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Background and Aim: China's economic and societal development, education reform, and increasing demand for quality education, independent colleges' advantages waned. Issues like "schools within schools," lack of independence, unclear property ownership, and weak internal governance arose, necessitating restructuring and new directions. Thus, this article examines Edvantage Group's response to independent college restructuring through dynamic capabilities theory, analyzing bottleneck issues, exploring measures taken for reform and development, and investigating a sustainable development path post-restructuring. Materials and Methods: Through semi-structured interviews and practical investigations, this paper analyzes the development strategy of the independent college under Edvantage Group. Results: the group's development presents a dynamic and evolutionary growth process, and dynamic ability is the key ability for the group to gain a foothold in the market and gain development advantages. Under the background of the current government's efforts to promote vocational education, the Group should incline its internal resources more to vocational colleges and technical schools. To give full play to its advantages, seize opportunities and make up for its disadvantages, it is necessary to improve the internal governance system, improve the system construction, strengthen and stabilize the teaching staff, enhance the social influence of the group, further promote the restructuring of internal resources of the group and improve the utilization efficiency. Conclusion: The transformational development challenges, private education groups need to find a distinctive, high-quality, and sustainable path to development. Dynamic capabilities are crucial, and this paper takes the case of Edvantage Group, investigating its development strategy based on dynamic capability theory.

In real applications of data envelopment analysis (DEA), there are cases in which undesirable outputs are produced along with desirable outputs in such a way that the total sum of the produced undesirable outputs over the production units must be fixed and constant. In this case, a trade-off between the decision-making units (DMUs) is needed to balance the production of undesirable outputs. In a rational sight, this trade-off is done in such a way that all DMUs improve their relative performances. In this paper, a single DEA-based model is proposed to model fixed and variable-sum undesirable outputs in production processes. A common equilibrium efficient frontier is constructed and after reallocating the input/output factors, all decision-making units (DMUs) prevail as efficient. A real case of 32 paper mills in China is given. The results of the analysis demonstrated that some economically developed paper mills have better performance than less developed paper mills; in particular, all efficient paper mills are the developed ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically examines the influences of financial development on environmental innovation implementation. Our research is based on four measures designed to assess the effectiveness of environmental innovations in 24 European countries, including the percentage of enterprises implementing environmental innovation investment (% of surveyed firms); the percentage of enterprises implementing environmental innovation activities (e.g., implementation of resource efficiency actions, sustainable products, or ISO 14001 certificates) measured, a number of enterprises having new ISO 14001 registration and a number of environmental innovation-related patents. Based on our analysis and estimates, we reveal that the better quality of the financial system improved the environmental innovation performance in the European region during the 2011-2019 period. To shed light on the link between financialization and environmental innovations, we dig deeper into financial markets and financial institutions' depth, access, and efficiency. Our results highlight financial institutions and financial markets' depth and efficiency in enhancing EI activities. However, EI-related patents do not show any significant improvements under the changes in the financial system., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The higher education efficiency evaluation model using the data envelopment analysis method has interested many researchers. This paper uses bibliometric analysis on publications extracted from the Scopus database to provide a comprehensive overview of research publications on the measurement of higher education efficiency based on data envelopment analysis: its growth rate, major collaboration networks, the most important and popular research topic. A total of 169 related publications were collected and analyzed from 1988 to 2021. The analysis results show that: Publications published every year have increased sharply in the last six years; The quality of publications is relatively high as publications tend to be published in journals with high-ranking indexes; Countries with the most influence in studies on this topic are: Italy, China, Spain, the USA, and the United Kingdom; Authors with the most influence in this research direction are Agasisti T., Abbott M., Doucouliagos C., Avkiran N.K., and Johnes J.; The research cooperation among countries and among affiliations is not strong. Finally, the paper has provided recommendations for future studies based on the findings.

