This study investigates the influence of smart supply chain management on the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance of Chinese manufacturing firms spanning from 2009 to 2022. Our findings reveal a positive association between smart supply chain management and enhanced ESG performance, a relationship consistently upheld across various analytical methodologies. Additionally, we uncover that smart supply chain practices stimulate corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure, contributing to heightened transparency and subsequently bolstering ESG metrics within firms. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates that the positive effect of smart supply chain management on ESG outcomes is particularly pronounced among firms that are operating in less competitive and more environmentally impactful industries, receiving heightened media scrutiny, and influenced by Confucian principles. This research provides actionable insights for firms seeking to advance their ESG initiatives.

Copper resources are widely used in power networks and clean - energy tech like PV panels, wind turbines, and NEVs. Restricted by domestic resources, China's copper supply chain is vulnerable with risks. Based on six supply - chain stages, this paper builds an assessment system for China's copper supply - chain risks. By adopting an improved Benefit of Doubt (BOD) model, this paper has systematically evaluated the risks in the whole copper supply chain, revealing the trends and deep-rooted causes of these risks. The findings of this study reveal that: (1) The supply chain risk of China's copper resources presents a significant upward trend over the past 15 years; (2) The current supply chain risks in copper are mainly concentrated at the stages of import, production, and application; and the recycling risk has a great potential for reducing the copper supply chain risks in the future. Based on these findings, this paper proposes two policy recommendations: (1) Develop diversified channels for importing copper resources and optimize overseas investment patterns and; (2) Improve the domestic supply capacity of secondary copper resources and reduce the risks at the recycling stage.

Under the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, taking environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance (ESG) as the important investment factor has become an action guide and standard for capital market participants. The practice of the ESG concept is not only a new way for enterprises to form new asset advantages and realize green and low-carbon transformation, but also important access for promoting high-quality and sustainable development. Based on Chinese-listed companies within the period of 2009 to 2015, we investigate the impact of ESG responsibility performance on export performance as well as its mechanism. We theorize and find out show that ESG responsibility performance can significantly and stably promote enterprises’ export performance. Mechanism analysis shows that ESG can improve export performance by reducing financing costs and easing financing constraints, and the green technology innovation effect is also an important channel for ESG to affect export performance. Therefore, government should strengthen the supervision and incentive of ESG performance, encourage enterprises to improve their environmental, social and governance performance in order to adapt to the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality and promote the high-quality development of export trade. Future research may consider combining ESG accountability with other factors such as supply chain management, intermediate imports, and transnational spillovers to more fully understand its impact on export performance, so as to create more value for society.

Existing literature has demonstrated the aggregation and allocation effects of the corporate holding financial institutions on financial resources, but there is little literature to discuss whether it will further affect corporate employment. Therefore, this paper uses data from China's A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2021 to examine whether holding financial institutions can affect corporate employment, thus serving the real economy. Empirical results show that holding financial institutions significantly expands corporate employment, which is pronounced in periods of tight monetary policy, in financially underdeveloped areas, and for enterprises with high financing constraints, weak external supervision, and high labor intensity. The conclusion still holds after conducting a series of robustness tests. Mechanism tests show that holding financial institutions can expand corporate employment by alleviating liquidity constraints and inhibiting the dissipation of internal funds caused by agency problems. Further discussion also shows that holding financial institutions has significantly improved corporate operating performance and increased the salary levels of executives and ordinary employees, which means that there is no “executive plunder” after profit increases; Meanwhile, holding financial institutions generates spillover effects along the supply chain, expanding corporate employment among major suppliers and customers. This paper has important implications for taking measures related to “finance serves for the real economy” to achieve high-quality economic development.

China's SMIC and Taiwan's TSMC are caught on opposite sides of the "Global Chip War." TSMC, despite having extensive commercial ties and fabs in the Mainland, is a beneficiary of U.S. efforts to stifle competition from Mainland competitors like SMIC. Geopolitical considerations, therefore, are increasingly influencing TSMC’s business decisions, as shown by TSMC’s construction of fabs in Japan and the United States despite founder Morris Chang’s longstanding opposition to overseas fabs due to their high costs. SMIC, meanwhile, is the Mainland’s best hope for creating a “red chip supply chain” and achieving 70% semiconductor self-sufficiency via domestic suppliers, which has taken on even more importance due to U.S. sanctions on advanced chips for AI model development. This article analyzes SMIC founder Richard Chang’s dream of building a red chip giant on the Mainland that can rival or even replace TSMC, which will directly conflict with Chang's former co-worker and fellow Taiwanese Morris Chang’s dream of solidifying TSMC and Taiwan’s position as the irreplaceable center of the semiconductor industry well into the 21st century.

