ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of circular economy business model adoption on ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and financial performance using panel data from 646 listed Chinese manufacturing firms (2016–2022). The results show that circular supply and resource recovery models significantly improve ESG performance, while product life extension models have no such effect. The study also reveals heterogeneity in the effects of CEBMs across the three ESG pillars. However, none of the CEBM types significantly impact financial performance. From a signaling theory perspective, this gap may stem from firms' limited ability to communicate the value of circular practices effectively, weakening stakeholder recognition and economic returns. ESG performance does not mediate the relationship between CEBMs and financial performance. This study offers actionable implications for managers and policymakers seeking to align business model innovation with sustainable development goals.

PurposeThis study examines the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) humility and strategic alliances in new ventures, as well as the dynamic effects of CEO humility across the life-cycle stages of firms.Design/methodology/approachBased on a sample of 222 new high-tech firms in China, we applied logistic and multinomial regression models to analyze the impact of CEO humility on strategic alliance formation and partner types.FindingsThe results suggest that CEO humility increases the likelihood of strategic alliance formation by new ventures. CEO humility is also associated with a higher probability of forming alliances with diverse partners (private and public entities) than with either private or public partners. Moreover, the effect of CEO humility is stronger in the startup stage than in the growth stage of new ventures.Research limitations/implicationsThis study considers the effect of CEO humility from the perspective of a new firm, overlooking the perspectives of potential partners. The research data come from a single country, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other countries.Originality/valueThis study extends the literature on new ventures' strategic alliance formation by identifying CEO humility as an important antecedent. It also responds to a call for research exploring the implications of CEO humility from an interorganizational perspective. Novel insights are offered into the dynamic effects of CEO humility on alliance formation.

We develop a decision-making model utilizing stochastic evolutionary game theory to explore research and development (R&D) cooperation dynamics between firms with varying levels of R&D intensity. The model incorporates five key factors pivotal to strategic R&D cooperation: R&D subsidies, synergy effects, knowledge spillovers, R&D coordination costs, and absorptive capacity. An empirical analysis on 383 Chinese young technology-based firms validates the model. We find divergence between theoretical predictions and practical applications in how managerial attention is allocated in the strategic cooperation decision. Excessive managerial attention to subsidies and coordination costs constrains cooperation, while absorptive capacity and knowledge spillovers are undervalued.

This paper explores the relationship between support for extreme political parties and research and innovation across regions in the European Union (EU). Extreme parties often exhibit deep scepticism towards expertise and science, with extreme right-wing parties, in particular, challenging the legitimacy of climate change; an attitude that may weaken green research and innovation. We draw on data from 1137 EU regions -including scientific publication and patent records- and apply Tobit regression models to find that stronger support for extreme parties is associated with lower levels of scientific research and technological innovation, both overall and in their green forms. While this pattern is visible across the political spectrum, important differences emerge. Support for extreme right-wing parties is consistently tied to reduced research output and innovation performance, particularly in green technological sectors. By contrast, the relationship with extreme left-wing support is more variable, depending on the degree of radicalism, and shows no consistent negative connection with green innovation.

This research delves into firms' green innovation response to climate policy uncertainty (CPU). We distinguish green management innovation from green technological innovation and investigate the moderating effect of belonging to a high-energy-consuming industry and investors' climate attention. Based on Chinese A-share listed firms in 2008-2022, we reveal a positive influence of CPU on green management innovation but a more limited effect on green technological innovation. However, firms' green technological innovation response is found to be more positive in the high-energy-consuming industry, and increased climate attention by investors strengthens CPU's facilitating effect on both green management and green technological innovation. In terms of longer-term outcomes, we reveal that firms' participation in green technological innovation prompted by CPU significantly bolsters firms' competitive advantage. Our research offers novel insights into the inconsistent debate relationship between CPU and green innovation and influencing contextual factors.

This study examines the influence of managerial network communities (MNCs) on corporate collaborative innovation. Based on the sample of Chinese A-share listed firms, we demonstrate that embedding in dense MNCs benefits corporate collaborative innovation. This is associated with the information and knowledge exchange and trust establishment. Moreover, firms with managers occupying a position more at the core of MNCs benefit more than firms with peripheral members. In regions with high intellectual property rights protection, firms are more inclined to engage in collaborative innovation through MNCs. Mechanism tests show that cross-regional collaborative innovations benefit more from MNCs, and MNCs’ positive effect on collaborative innovation is more outspoken in regions characterized by low social trust. Our findings enrich the understanding of the managers’ social network from the meso-level network community perspective and provide managerial guidelines for more fully releasing MNCs’ positive role in facilitating corporate collaborative innovation.

