Search Results (179)

This study investigates the dynamics of innovation element flows among metropolitan areas and examines the underlying proximity mechanisms that are crucial for elevating urban agglomerations’ innovation levels and spurring their development. Utilizing collaborative publication and patent data, this research constructs knowledge and technological innovation networks within the Nanjing metropolitan area (NMA) from 2013 to 2020. It analyzes the evolution of network structures and applies the Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure to discern the proximity mechanisms driving the urban innovation networks’ evolution in NMA. The main findings are as follows: (1) The knowledge collaborations within NMA cities remain largely confined to cities within Jiangsu province, whereas the technological collaborations are shifting from intra-province to cross-province cooperation. (2) Both knowledge and technological innovation networks display a “core-periphery” configuration, with Nanjing maintaining a dominant central position. The scale of the KIN surpasses that of the TIN, while the latter’s growth rate outpaces the former’s. Technological collaborations demonstrate more pronounced spillover effects than their knowledge counterparts. (3) At the metropolitan area level, organizational, social, cognitive, and technological proximities exert varying degrees of influence on innovation cooperation among different innovation entities across various years. Cognitive proximity exhibits the most substantial explanatory power. Based on these findings, the study proposes relevant policy recommendations for constructing an innovative NMA and promoting collaborative innovation development among cities within the NMA. Full article

Knowledge spillovers, driven by development and research projects, are crucial in generating new companies and services. They enhance innovation, improve competitiveness, and sustain the economic growth of nations. Hence, this paper aims to examine the relationship between knowledge spillovers and economic growth. It offers a comprehensive review of the scientific literature on the relationship between knowledge spillovers and economic growth, investigating the impact of economic cycles on knowledge spillover. Doing this provides valuable insights into how to leverage them at the different stages of the economic cycle. Hence, a PRIMA systematic review was conducted. Articles from the last 15 years were analyzed from repositories and scientific databases with a Cohen’s kappa coefficient of 0.8902. This review identifies and presents a systematic analysis of the impacts of favoring and hindering knowledge spillovers in the economic growth of a nation. These effects offer greater resilience to a nation after periods of recession. In addition, the case study of three countries is presented to illustrate the findings from the review. The results show that better utilizing knowledge spillovers to enhance economic growth depends on a functional compromise between the university, industry, and governments to understand and commit to knowledge-based economic development. Our study has implications for policymakers who aim to boost economic growth by promoting knowledge spillovers. Full article

This paper empirically studies the impact of telecommunications infrastructure construction on economic and social innovative development using panel data from 31 provinces in China spanning from 2009 to 2022. The research findings indicate that telecommunication infrastructure significantly promotes innovation in terms of R&D investment, knowledge output, and application output. In addition, at various stages of telecommunication technology development, the impact on innovative development varies. Iterative updates in telecommunication technology drive higher R&D expenditures, facilitating better utilization of innovation outcomes in industries. Moreover, there are regional disparities in the influence of telecommunications infrastructure on economic and social innovative development. In the eastern regions, telecommunications infrastructure construction primarily promotes mobile communication, with clear spillover effects. In contrast, in western regions, it mainly facilitates fixed communication networks. Thus, further strengthening telecommunications infrastructure construction provides a new impetus for social innovative development and long-term sustainability. It is essential to persistently advance the coordinated construction of mobile and fixed communication infrastructure to achieve regional development coordination. Full article

In the context of Digital Construction (DC), collaborative innovation in the construction supply chain (CSC) is crucial for long-term competitiveness. However, transparent information flows and fickle market circumstances hinder enterprises from actively participating in collaborative innovation, making it challenging to establish effective incentive mechanisms. To achieve sustained and stable collaborative innovation, an evolutionary game model of collaborative innovation between core enterprises and member enterprises in the CSC under DC based on Prospect Theory is constructed. Five equilibrium scenarios and evolutionary stability strategies are analyzed, and the corresponding stability conditions are obtained. Finally, the impact of different parameters on strategy selection are analyzed by numerical simulation. The results indicate that the balance between knowledge sharing and knowledge leakage is the premise of the positive impact of DC technology on collaborative innovation. Moreover, the adjustment of gain sensitivity and loss sensitivity is the key to enhancing managerial enthusiasm for collaborative innovation. Furthermore, the design of income distribution and innovation incentives must adhere to the reciprocity principle, while subsidies from owners demonstrate a prominent positive impact on collaborative innovation. This paper systematically expounds the dynamic influence of DC technology application, knowledge spillover effects, and managerial cognitive structures while confirming the intrinsic effect of innovation incentive mechanisms. It provides substantial theoretical reference and management enlightenment for promoting the development of collaborative innovation in the CSC under DC. Full article