Trade credit is a vital external source of financing, playing a crucial role in redistributing credit from financially stronger firms to weaker ones, especially during difficult times. However, it is puzzling that the redistribution perspective alone fails to explain the changes in trade credit when firms get involved in major litigation, which can be seen as an external shock for firms. Based on a firm-level dataset of litigations from China, we find that firms involved in major litigation not only exhibit an increased demand for trade credit but also extend more credit to their customers. Our further analysis reveals that whether as plaintiffs or defendants, litigation firms experience an increase in the demand and supply of trade credit. Moreover, compared to plaintiff firms, defendant firms experience a more pronounced increase in the demand for trade credit. Using firms’ market power and liquidity as moderators, we find that the increase in the demand for trade credit is more likely due to firms’ deferred payments rather than voluntary provision by suppliers, and the increase in the supply of trade credit appears to be an expedient measure to maintain market share. Generally, our results provide evidence of credit contagion effect within the supply chain, where the increased demand for trade credit is transferred from firms’ customers to themselves when they get involved in major litigations, while the default risk is simultaneously transferred from litigation firms to upstream firms.

In an increasingly open and transparent information environment, negative media coverage of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues would detriment focal firms’ legitimacy and performance. However, we have a limited understanding of whether negative media coverage of supply chain partners would spill over to focal firms. Using a panel dataset from Chinese listed firms, we examine the research question at a dyadic (i.e., focal firm and supplier or customer) level. This study reveals that negative media coverage about supply chain partners’ ESG issues can cause a spillover effect, negatively impacting the focal firms’ financial performance. Notably, the extent of this impact is contingent on the reach of the media sources and the severity of the coverage. We also show that focal firms are more impacted by supply chain partners with stronger relationships and greater market power. Our findings underscore the importance of actively managing partners’ ESG issues to avoid potential financial losses within a multi-tier supply chain. This study has fruitful contributions to the literature on supply chain sustainability and the spillover effect in dyadic relationships.

Forming diversified global supply chains (GSC) is an important approach to improving economic resilience. When firms expand their oversea suppliers for such purposes, information friction is a major challenge, and internetization may help firms cope with it by more efficient communication of information. We introduce a dynamic discrete choice model for firms’ searching for new supplier sources estimated with structural methods, and construct counterfactual studies to analyze the internetization effects on Chinese firms’ GSC diversification. Our quantitative studies reveal that internetization relieves information friction, which reduces firms’ searching costs by 13.4%, and thus significantly diversifies firms’ GSC. It also raises firms’ productivity by 0.5% through efficient communication of information. Reductions in searching costs are revealed as the main channel of such effects of internetization, while the productivity channel is less significant. Moreover, the internetization effects on diversifying GSC are persistent over time, and are biased towards high-productivity and importing firms.

Informal institutions can play a crucial role in fostering corporate and policy innovation, especially when formal institutions are weak. However, their intangible nature makes them difficult to quantify. In this paper, we proxy the strength of kinship-based informal institutions using surname homogeneity among business owners, specifically, the extent to which they share a limited number of surnames within the same county. Our analysis reveals that a one-standard-deviation increase in the strength of informal institutions leads to a 21.1% increase in patent filings and an 18.9% increase in policy innovation. We find that kinship-related informal institutions foster corporate innovation by compensating for weak formal institutions, enhancing protection for intellectual property rights, facilitating access to finance, improving public service delivery, and promoting supply chain cooperation. We also suggest that kinship-related informal institutions encourage local governments to engage in policy experimentation, which relies on the collaboration of business owners. This experimentation process is easier to coordinate and monitor in counties dominated by a few kinship networks. Both informal institutions and policy innovation contribute to economic development and foster entrepreneurial market entries. However, the positive impact of informal institutions declines over time as formal institutions strengthen in China.

Using firm-customer matched data from 2005 to 2020 in China, we examined the spillover effects and mechanisms of green innovation (GI) among supply chain partners. Results show a positive association between customers' GI and their supply firms' GI, indicating spillover effects in the supply chain. Customers' GI increase from the 25th to the 75th percentile leads to a significant 19% increase in supply firms' GI. Certain conditions amplify the spillover effect, including customers with higher bargaining power, operating in less competitive industries, and supply firms making relationship-specific investments or experiencing greater customer stability. Geographic proximity and shared ownership further enhance the spillover effect. Information-based and competition-based channels drive the spillover effect, while customers with higher GI encourage genuine GI activities by supply firms. External environmental regulations, such as the Chinese Green Credit Policy and Environmental Protection Law, strengthen the spillover effect, supporting the Porter hypothesis. This research expands understanding of spillover effects in the supply chain and contributes to the literature on GI determinants.