distribution of corporate supply chains using data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2023. We examine whether digital finance enables firms to overcome traditional geographical constraints and adopt different supply chain distribution strategies. The analysis identifies two primary mechanisms through which digital finance influences supply chain geography: governance effects, which operate through enhanced risk management and information transparency, and financing effects, which function through alleviated capital constraints and trade credit provision. We further explore heterogeneous impacts across four dimensions: regional economic development, regional digital infrastructure, industry market competition, and enterprise lifecycle stages. By examining the geographical distribution of supply chains as an outcome of digital finance development, this study provides novel evidence on the micro-governance implications of digital finance. Our findings contribute to understanding how digital finance fundamentally changes the geographical constraints that have historically shaped supplier selection decisions and enables firms to develop more flexible supply chain configurations.

This paper examines how artificial intelligence (AI) adoption influences the total factor productivity (TFP) of Chinese A-share manufacturing firms from 2010 to 2023. Results show that AI significantly raises TFP, robust across multiple specifications and instrumental variable tests. AI also boosts operational efficiency by accelerating accounts receivable and inventory turnover, revealing a “technology–operation–productivity” pathway. The positive effect is stronger in regions with better digital infrastructure and in firms with stronger governance. The findings provide fresh evidence on AI’s productivity effects and offer policy implications for intelligent transformation and high-quality manufacturing development.

In the context of digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a pivotal driver for enhancing tourism resource allocation efficiency and promoting the high-quality development of the tourism industry. Grounded in the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework, this study constructs a multidimensional indicator system by integrating heterogeneous data sources, including Baidu search indices, corporate annual reports, and policy documents. Using a balanced panel dataset covering 31 provincial-level regions in China from 2015 to 2023, we empirically examine the mechanisms through which AI penetration affects the efficiency of tourism resource allocation. The super-efficiency SBM-DEA model is employed to measure allocation efficiency, while the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) are used to identify spatial spillover effects and regional heterogeneity. Furthermore, tourist satisfaction is quantified using a natural language processing (NLP)-based sentiment index derived from online reviews. The results indicate that AI penetration significantly improves tourism resource allocation efficiency, with stronger effects observed in regions with advanced technological infrastructure. Smart tourism pilot policies demonstrate significant spatial spillover effects, positively influencing scenic areas within a 100-kilometer radius. However, diminishing marginal returns are evident, highlighting capacity absorption thresholds and institutional constraints. Based on the empirical findings, the study proposes targeted policy recommendations, including the establishment of provincial tourism data hubs, promotion of AI toolkit systems, enhancement of scenic area evaluation mechanisms, and reinforcement of collaborative governance between government and enterprises. These insights aim to provide both theoretical and practical guidance for the intelligent transformation and coordinated regional development of China’s tourism industry.

Against the backdrop of recurrent global crises, economic uncertainty, and mounting environmental and social pressures, corporate resilience—defined as a firm’s capability to withstand external systemic shocks—has emerged as a critical determinant of long-term sustainability. This study empirically exames the effect of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance on corporate resilience in China’s A-share market, using the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment to identify causal effects. The sample comprises 651 A-share listed firms, excluding financial institutions, real estate firms, and ST/*ST companies, over the period from January 20, 2020, when the pandemic was officially announced in China, to June 30, 2024. ESG performance is measured as the average of 2018–2019 ratings issued by three major domestic agencies, thereby capturing firms’ pre-shock conditions and mitigating concerns of reverse causality. Corporate resilience is evaluated along two dimensions: resistance, measured by the severity of losses in net income, revenue, and stock price, and recovery, measured by the time required for ROA, EBIT, stock price, and Tobin’s Q to return to pre-shock levels. To ensure the robustness of the findings, this study employs linear regression models with industry-clustered robust standard errors, an instrumental-variable approach using R&D intensity and analyst coverage as instruments, and a Cox accelerated failure time model to estimate recovery duration. The empirical results indicate that stronger pre-shock ESG performance significantly enhances corporate resistance and shortens recovery time. Mechanism analyses further reveal that ESG strengthens corporate resilience by improving total factor productivity, alleviating financing constraints, and enhancing corporate reputation. These findings remain robust to multicollinearity diagnostics and a range of additional robustness tests. Overall, this study provides empirical evidence of the value of ESG in strengthening corporate resilience and offers important implications for firms, policymakers, and investors.