The global digitization trend provides a favorable development environment for the efficient acquisition of knowledge and technology. However, restrictions imposed by countries on digital trade have hindered this trend. This study is based on 60 sample countries to study the impact of the digital trade barrier (DTB) on the technology innovation efficiency (TIE) of each country and the pathways from 2014 to 2020. Research finds that DTB significantly inhibits TIE. Among the five different policy fields that form DTB, Infrastructure and Connecting DTB and Other DTB have the greatest negative impact on TIE. A mechanism analysis found that DTB increases the difficulty of acquiring knowledge spillover and the high cost of research and development, leading to the mismatch and low efficiency of innovation resources, ultimately leading to a reduction in technological innovation efficiency in various countries. Participating in international technological innovation networks and improving technological innovation capabilities have a moderating effect on the aforementioned negative impacts that is beneficial for the sustainable development of national technological innovation. Heterogeneity tests indicate that countries with weaker innovation capabilities, low- and middle-income countries, and countries that have not joined the OECD have a more significant negative impact. This study serves as an important reference for the government to adjust digital trade policies and guide the effective use of external resources for sustainable and efficient technological innovation. Full article

A wide range of statistical and econometric models have been applied in the extant literature to compute and assess the volatility spillovers among renewable stock prices. This research adds to the body of knowledge by analyzing the dynamic asymmetric volatility spillover between major NASDAQ OMX Green Economy Indices, including solar, wind, geothermal, fuel cell, and developer/operator. The novelty of the research is that it distinguishes between positive and negative volatility spillovers in a time-varying fashion and conducts a connectedness network analysis. To do so, the study implements the Time-Varying Parameter Vector Autoregression (TVP-VAR) approach, as well as the connectedness network. The empirical investigation is based on high-frequency data between 18 October 2010, and 2 April 2022. The main findings may be summarized as follows. First, the analysis reveals a shift in the dominance of positive and negative volatility transmission during the study period, which represents compelling evidence of dynamic asymmetric spillover in the volatility transmission between renewable energy stocks. Second, the connectedness analysis indicates that the operator/developer and solar sectors are the net transmitters of both positive and negative volatility to the system. In contrast, the wind, geothermal and fuel cell sectors receive shocks from other renewable energy stocks. The asymmetric spillovers between the renewable energy stocks are confirmed using the block bootstrapping technique. Finally, the dynamic analysis reveals a substantial impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the interdependence between renewable energy stocks. The findings above are robust to different lag orders and prediction ranges. Full article

This paper underlines the significance of free trade agreements in attracting foreign direct investment and their impact on the operational capacities of local firms in host countries. It argues that free trade agreements do not only eliminate barriers to trade, but they also increase the size of the regional market and improve the business environment, making it more attractive to foreign direct investment, along with all the attributes and spillover effects associated with it. While determining the type of spillover effects of foreign direct investment associated with Oman’s trade agreements, this paper uses the Kruskal–Wallis H-test and 438 samples from companies surveyed between 1 August and 31 October 2023 to assess the impact of spillovers on the performance of the surveyed companies. The results reveal that technology transfer, knowledge transfer, labour productivity, product efficiency, capital investments, and job creation have positive effects on the firms’ operational capacities, with technology transfer having the highest impact (27%), followed by labour productivity and job creation (18%). The spillover effects are almost the same for company size and percentage of ownership. They also identified manufacturing and tourism as priority sectors and the availability of a skilled workforce as a major challenge. These findings make original contribution to the field as this is probably the first study to produce a firm-level analysis of spillover effects of foreign direct investment and trade agreements in the context of Oman and the wider Gulf region. The paper concludes with practical implications for policy makers when negotiating trade agreements and designing investment policies to optimize spillover effects on the performance of their domestic firms. Full article

