This article examines the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in technological diversification in less developed regions, focusing on Czechia. Using disaggregated patent-firm-level data, the study finds that MNEs contribute to technological diversification by entering new patent classes. However, diversification is slightly more prevalent among domestic entities (companies, research institutions), highlighting their vital role in regional innovation. Both MNEs and domestic actors diversify into more complex technologies, often targeting novel fields within the region, possibly to minimize knowledge spillovers. Diversification occurs in both metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions, but is more prevalent in metropolitan regions.
China's property downturn has weakened speculative demand, yet marriage-linked housing demand remains active along specific tenure and locational pathways. Using Chongqing as a case study of inland China, this Research Note examines how hunfang ((sic)(sic)), or "marriage-linked housing," redirects some households under weaker market conditions. The Research Note draws on qualitative fieldwork conducted between April 2023 and July 2024, including 45 semi-structured interviews and participant observation. In Chongqing, hunfang ties marriageability to property ownership, gendered expectations of male provision, parental finance, and bargaining over property title and future care after confidence in rising prices has weakened. The analysis treats hunfang as one mechanism identified within the Chongqing case study. Selective demand refers here to housing demand that remains active for particular tenures and locations without restoring market-wide expansion. Four pathways are identified: small owner-occupied flats in lower-cost housing developments on Chongqing's urban periphery, public rental housing, long-term private renting near employment, and home purchase in county seats and smaller cities. The Research Note shifts attention from aggregate market decline to the demands that remain active within specific regional housing systems. For international housing research, the Chongqing case adds a post-boom account of how a socially embedded ownership test continues to influence tenure and location choices after expectations of capital growth weaken.
China served as President of the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15). The event, which was held in two parts in 2021-22, was a major milestone in global environmental governance and a watershed moment for China in its efforts to green its global image. Through a collaborative event ethnography of COP15, we analyze China's efforts to influence global environmental norms and how such efforts were perceived by participants. We examine China's pursuit of discursive influence through the concept of "ecological civilization," and pursuit of policy influence through the promotion of China's systems of ecological redlines and national parks. We find that China's efforts met with mixed reception. Ecological civilization remained a contested discourse among COP15 participants, whereas China's governance models, particularly ecological redlines and national parks, were broadly viewed as valuable policy innovations. These findings suggest that China's normative engagement is advancing less through the diffusion of environmental ideas than through growing international appeal of its environmental policies and biodiversity governance practices. Our discussion further examines discursive resonance, institutionalization, and the spatialization of policies and practices. We conclude by reflecting on what COP15 reveals about China's role in global biodiversity governance and the relationship between environmental governance and normative engagement.