Country risk, encompassing political, economic, and financial dimensions, represents a burgeoning area of research in contemporary academia. However, its relation with energy technology remains relatively unexplored. Unlike previous studies, the current study enhances the extant literature by investigating the influence of political, economic, and financial risk factors, in addition to GDP, on energy technology advancements within the context of China from 1990 to 2021. The authors employ time series data and select the most suitable econometric techniques for analyzing long-term relationships, such as quantile regression. This approach allows them to track the evolution of these variables, thereby offering valuable empirical insights. The study's main findings are as follows: The Johansen cointegration tests confirm the existence of a long-run relationship among the variables under consideration. Furthermore, the quantile regression shows that political and economic risks reduce energy technology. In contrast, other variables, such as financial risk and GDP contribute positively to developing energy technology within the Chinese economy. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers emphasizing the need to mitigate political and economic risks to facilitate future investment in energy technology., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Whether green credit policy is conducive to improving the green innovation efficiency of heavy polluting industries is of great significance for China's sustainable economic development and the construction of ecological civilization. This paper uses China's Green Credit Guidelines to conduct a quasi-natural experiment based on relevant panel data of industries from 2007 to 2018. Specifically, it employs the Super-SBM model including non-expected output to measure the green innovation efficiency of 35 industries in China, and constructs the propensity score matching difference-in-difference model to explore how green credit policy impact on the green innovation efficiency of heavy polluting industries. The results show that the coefficient of difference-in-difference ([Formula: see text]) was 0.262, which was significant at the 1% level; the coefficient of [Formula: see text] was not significant; the coefficient of [Formula: see text] was 0.490, which was significant at the 1% level; and the coefficient of [Formula: see text] was 0.173, which was significant at the 1% level, indicating that green credit policy significantly contributes to the green innovation efficiency of heavy polluting industries, though with a lag effect. Further study finds that green credit policy pushes heavy polluting industries to improve green innovation efficiency by increasing financing cost and R&D investment; meanwhile, the heterogeneity test shows that the higher the state-owned share of the industry, the greater the positive effect of green credit policy on its green innovation efficiency. Finally, in order to accelerate the implementation of green credit policy and promote the green innovation efficiency of heavy polluting industries, banks can guide heavy polluting industrial enterprises through credit to carry out green technological transformation, heavy polluting industries should raise awareness of green innovation, and government should encourage heavy polluting industrial enterprises to carry out green innovation, and guide and supervise the state-owned enterprises in particular, so that they can improve cleanliness and achieve green economic development., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Very few studies exist in rationalizing comprehensively the relationship between market integration and green economic growth in China. This paper tries to answer the question whether and how market integration influences regional green economic growth in China. Based on the panel data of 285 city-level regions from year 2004 to 2018 in China, this paper develops explanatory mechanism and discusses the influence theoretically and empirically. To advance the analysis, we construct market integration indicator through relative price variance method based on commodity retail price index and employ the Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) productivity index and DEA-SBM (data envelopment analysis-slacks-based measure) model to evaluate green total factor productivity (GTFP) as indicator for green economic growth. Our empirical findings are: (1) Apparent regional imbalance exists in both the development of market integration and green growth and gaps are expanding from year 2004 to 2018. (2) Market integration promotes regional green growth significantly. (3) Mechanism analysis illustrates that market integration fosters green growth through economies of scale effect, composition effect and spillover effect, respectively. (4) Heterogeneous analysis suggests that the influence from market integration on green growth varies depending on region's difference in traffic situation and in overall development level., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Free-trade zones are highlands of regional development that have a radiating effect on surrounding cities. This paper uses Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) data from 2003 to 2018, to examine the impact of the China (Shanghai) pilot free-trade zone (SPFTZ) on green total factor productivity (GTFP) in the YRDUA. It uses the regression discontinuity (RD) method and analyzes the influence mechanism with the help of the mediating effect model. The paper presents the following major findings. The establishment of the SPFTZ significantly promoted GTFP in the YRDUA, with technological progress being the main driving force. An analysis using the mediating effect model found that financial efficiency and industrial structure upgrading play a complete mediating role in GTFP growth in the YRDUA. Therefore, the SPFTZ should make use of its policy advantages, take full advantage of the effect of the green growth pole, and promote green mutual development with the YRDUA., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Whether high-speed rail (HSR) can promote the coordination between the economy and environment is a critical issue that needs to be investigated. We used balanced panel data of 281 prefecture-level or above cities in China from 2005 to 2017 to consider the opening of HSR as a quasi-natural experiment. We integrated the difference-in-differences (DID) model, the spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model, and social network analysis (SNA) to empirically investigate the impact of HSR on urban environmental efficiency (UEE). The results showed that HSR significantly improved UEE by 4.6% annually during the study period, although the effect of HSR on UEE exhibited a time lag and varied dramatically in different cities. An analysis of the mechanism showed that the effect of technological innovation and the structural effect brought by the opening of HSR were the main contributors to the improved UEE. Further analysis showed that HSR service centrality also significantly improved UEE and HSR opening and HSR service centrality both had positive spatial spillover effects on the UEE of neighboring cities. Several policy implications are proposed accordingly to make full use of the advantages of HSR to improve UEE for China., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