Supply chain learning (SCL), which is reflected in organizational learning, referring to the learning between organizations in the supply chain, carries the promise to enable sustainable competitive advantages. Many large multinational companies, such as IKEA, Nestle, and Microsoft, have therefore integrated supply chain knowledge management and continuous learning into their corporate strategies. While there is evidence in extant research about a positive correlation between both the subjective attitude and learning ability of supply chain members and their performance improvement, areas where insight is still missing pertain to the relationship between supply chain members’ subjective psychological factors, and their relationship network structures. This is a serious omission, since these dimensions likely play a key role in the dynamics underlying SCL. In order to alleviate this void, we consider a multi-tier SCL network and develop a model in which a supply chain member’s attraction is weighted based on its previous learning experience. The game mechanism underlying SCL captured in this experience-weighted attraction (EWA) model is then tested using a simulation study of IKEA China’s multi-tier supply chain network for its sustainable cotton initiative. The results suggest that learning costs can be reduced and learning spillover befits can be increased by the provision of rewards to network member companies and better communication. In addition, the perception of and preference for SCL by suppliers can be influenced by initiating sustainable advocacy and providing knowledge and technology training, as well as fostering a range of subjective factors we investigate in our study, such as the strategic attractiveness the decline ratio due to forgetting, the attractiveness improvement ratio due to preferences, and the response sensitivity to strategies. The findings offer insight into the influence mechanisms of the supply chain network structure and subjective attitude about SCL, which are especially applicable to large, multinational enterprises. Full article

While there have been studies on the relationship between higher education institutions and regional economic growth, few have delved into the economic impact of decentralized higher education institutions at the county level and associated reginal disparities in terms of socio-economic development. Utilizing the data of the Chinese universities that started to establish their campuses in counties since the year 1999, this study investigates the influence of rural university campuses on county-level GDP and industrial composition spanning from 2001 to 2020. It also delves into the temporal dynamics and regional discrepancies associated with this impact. The findings of this study show that (a) rural university campuses wield a notable positive influence on the GDP of their respective counties, particularly shaping the structure and ratio of secondary and tertiary industries; (b) the magnitude of this effect is contingent upon the duration of campus establishment and growth, intensifying over time; (c) variations in this impact are evident across the eastern, central, and western regions of China, where there are vast socio-economic differences. This study underscores the significant spillover effect of higher education decentralization on county-level economies and advocates for the pivotal role of rural university campuses in propelling county-level economic progress. Additionally, it proposes coordinated policy support from national, regional, and rural university campus authorities; the establishment of requisite support structures; and the comprehensive consideration of regional nuances. Full article

The prominence of agglomeration externalities (AEs) and network externalities (NEs) in urban sustainable development has intensified in recent times, with advances in transportation infrastructure and information technology acting as key accelerators. Despite the scholarly attention they receive, the specific spillover effects that these externalities exert on green technology innovation (GTI) remain under-explored. In an effort to bridge this knowledge gap, the present study employs a spatial Durbin model to scrutinize, spanning a decade from 2011 to 2021, the impact and spatial spillover of AEs and NEs on GTI across 283 Chinese cities of prefecture level and above. The findings reveal the following: (1) AEs exert a U-shaped influence on GTI, initially inhibiting it, before ultimately fostering its growth. (2) NEs are found to consistently promote GTI. (3) The spatial spillover effects of AEs on GTI are significantly positive, while those from NEs are not statistically significant. (4) The influences of AEs and NEs on GTI exhibit marked regional variations. This study extends the research scope on the factors influencing GTI by examining the role of AEs and NEs, thereby aiming to offer valuable insights for enhancing the level of GTI. Full article

Zoonoses are diseases and infections naturally transmitted between humans and vertebrate animals. They form the dominant group of diseases among emerging infectious diseases and represent critical threats to global health security. This dilemma is largely attributed to our insufficient knowledge of the pathogenesis regarding zoonotic spillover. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcripts with limited coding capacity. Recent technological advancements have enabled the identification of numerous lncRNAs in humans, animals, and even pathogens. An increasing body of literature suggests that lncRNAs function as key regulators in zoonotic infection. They regulate immune-related epigenetic, transcriptional, and post-transcriptional events across a broad range of organisms. In this review, we discuss the recent research progress on the roles of lncRNAs in zoonoses. We address the classification and regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs in the interaction between host and zoonotic pathogens. Additionally, we explore the surprising function of pathogen-derived lncRNAs in mediating the pathogenicity and life cycle of zoonotic bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Understanding how these lncRNAs influence the zoonotic pathogenesis will provide important therapeutic insights to the prevention and control of zoonoses. Full article