In this paper we analyze the effect of geographic proximity to the European Commission (EC) in Brussels on the likelihood of being granted with an innovation subsidy from the European Union (EU). The data utilized comprehends the time period 2006–2014 for innovation active companies within the Belgian region of Flanders that is adjacent to Brussels which accommodates EU authorities. We find evidence that companies located closer to the EC are more likely to receive an innovation subsidy from the EU. This result suggests that geographic proximity, which can be closely linked to opportunities for lobbying and networking, can play a role in the subsidy framework. Companies located closer will have lower costs in interacting with the EU authorities and gathering tacit knowledge. Thus, they will suffer less under information asymmetry and gain an advantage compared to peers located farther away. In addition, we test whether focal companies’ group members located closer to the EC exert a positive effect on the likelihood of being granted for the focal company. We do not find evidence for such an effect, indicating that knowledge potentially gathered by a group member does not lead to an increase in focal companies’ subsidy receipt likelihood. Placebo tests utilizing alternative subsidy granting authorities in Brussels confirm our expectation that geographic proximity loses its importance when authorities are considered which are not heavily in focus of lobbying and networking parties compared to EU authorities.

We analyse the extent, growth and spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive employment in the Brussels Capital region and larger Brussels metropolitan area and compare it to its neighbouring geographical entities. We look at its impact on total employment, using both econometric and input-output analysis. Close to one out of two jobs in Brussels can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Over the period 2008-2020, the compound annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive employment was highest in the surrounding Brussels functional metropolitan area. A strong concentration of several knowledge services can be found in the Brussels metropolitan area, with different location patterns. Finance remains very central in the Brussels metropolitan areas, while others favour peripheral location, as it is the case for the pharmaceutical and accounting industry. A negative total employment growth rate differential between Brussels and the rest of Belgium is due to an industry-mix effect. Each additional knowledge intensive job in Brussels can be associated with the creation of another two jobs. For jobs generated by knowledge intensive sectors, forty percent of the extra employment within Brussels is accruing to less knowledge intensive labour.

We analyse the extent, growth and spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive employment in the Brussels Capital region and larger Brussels metropolitan area and compare it to its neighbouring geographical entities. We look at its impact on total employment, using both econometric and input-output analysis. Close to one out of two jobs in Brussels can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Over the period 2008-2020, the compound annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive employment was highest in the surrounding Brussels functional metropolitan area. A strong concentration of several knowledge services can be found in the Brussels metropolitan area, with different location patterns. Finance remains very central in the Brussels metropolitan areas, while others favour peripheral location, as it is the case for the pharmaceutical and accounting industry. A negative total employment growth rate differential between Brussels and the rest of Belgium is due to an industry-mix effect. Each additional knowledge intensive job in Brussels can be associated with the creation of another two jobs. For jobs generated by knowledge intensive sectors, forty percent of the extra employment within Brussels is accruing to less knowledge intensive labour.

Supply chain characteristics are an important driving force for innovation at the focal firm. Previous research has separately examined the impact of structural, relational, and capability dimensions of the supply chain on firm innovation. Relying on the structure-relationship-capability framework, this study explores the configurational impact of geographical distance, business concentration, and partner innovation of both the supplier-base and the customer-base on firm innovation. Necessary causality analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) are employed. Based on a dataset of 123 Chinese listed firms in high-tech manufacturing sectors, we provide novel insights on the antecedent configurations of the partner characteristics in both ends of supply chains for facilitating firm innovation. Our findings indicate that there are no necessary conditions for high firm innovation performance. We identify three distinct paths - namely, innovation-driven, customer-dominated, and relationship-driven configurations - that consistently lead to high firm innovation performance. From a configurational perspective, this research contributes to the innovation and supply chain literature and provides practical implications for managers to facilitate firm innovation.

We study the impact of industrial specialization and diversification on regional R&D performance. We respond to a need to consider specialization and diversification as being complementary and to cover a broad geographical scope. Based on Malmquist-based data envelopment analysis, we disclose disparity in R&D productivity and underlying efficiency and technical change in regions in China, Europe, and in the USA in the period 2015-19. For provinces in China, industrial diversification affects regional R&D productivity growth and efficiency enhancement in a U-shape mode. For European countries, specialization has a U-shaped influence on R&D productivity change, and diversification has an inverted U-shaped influence on productivity and efficiency change. We find no significant influence of specialization and diversification on the improvement of R&D performance at the level of states in the USA. Our findings point to place-based specificities and complementarity between specialization and diversification and come with policy recommendations for enhancing regional R&D performance.

