An ongoing debate in the literature is whether rule-breaking actors are more innovative than others. This study examines how corporate misconduct influences green innovation. We find that firms involved in misconduct experience a 14.7% reduction in green patent quantity and a 20.4% decrease in citations, demonstrating a detrimental effect on green innovation. This adverse impact is more pronounced within firms characterized by lower transparency, higher default risk, independent central research institutes, stronger top management team power, and weaker local intellectual property protection. Our findings remain robust and consistent when implementing change analysis and instrumental variable approach. Further analysis indicates that corporate misconduct primarily inhibits green innovation by fostering a culture of dishonesty, releasing signals, and reducing human capital. Our findings contribute to the literature gap by establishing a direct link between corporate misconduct and green innovation, offering new insights into how dishonesty undermines long-term strategic capabilities in emerging markets.
Turquoise-inlaid composite ornaments are commonly found in Late Neolithic and Bronze Age China. However, the methods used to affix small turquoise pieces to prehistoric ornaments remain unclear. In this study, archaeological adhesive samples from turquoise-inlaid wrist ornaments found at the Taosi site, Shanxi Province, north China, during 2300 − 1900 BCE, were characterized by using FTIR and Py-GC/MS analysis. Through comparing the chemical compositions of archaeological materials and modern samples, the adhesive was identified as birch bark tar, which is reported for the first time in China. Moreover, it is also suggested that the wide use of turquoise inlaying technology in north China may be linked to the production of birch bark tar. This research has combined chemical analytical technologies with archaeological background information to reconstruct the technological development and material innovation in ornamental manufacturing of early societies in ancient China.
Parenting styles play a pivotal role in formulating effective family policies to support early childhood development, with enduring intergenerational implications for children's outcomes. Drawing on survey data from children aged 6-24 months and their primary caregivers, this study investigates whether the mental health of the second generation (G2) mediates the relationship between the parenting styles of the first generation (G1) and the social-emotional development of children in the third or fourth generation (G3/G4). In a three-generation model, gendered parenting by G1 predicts warm parenting behaviors in G2, whereas hostile parenting by G2 negatively affects the social-emotional competence of G3. In the four-generation model, overprotective parenting by G1 exerts an indirect effect on social-emotional problems in G4, mediated by G2's mental health. Notably, the positive influence of protective parenting by G1 fathers diminishes with lower educational attainment in G2, while the adverse effects of protective parenting by G1 mothers intensify with higher G2 education. These findings underscore the importance of early preventive interventions to improve caregivers' mental health and parenting practices during early childhood.
The increasing complexity of real-world business environments, problem-solving, and governance has outgrown traditional organizational theories, which are based solely on negative externalities and the market-hierarchy duality. We add a social-network dimension to “market” and “hierarchy” and develop an extended conception of a hybrid organizational space. We fill this two-dimensional space, the “organizational triangle”, with a more specific hybrid organizational structure. We not only consider this structure a combination of the three allocation mechanisms but also integrate multiple and heterogeneous entities into that triangle, i.e., firms, local public-private networks, and state agencies (e.g., courts). This entails multiple and diverse interrelations, objectives, values, and behaviors. In joint conflict-solving, entities will have to adapt to each other, and often to adopt principles of other entities, implementing the hybridity of the system within their own organization, decision-making, and learning of new emerging social institutions. This is investigated in case studies of Chinese non-governmental local “People’s Mediation Committees”. These function as hubs that, with their conflict-settling arrangements, link the agents in new ways and through new informal institutions to be learned. They also use specific explicit and implicit contracts, complementing hierarchical, market, and network contracting. Such more comprehensive hybridity may help advance organizational theories in economics and management studies.
Training represents a crucial pathway for enhancing farmers' human capital. China currently invests over 2 billion CNY (310 million USD) annually to train nearly a million professional farmers. While previous studies have primarily focused on the direct effects of training on production and income, there is no consensus on how training specifically contributes to farmers' human capital accumulation. This study employs panel survey data from 753 farmers across four Chinese provinces collected in 2016 and 2019, utilizing Propensity Score Matching-Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) methodology to examine the impact of farmer training on participants' human capital. The empirical analysis reveals that farmers who participated in professional training programs experienced significant improvements in their explicit human capital, demonstrated by increases of 6.76% and 13.30% in obtaining national vocational qualification certificates and farmer technical staff titles, respectively. Additionally, their internalized human capital showed marked enhancement, with increases of 21.03% and 11.29% in utilizing digital platforms such as WeChat groups and Douyin (or Kuaishou) for agricultural knowledge and skill acquisition. These findings suggest that China should continue prioritizing farmers' human capital development, particularly through professional training programs, as a key strategy for promoting agricultural transformation and rural revitalization.