Artificial intelligence, as a novel form of infrastructure with both generality and knowledge spillover characteristics, plays a crucial role in facilitating the profound integration of the manufacturing and service industries, and achieving economic transformation. This paper empirically investigates the impacts of artificial intelligence on the process of manufacturing servitization, utilizing merged data from the OECD-ICIOT (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Intercountry Input-Output Tables) industry data, the Chinese industrial enterprise database, and the customs trade database. The empirical findings of this research demonstrate that artificial intelligence has significant and positive effects on manufacturing servitization. These positive effects primarily occur through two channels: enhancing total factor productivity and optimizing the labor skill structure. Furthermore, this study examines the variations in the impact of artificial intelligence on the transformation of embedded services and blended services. The analysis reveals that artificial intelligence significantly promotes the transformation of embedded services, while its impact on the transformation of blended services is comparatively less pronounced. Full article

The ongoing progress of industrialization and urbanization has exacerbated the imbalance between carbon emissions and absorption, leading to heightened risks of climate change, such as frequent occurrences of extreme weather events. Clarifying the driving forces and temporal–spatial evolution characteristics of China’s carbon balance holds significant theoretical value in understanding the systemic nature and patterns of interaction between carbon emissions and absorption. We utilize provincial panel data from 2005 to 2021 in China and a spatial Durbin model to explore the spatial spillover effects of carbon imbalance and its influencing factors. The results indicate a gradual exacerbation of carbon imbalance in China over time. There exists a spatially positive correlation pattern in provincial carbon imbalance distribution. From 2005 to 2010, intra-regional differences in carbon imbalance levels were a significant contributor to China’s overall carbon imbalance disparity, while from 2011 to 2019, inter-regional differences played a more substantial role. Given the apparent phenomena of population aggregation, industrial concentration, and economic interdependence among provinces, changes in population size, economic growth, and industrial structure exacerbate the level of carbon imbalance in spatially correlated regions. Conversely, due to knowledge and technology spillovers, improvements in energy efficiency facilitated by the flow of production factors like capital aid in the governance of carbon imbalance in spatially associated areas. We emphasize that local governments should focus on a regional integration perspective in carbon imbalance governance and strategically coordinate with neighboring provinces and cities to advance carbon imbalance governance. The findings provide theoretical support for understanding and effectively managing the situation of carbon imbalance in China. Full article

Many studies have been conducted to explore outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 in farmed mink and their intra-/inter-species spread and spillover to provide data to the scientific community, protecting human and animal health. Studies report anthropozoonotic introduction, which was initially documented in April 2020 in the Netherlands, and subsequent inter-/intra-species spread of SARS-CoV-2 in farmed mink, likely due to SARS-CoV-2 host tropism capable of establishing efficient interactions with host ACE2 and the mink hosts’ ability to enhance swift viral transmission due to their density, housing status, and occupational contacts. Despite the rigorous prevention and control measures adopted, transmission of the virus within and between animal species was efficient, resulting in the development of mink-associated strains able to jump back and forth among the mink hosts and other animal/human contacts. Current knowledge recognizes the mink as a highly susceptible animal host harboring the virus with or without clinical manifestations, furthering infection transmission as a hidden animal reservoir. A One Health approach is, thus, recommended in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance and monitoring on mink farms and of their susceptible contact animals to identify and better understand these potential animal hosts. Full article

Agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE) is a crucial indicator of the green development of agriculture. Agricultural socialized services (AS) provide services for the agricultural production process and they promote the effective input of production factors, such as science and technology, talent, information, and capital, into the agricultural production chain, deepening the division of labor and injecting vitality into agricultural development. We measured AEE based on field research data in Jiangxi Province, China. We also constructed an endogenous switching model to explore the impact of AS on AEE. Our results show that, based on the counterfactual assumption, the AEE increased by 13.19% among farmers who adopted the services compared to those who did not. From the perspective of scale and structural differences, the larger the scale of agricultural cultivation, the stronger the impact of AS on AEE. Furthermore, a large share of cash crops was found to inhibit the impact of AS on AEE. We also investigated whether farmers in close proximity to each other affect their neighbors through knowledge dissemination and technology spillover. The extent of the impact of AS on AEE depended on distance thresholds: it was more pronounced when we increased the distance threshold. Our results suggest that the government should improve the AS system, provide more public welfare services, and appropriately subsidize AS organizations. The AS for food crops should be emphasized; however, those for cash crops should not be ignored. Full article