We analyse the extent, growth and spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive employment in the Brussels Capital region and larger Brussels metropolitan area and compare it to its neighbouring geographical entities. We look at its impact on total employment, using both econometric and input-output analysis. Close to one out of two jobs in Brussels can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Over the period 2008-2020, the compound annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive employment was highest in the surrounding Brussels functional metropolitan area. A strong concentration of several knowledge services can be found in the Brussels metropolitan area, with different location patterns. Finance remains very central in the Brussels metropolitan areas, while others favour peripheral location, as it is the case for the pharmaceutical and accounting industry. A negative total employment growth rate differential between Brussels and the rest of Belgium is due to an industry-mix effect. Each additional knowledge intensive job in Brussels can be associated with the creation of another two jobs. For jobs generated by knowledge intensive sectors, forty percent of the extra employment within Brussels is accruing to less knowledge intensive labour.

This study focuses on the influence of related and unrelated variety on specialization in climate change mitigation technologies on a regional level in Europe. We consider two dimensions of specialization: the degree of specialization and being specialized or not. We also investigate the moderating role of public policy direction towards climate change mitigation at regional, national, and EU regime level. Based on a fixed effect specification of patent data relating to climate technologies in 194 regions during the period 2008–2017, we find that related variety positively influences the degree of specialization in climate technologies, but only in regions with a low degree of specialization. We also report a weakening effect of national policy level environmental taxation and of the European Regional Development Fund for related variety. Regarding being specialized as a region in climate technologies, our study reveals a positive role played by unrelated variety and a negative moderating effect exerted by both national policy level environmental taxation and European Regional Development Fund policy support. We discuss implications for policymaking in the field of climate change mitigation technologies.

We analyse the extent, growth and spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive employment in the Brussels Capital region and larger Brussels metropolitan area and compare it to its neighbouring geographical entities. We look at its impact on total employment, using both econometric and input-output analysis. Close to one out of two jobs in Brussels can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Over the period 2008-2020, the compound annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive employment was highest in the surrounding Brussels functional metropolitan area. A strong concentration of several knowledge services can be found in the Brussels metropolitan area, with different location patterns. Finance remains very central in the Brussels metropolitan areas, while others favour peripheral location, as it is the case for the pharmaceutical and accounting industry. A negative total employment growth rate differential between Brussels and the rest of Belgium is due to an industry-mix effect. Each additional knowledge intensive job in Brussels can be associated with the creation of another two jobs. For jobs generated by knowledge intensive sectors, forty percent of the extra employment within Brussels is accruing to less knowledge intensive labour.

We analyse the extent, growth and spatial distribution of knowledge-intensive employment in the Brussels Capital region and larger Brussels metropolitan area and compare it to its neighbouring geographical entities. We look at its impact on total employment, using both econometric and input-output analysis. Close to one out of two jobs in Brussels can be regarded as knowledge intensive. Over the period 2008-2020, the compound annual growth rate of knowledge-intensive employment was highest in the surrounding Brussels functional metropolitan area. A strong concentration of several knowledge services can be found in the Brussels metropolitan area, with different location patterns. Finance remains very central in the Brussels metropolitan areas, while others favour peripheral location, as it is the case for the pharmaceutical and accounting industry. A negative total employment growth rate differential between Brussels and the rest of Belgium is due to an industry-mix effect. Each additional knowledge intensive job in Brussels can be associated with the creation of another two jobs. For jobs generated by knowledge intensive sectors, forty percent of the extra employment within Brussels is accruing to less knowledge intensive labour.

This paper focuses on 25 years of CMOS image sensors in Belgium, starting with a successful university spin-off in the late 1990s. We rely on exploratory research using semi-structured interviews with this spin-off’s key protagonists. We follow them through time: founding five small businesses and being subject to three take-overs by multinationals. Using the Cyclic Innovation Model as a reference frame, we enlarge upon its Entrepreneurship Node and add Organizational Context to the model. Applying the model on the businesses we reviewed, we also demonstrate its usefulness in identifying failures in a company’s innovation management.