How to Enhance the Green Innovation of Sports Goods? Micro- and Macro-Level Evidence From China’s Manufacturing Enterprises

This study aims to explore the driving factors of green innovation, and uses the micro- and macro-data from China’s sports goods manufacturing industries. In particularly, sports goods manufacturing enterprises are identified by the textual analysis of information disclosure, and the competitive environment faced by each enterprise is built through their unique closest rivals. Empirically, this study finds that competition and policy can promote green innovation in sports goods manufacturing industries, and industrial policy can moderate the role of product market competition in promoting green innovation. Considering the characteristics of the Chinese market, more industrial policies may intensify the competition among manufacturing enterprises, forcing such enterprises to obtain competitive advantages through innovation outcomes. It is worth noting that the association between product market competition and green innovation changes as financial constraints increase, and this may be caused by the impact of industrial policy on the interactions among enterprises. After implementing the strict environmental policy, product market competition and industrial policy can both promote green innovation. In high-polluting industries, sports goods manufacturing enterprises get more social attention and suffer from higher penalties for environmental violations, so that such enterprises will get more motivations from industrial policies to support green innovation. In addition, we also find that there is a significant inverted-U shape relationship between industrial policy and green innovation in sports goods manufacturing industries. As financial constraints increase, the non-linear relationship between product market competition and green innovation converts from a U shape relationship to an inverted-U shape relationship. Our findings can provide a better understanding of the investment of sports goods manufacturing enterprises in green innovation.

Applications of a “Carry-Over” Enhanced DSBM Intertemporal Technical Efficiency Model on the Taiwanese 5G Industry

Taiwan has proven itself successful at both inventing the key technologies leading to the development of 5G (fifth generation wireless technology)-related industries and serving as an indispensable link in the burgeoning 5G-industrial global supply chain. This study analyzes the current state of Taiwan’s 5G industry via the utilization the purpose of this study is to the Dynamic Slacks-Based Measure (DSBM). To achieve this purpose, a dynamic-data production process model was developed to analyze the 5G industry’s overall relative efficiency. Results indicate that (1) key chip-producing companies typically experience increased efficiency following 5G R&D industry development investment, and that said companies’ relative efficiency is, indeed, affected positively by R&D investment; and (2) key chip companies’ relative increases of efficiency were higher than those of brand terminal and downstream-industry-category companies, while companies with higher levels of R&D investment exhibited relatively higher and more significant levels of efficiency. Finally, it was discovered that the relative efficiency of Taiwan's 5G-related industries’ R&D investment was, indeed, statistically significant in terms of the Taiwanese government’s industrial policies regarding 5G R&D investment. Keywords: Dynamic Slacks-Based Measure (DSBM), 5G Industry, R&D Inputs.

French Strategies of Directed Internationalized Statism

France has a popular and academic reputation as a state-influenced economy that is suspicious of foreign private investors, especially in strategic sectors and ‘national firms’. Yet this chapter shows that it has followed a strategy of directed internationalized statism, focused on attracting selected Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) to specific ‘national champion’ firms and sectors. The political executive has welcomed SWFs, despite some parliamentary concerns over national security and a rhetoric of ‘economic patriotism’ that arose when private American firms sought to take over French ones. Although additional legislative powers for overseas investments have been created, they have not been used against SWFs. Instead, policy makers have used SWF investments to support domestic firms, notably by providing new sources of patient capital, supportive share owners, and export orders. The French case shows how policy makers can use overseas state investors as part of strategies to adapt longstanding policies of state-led industrial policies to liberalized and internationalized markets.

