Does Firms’ Working Capital Efficiency Matter in Dividend Payout: Empirical Evidence from India

The objective of this study is to assess the impact of working capital efficiency (WCE) (proxied by net trade cycle ( NTC)) on the dividend payout (proxied by dividend payout ratio ( DPR)) of the listed non-financial Indian firms. This study addresses the research gap in the literature about the influence of WCE on firms’ earnings distributed to equity shareholders as dividends in the Indian market. We have used secondary data of 150 firms that were listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange for the period 2012–2018 and analysed the data of the sample firms using the Tobit regression model. Our results indicate a negative and significant relationship between the NTC and the DPR of the sample firms. However, the beta coefficient of NTC was found to be very small, suggesting that the lower NTC may not inevitably generate a higher DPR of firms in the Indian context.

Tobit model-based analysis on the influencing factors of wheat loss during harvesting by the combine harvester

Based on the investigation data of wheat mechanized harvest in eight major wheat producing areas from the south to the north of Henan Province, the main factors affecting wheat mechanized harvest loss were identified and the influence of each factor was decomposed. In this article, the loss rate of wheat mechanical harvest was calculated by using the method of artificial measurement of wheat yield in the field, and the influencing factors of wheat mechanical harvest operation in 8 regions of Henan province were treated and analyzed by using Tobit regression model. In this paper, the loss rate of wheat mechanical harvest was calculated by using the method of wheat field artificial yield measurement and the influencing factors of wheat mechanical harvest operation in eight regions of Henan province were treated and analyzed by using Tobit regression model. The results show that the average harvest loss rate in the field amounts to 2.96%, the average harvest loss rate at the edge of field amounts to 3.06%, whereas the loss rate in the normal operation area amounts 2.86%. The main factors that caused the harvest loss of wheat field machinery were the maturity of wheat, the area of operation field, the diseases and pests, weather conditions and the accumulated working hours of harvester drivers in a single day. Therefore, the main technical measures to reduce the operation loss of wheat combine harvester were put forward to provide a theoretical basis for promoting the deep integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy.

The effect of interdisciplinary components' citation intensity on scientific impact

PurposeThis study explores whether interdisciplinary components' citation intensity (ICCI) affects papers' scientific impact. In this study, the term “interdisciplinary components” refers to the disciplines that are different from the discipline to which the target research belongs. The citation intensity is the degree of density or sparseness of the paper citation network for a discipline. Previous studies have shown that the scientific impact of interdisciplinary research is influenced by interdisciplinarity and its properties, namely, variety, balance and disparity. However, the effect of ICCI on scientific impact has not been comprehensively explored.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on the entire publication database of the Web of Science for the year 2000, where the authors provide an indicator to measure the ICCI of each publication. A tobit regression model is used to examine the effect of ICCI on scientific impact, controlling for a range of variables associated with the characteristics of the publications studied.FindingsThe results show that ICCI has a positive effect on scientific impact. The authors’ results further point out that ICCI displays a curvilinear inverted U-shape relationship with scientific impact. It means that including more citation-intensive interdisciplinary components can increase the scientific impact of interdisciplinary research. However, excessive use of citation-intensive interdisciplinary components may reduce the scientific impact of interdisciplinary research.Originality/valueThis study shows that, in addition to interdisciplinarity, the scientific impact of interdisciplinary research is also affected by the citation characteristics of interdisciplinary components, namely ICCI.

Factors Affecting the Export Intensity of Chinese Manufacturing Firms

Manufacturing exports are deemed to be a significant driver of China’s economic growth. This article uses the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey in China to investigate the factors that significantly exert their effect on the export intensity of Chinese manufacturing firms. The maximum likelihood estimation, with the Tobit regression model, is adopted to capture the export intensity among Chinese manufacturers. This empirical evidence suggests that foreign direct investment (FDI), chief executive officer (CEO) gender, research and development (R&D), innovation and foreign, imported technologies significantly and positively influence Chinese manufacturing firms’ export intensity. In contrast, firm age and skilled labour are not significant factors in driving export intensity. Evidence-based policy implications and recommendations are also provided to enhance the export performance of Chinese manufacturing firms.

Does Urbanization Promote Regional Industrial Environmental Efficiency? A Comparison of Economic Development-Oriented Regions and Environmental Governance-Oriented Regions

The promotion of industrial environmental efficiency (IEE) has attracted considerable attention from scholars and policymakers. Previous studies have focused on the factors driving IEE without considering the leader-follower relationship between the two stages of IEE and have used aggregated indicators to detect the effect of urbanization on IEE. In this study, we open the “black box” of IEE and regard it as a serial system comprised of the economic development (ED) stage and the environmental governance (EG) stage. We select typical provinces belonging to the ED-oriented regions and EG-oriented regions for our analysis. We quantify IEE by using the slack-based model (SBM), decompose the effect of urbanization into four typical factors and detect the effect of the urbanization-related factors by using a tobit regression model. Next, we compare the effect of the urbanization-related factors in the different regions. The results show that overall, in 2011–2015, IEE in the different regions was low and fluctuating, and it increased in ED-oriented regions while remaining stable in EG-oriented regions. The IEE of the ED-oriented regions was always higher than that of the EG-oriented regions, with the gap increasing over time. The IEE of the two stages varied in each type of region. Urbanization-related factors had different effects on the IEE of the different stages in the two types of region, and the same factor had significantly different effects in different regions.

An Empirical Study on Environmental Efficiency Measurements and Influencing Factors

Airlines are an important part of the comprehensive transportation system. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to empirically analyse the measurement of airlines’ environmental efficiency and influencing factors. Adopting the SBM-DEA model, this study measured the environmental efficiency of 20 Chinese airlines between 2010 and 2017 and empirically analysed the factors influencing their environmental efficiency using a Tobit regression model. Spring Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Hainan Airlines were found to have the highest environmental efficiency. Tianjin Airlines, Hebei Airlines, and China Express Airlines had the lowest environmental efficiency. The Tobit regression results showed that average flight distance, load factor, market share, and proportion of cargo and mail turnover had a significant positive effect on airline environmental efficiency. Fuel consumption per ton-km had a significant negative effect on airline environmental efficiency.