This paper examines the impact of Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) ownership on corporate earnings management. We find that ETF ownership is associated with a significant reduction in earnings management, and this result remains robust across a wide range of endogeneity tests and robustness checks. Further analyses reveal that ETFs exert a pronounced mitigating effect on sales manipulation, production manipulation, and expense manipulation. Mechanism tests indicate that ETFs curb earnings management by improving stock liquidity and strengthening external monitoring. We also find that the influence of ETFs is stronger in private firms, in firms with lower information transparency, and in firms with CEO duality, suggesting that ETFs serve as a more prominent external governance force when internal governance mechanisms are relatively weak. Overall, this study enriches the literature on the economic consequences of ETFs and provides new empirical evidence that financial innovation in emerging markets can help alleviate the information risk faced by investors.

We exploit a unique financial regulatory tool with data-governance functions as a quasi-natural experiment to explore the determinants of bank risk-taking. The paper finds that Examination Analysis System Technology (EAST) reduces bank risk-taking. This result is more pronounced in banks with higher capital adequacy ratios and higher liquidity levels. We also find that the inhibitory effect of EAST on bank risk is more significant for banks in eastern regions and listed banks. Our findings highlight the positive impact of data regulation on promoting financial stability.

The governmental governance environment significantly influences real corporate investment. Based on the data of listed A-share enterprises from 2010-2020,we adopt a heterogeneous timing difference-in-differences method to examine the impact of Open government data (OGD) on real corporate investment by leveraging the launch of OGD platforms. It is found that OGD significantly promotes real corporate investment. This conclusion remains robust after a series of tests for robustness and endogeneity, including parallel trend, placebo, heterogeneity treatment effect, and replacing variable. The analysis of the impact mechanism reveals that OGD influences real corporate investment by reducing enterprise uncertainty and alleviating financing constraint. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that OGD exerts a more pronounced investment promotion effect on non-state-owned enterprises, without political affiliations, regions characterized by intense government intervention, and areas exhibiting low social trust. This study contributes both conceptual insights for advancing the real economy with higher quality and practical recommendations to support the modernization of national governance structures and administrative effectiveness.

Assessment in vocational education institutions is frequently organized around performance metrics—graduation rates, employment outcomes, and satisfaction scores—gathered too tardily to avert institutional dysfunction. In increasingly unstable policy situations, these models have become precarious: they quantify collapse more frequently than they avert it. This paper presents fuse logic as an innovative mechanism for risk-responsive governance in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Utilizing systems control theory and the analogy of circuit breakers, fuse logic is a threshold-sensitive, dynamically activated assessment paradigm designed to disconnect institutional activities prior to complete failure. The research formulates a four-stage model—situational sensing, threshold definition, fuse activation, and adaptive reconfiguration—and implements it in a simulated scenario reflecting Chinese TVET trends. When critical metrics surpass risk thresholds (e.g., dropout rate, employment mismatch), fuse logic triggers systematic program shutdowns, stakeholder consultations, and conditional reintegration procedures.This study's contribution is in redefining evaluation from measurement to protection. It advocates a governance framework that permits temporary disconnection to maintain system integrity. Fuse logic enhances conventional quality assurance frameworks by providing an integrated, failure-tolerant layer of organizational resilience. The report concludes with a discussion on transferability, ethical considerations, and prospective avenues for implementation across varied educational systems.

This study investigates the impact of RegTech adoption in the M&A regulatory review process on deal performance. Leveraging the staggered implementation of the SOEs Online Supervision System (SOSS) by China’s State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) across its central and 31 provincial offices from 2018 to 2021, we find that SOSS directly enhances SASAC’s decision-making efficiency and improves its capacity to screen and approve higher-quality M&A deals. More importantly, SOE-led M&A transactions exhibit higher announcement returns as well as improved long-run stock and operating performance following the system’s implementation. The positive impact of SOSS is more pronounced for acquirers with stronger technological infrastructure, in transactions characterized by low transparency and weak governance, and in provinces with more stringent external scrutiny. Overall, by addressing regulator-firm information asymmetry and reinforcing managerial accountability, SOSS improves regulatory effectiveness in overseeing major investment activities among SOEs.