To explore the relations between the number of accident deaths (NCD) and various factors in construction safety, a multiple linear regression model was established, based on the panel data of economy, construction labor, and the number of accident deaths in 31 provinces (regions) of China from 2009 to 2018. The results show that the average total profits and taxes (TPAT), and the death rate of ten thousand people (DR) are positively correlated with NCD, while the labor productivity (LP) is negatively correlated with it. Under the condition that other factors remain unchanged, NCD increases by 0.02 per a hundred million CNY. However, if DR increases by one ten thousand, NCD will increase by 8.66 on average. On the contrary, when LP increases by a hundred million CNY per ten thousand people, NCD decreases by 0.19. The model also predicts NCD in different provinces and cities from 2019 to 2020 with the method of quadratic exponential smoothing. As well, practice results show that the model is effective and practical., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Technological progress is of great importance to total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE). However, previous research has not narrowed technological progress into the energy field, generating rough and ambiguous empirical evidence for policymakers. In addition, technological progress is often discussed from a conventional perspective as a whole, ignoring its heterogeneity and spillover effect between regions. This study applies the stock of energy patents to reflect the effect of technological progress in the energy field on TFEE at first. The dynamic models are then employed to investigate if and how technological progress influences TFEE from the conventional and spatial perspectives for China's over the period of 2000-2016. The conventional analysis shows that energy technology is of great importance to TFEE. However, the creation-type of technology coming from businesses specifically is shown to have more success in enhancing TFEE than other types of energy technology. Further evidence coming from the spatial econometrics demonstrates that technology spillovers across regions are rather common and have significant effects on TFEE., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper examines urban environmental performance using a unique database of 286 Chinese cities for the period 2002-2014. Both the dynamics of urban total factor environmental efficiency and total factor environmental productivity are explored employing slack-based measures. The findings reveal a U-shaped trend of urban environmental performance over time during the sample period. Energy conservation and pollutant reduction were the key drivers of this transformation, while the deterioration in capital efficiency slowed down this transformation. In terms of regional and city-size heterogeneities, the eastern and large cities showed better environmental performance. In addition, environmental Kuznets relationship existed for waste water and SO 2 emissions, but not for CO 2 emissions.

The object of this study is to assess the potential for the development of the Russian market for educational services as a component part of the present-day process of internationalization of science and higher education in the countries of Eurasia, above all China and Russia. The paper describes Russia's and China's unique unifying and coordinating role in the development of a common educational space, which must result in the creation of a Eurasian research-and-education ecosystem. The authors conducted an analysis of the current structure of the ecosystem. The authors conducted an analysis of the current structure of the education ecosystem. The authors conducted an analysis of the currents structure of the sector of joint Russian-Chinese education institutions. The paper describes the current state of affairs regarding, and prospects for, the development of the government's digitalization program that is based on the concept of Digital 4.0, a paradigm that is increasingly becoming a natural environment for society to function and develop in. The authors explore some of the key trends and risks inherent in the development of the global market for educational platforms. The paper provides a rationale for the need to create a joint Russian-Chinese educational platform -- one can hardly overestimate its role in the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative transnational project. The study employed a set of traditional methods of research, including classification, comparative analysis, summarization, juxtaposition, and forecasting. In addition, it incorporates a sociological survey of students at Russia's leading universities. The authors made use of data from the Ministries of Education of China and Russia and various open-access statistics websites, as well as data from a sociological study of their own. The authors' assessments of the current potential of and trends exhibited by the Russian market for online education, as well as the fact that Russian students are interested in and prepared for active participation in online projects, helped put together a set of recommendations for boosting the competitiveness and efficiency of the Russian market for educational services and those for developing an international educational platform as part of the Eurasian educational ecosystem.

