Nation-State Contexts and Authoritarian Value Changes of Ethnic Chinese

The recent global populist wave has reignited interest in how authoritarianism gains momentum in different nation-state contexts. A central question remains: under which conditions do individuals abandon or embrace authoritarian values? In the context of ethnic Chinese, this paper argues that Confucianism still plays a pivotal role in shaping attitudes and values. Specifically, it asserts that the Confucian value of meritocracy maintains importance in the ethnic Chinese value system. The study utilized the Chinese social media platform WeChat to deploy a four-question, snowball sample survey of 1,763 ethnic Chinese in seven regions from around the globe to evaluate their levels of authoritarianism. It tested six hypotheses derived from previous theories concerning assimilation, individual/ family resources, group competition, communist influence, and generational gap. The empirical results, however, provide the strongest support for the theory of meritocratic and conditional authoritarianism, which suggests that ethnic Chinese around the world will become more authoritarian when they perceive a threat to their status quo and will become less authoritarian when they perceive threats to their upward mobility. Keywords: ethnic Chinese, authoritarianism, political culture, immigration, meritocracy

Gossip and competitive altruism support cooperation in a Public Good game

When there is an opportunity to gain a positive reputation, individuals are more willing to sacrifice their immediate self-interest. Partner choice creates opportunities for competitive altruism, i.e. individuals compete to be regarded as more generous and to be chosen for future partnerships. Tests of the competitive altruism hypothesis have focused so far on reputation based on direct observation, whereas the role of gossip has not been theoretically and empirically addressed. Partner choice can create an incentive to cooperate and to send truthful messages, but it can also work in the opposite direction. In order to understand the consequences of partner choice on cooperation and gossip, we designed an experimental study in which participants played a sequence of Public Goods games and gossip rounds. In our two treatments, we observed that cooperation increased when there was an opportunity to be selected, but also that cooperators sent more honest messages than defectors, and that this strategy was prevalent in the treatment in which inter-group competition was implemented. We also found evidence that participants detached themselves from the information more often when lying. Taken together, our study fills a theoretical and empirical gap by showing that partner choice increases both cooperation and honesty of gossip. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

Analysis of Industry Convergence Based on Improved Neural Network

Economic growth in the information age is no longer a stage driven by unipolarity. It has entered a multi-polar driving stage characterized by integration, fusion, and integrated development on a larger scale between regions, and the trend of group competition with urban agglomerations as carriers has become increasingly obvious. This paper improves the neural network algorithm based on the needs of industrial economic integration in the digital age, and proposes an industry convergence analysis model based on the improved neural network algorithm. Moreover, this article combines industry models to analyze actual needs and constructs an industry convergence analysis model based on improved neural networks, and analyzes the integration of different industries. In addition, this article conducts experiments through multiple sets of data, and combines the neural network model of this article to conduct research. Through experimental research, we know that the model constructed in this paper can play an important role in the analysis of industry convergence.

Cooperation and competition among subsidiaries in a business group: their impacts on innovation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to document the relationship between intra-group coopetition and subsidiaries' innovation performance and the moderating impact of the intensity of external competition.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 75 subsidiaries in China through a questionnaire survey of their R&D and general managers. The total number of individual respondents was 205. We tested our hypothesis by using ordinary least squares regression.FindingsIntra-group cooperation was found to promote a subsidiary's performance in product and process innovation. Intra-group competition was found to have a U-shaped relationship with product and process innovation. Intra-group cooperation strengthens the U-shaped relationship between intra-group competition and process innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThis study involved firms from more than one industry. Studies of specific industries might reach more specific conclusions. And all of the data were self-reported by the managers of the firms concerned. Future studies would be well-advised to consider more objective data describing pairs of parent firms and subsidiaries.Practical implicationsSubsidiaries ought to build their internal networks to cooperate with each other. That can bring significant advantages in terms of information and synergy in innovation. Subsidiaries are also suggested to take full advantage of the opportunities that intra-group competition brings.Originality/valueThis study is the first one to explore coopetition phenomenon in the context of business group. By taking Chinese business group subsidiaries as the research samples, this research not only extends the coopetition research but also reveals that cooperation and competition are co-existed and exert influence in subsidiaries.

Domestic Constraints on Foreign Policy Change in Belarus

After 2014 the relationship between Russia and its ally Belarus was strained. Russia was dissatisfied with Belarus’s foreign policy and sought to influence the latter’s international affairs. This article considers the extent of change and continuity in Belarus’s foreign policy, and thus whether Russia’s criticisms reflect consequential shifts, covering the period 2016–2019. The analysis begins with the removal of EU sanctions, which afforded Belarus new opportunities, and ends before the protest movement that emerged ahead of the election in 2020. The study considers three policy areas: international trade; diplomacy more broadly; and foreign policy concerns for prestige. The article argues that Belarus made appreciable policy changes in response to structural pressures in the period 2016–2019, but the parameters of these foreign policy shifts were necessarily highly constrained by domestic interest group competition which prevents Belarus distancing itself from Russia. It concludes with a brief reflection on how the 2020 election protests and repressions affect the dynamics described.