Industrial Policies Under Xi Jinping: A Steering Theory Perspective

Xi Jinping’s ascension to power and subsequent developments in Chinese governance have stoked the flames on the debate on industrial policies, both in China and across the globe. At least partly, the debate results from the perception that industrial policies have been important for China’s economic rise, growing competitiveness and drive to innovate. Outside China, this perception has already prompted some governments to suggest that their countries should react to China’s rise by also promulgating industrial policies. But inspite of the growing interest in the topic, there is hardly a consensus on the character of China’s industrial policies nor their efficiency and effectiveness, neither inside nor outside of China. This paper will shed light on these issues by looking at Chinese industrial policies from the perspective of political steering theory. It will first review the political steering theory, identify key concepts (steering modes, steering objects and subjects, etc.) and then explain the rationale of applying the theoretical deliberations to industrial policymaking and implementation in China’s EV and solar sectors. Against this background, this paper will identify different types of industrial policies and look into Chinese industrial policy development and academic discussion over time with a specific focus on changes in industrial policy steering following the inauguration of the Xi Jinping administration. This paper aims to make a conceptual contribution based on the analysis of policy documents and academic texts as well as discussions and interviews with Chinese economists and political scientists. It is part of a larger research project that focuses on how political steering through industrial policies affects China’s energy transition under Xi.

Extended Supply-Use Tables

The statistical challenges of globalization are profound. We cannot rely solely on national statistics to understand how economies work and how to create industrial policies focusing on competitiveness. It is necessary to see the whole. National statistics build pictures based on relationships between producers and consumers and the rest of the world. But these relationships, especially those with the rest of the world, have become increasingly more complex. There is an increasing need to consider global production within a global accounting framework. This implies a departure from the traditional role of international organizations as compilers of internationally comparable national statistics to bring together the national tables to create a global table.

Extended Supply-Use Tables

The statistical challenges of globalization are profound. We cannot rely solely on national statistics to understand how economies work and how to create industrial policies focusing on competitiveness. It is necessary to see the whole. National statistics build pictures based on relationships between producers and consumers and the rest of the world. But these relationships, especially those with the rest of the world, have become increasingly more complex. There is an increasing need to consider global production within a global accounting framework. This implies a departure from the traditional role of international organizations as compilers of internationally comparable national statistics to bring together the national tables to create a global table.

Investment in South Africa

Since the achievement of democracy, high levels of gross fixed capital formation have been required for the economic and social transformation of South Africa. Public-sector investment has risen, particularly since 2008, but private-business investment has not grown enough, while manufacturing’s share of the capital stock has declined substantially. Common explanations for low investment in manufacturing are examined in the light of empirical literature and are judged to have inadequate evidential support. Industrial policies derived from these views, such as maintaining low interest rates to promote investment, need to be based on stronger evidence. An argument is put forward for a system-based approach to research on the determinants of investment.

Determinants of regions smart specialization in eco-clustering

The article identifies and substantiates the determinants of regions smart specialization, highlights the connection with the processes of environmental clusters formation to more effectively overcome the passivity of innovation and industrial policies in combination with the model of structural and organizational reconfiguration. The authors thoroughly studied the experience of EU countries in creating ecological clusters and producing eco-innovations. The main barriers of smart regions specialization in Ukraine and its problematic aspects in ensuring the development of ecological clusters are identified. The authors systematized the main ecological innovations in clusters. The article gives recommendations for the development of environmental clusters in Ukraine under the context of smart specialization.

The Influence of Industrial Policy on Innovation in Startup Enterprises: An Empirical Study Based on China's GEM Listed Companies

This study uses China’s Growth Enterprises Market (GEM) listed companies from 2011 to 2017 as samples to examine the impact of industrial policies on innovation in startups from three dimensions, namely, selective industrial policies, government subsidies, and financial support. The results show that selective industrial policies have no effect on the innovation output of startups. Financial support can significantly promote the innovation output of entrepreneurial enterprises; structural differences exist in the impact of government subsidies on the innovation of entrepreneurial enterprises. The influence of industrial policy on the innovation of entrepreneurial enterprises depends on the research and development intensity of enterprises, the level of regional economic development, the leadership structure of enterprises, and other factors. This study’s findings have significant practical significance for the implementation of a national innovation-driven development strategy and to guide industrial policies that better promote enterprise innovation.