The paper looked into faculty of Chinese College English (CE) (or CE faculty on the paper), a great proportion of teachers teaching English for all non-English majors in higher education institutions, through analysis of CE faculty recruitment process, symbiosis of researching and teaching in their performances, as well as their restrained professional development in China higher education. It's demonstrated that disciplinary identity on campus is the premise of being successfully fulfillment of the function of teaching and learning in higher education; CE faculty are supposed to effectively perform their duty in line with their professionals defined and developed by the discipline they are trained by. It's discussed that for securing and protecting the efficiency and academic status of CE and CE faculty, there should be a accrediting process for CE the course accreditation and for CE faculty with academically educational program awarding degree, which is guaranteed for CE being recognized a important and legalized academic activity serving Chinese higher education as its very first design.

The research reported in this paper seeks to assess the potential of the Russian market for exported educational services through the example of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Network University (SCOU). The authors share the findings from their analysis of a set of educational models for the SCOU, provide an assessment of the role of backbone Russian and Chinese colleges in and their contribution to the implementation of priority areas for the training of specialists from SCO member states, share the findings from their statistical analysis of demand for joint export educational programs (JEEPs), and examine some of the key forms and characteristics of the academic mobility of students attending school via a JEEP, which they view as an indispensable part of today's international educational process. The paper shares the findings from a sociological study which was conducted by the authors in the form of a questionnaire-based survey of students from top Chinese and Russian colleges participating in the SCOU program for the purpose of exploring the motivation of students in the context of planning out their individual educational path based on the pursuit of studies overseas. The work makes use of SCOU-related data from the Ministries of Education of China and Russia and various statistics websites on the Internet to analyze the results from the implementation of SCOU JEEPs and also explore the foreign student body attending school in Russia. In putting this work together, the authors employed a set of traditional methods of research, including classification, comparative analysis, summarization, juxtaposition, forecasting, and surveying by questionnaire. The authors' assessments of the potential of the Russian market for export educational programs, based on the example of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Network University, have helped put together a set of recommendations on boosting the competitiveness and efficiency of the market for the export of educational projects and programs.

This paper mainly uses the super-efficiency EBM model to measure the environmental efficiency of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2019, utilizes the Theil index to analyze the degree of differentiation, and investigate the stochastic convergence of environmental efficiency in different regions. At the same time, it focuses on exploring the direction, intensity, and changing trend of the internal driving factors of environmental efficiency including fiscal decentralization and tax competition, so as to measure and show the overall situation of circular economy development. The research results show that (1) from a national perspective, environmental efficiency shows a pattern of gradual convergence from east to west and from coast to inland. There is a significant stepped regional imbalance in the development level of circular economy in the eastern coastal areas and the central, western inland areas. (2) The differences in environmental efficiency among the four major economic regions were apparently significant while the differences inside each region itself were relatively minor, although in a trend of being gradually widened. There are differences in the development level of circular economy in different regions or within the same region. (3) The inter-provincial efficiency in the eastern, western and northeastern zones maintained relatively stable, while the inter-provincial differences in the central region were expanding. The environmental deficit problem caused by economic development has been alleviated and the basic development model of circular economy has been initially established. (4) Economic development has played a positive role in improving the environmental efficiency of the region. But the resident consumption level inhibited the improvement of the environmental efficiency level of the surrounding areas. The conclusion of this paper can provide a macroscopic reference for the government in finding effective countermeasures to improve environmental efficiency., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Improving industrial eco-efficiency is of great significance for building a beautiful China and achieving its carbon peak and neutrality targets. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2007 to 2018, this paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model to measure industrial eco-efficiency and empirically tests the influence of green finance on Chinese industrial eco-efficiency from the national and regional levels. The results show that the average level of industrial eco-efficiency in China is relatively stable during the study period with a large space for advancement. Second, there is spatial heterogeneity in Chinese industrial eco-efficiency, showing a gradually decreasing "southeast-northwest" ladder-like distribution. Third, the national-level regression results show that there is a significant "U-shaped" relationship between green financing and industrial eco-efficiency. In addition, the regression results at the regional level indicate that there is regional heterogeneity in the impact of green finance on industrial eco-efficiency. Finally, based on the research conclusions, specific suggestions on how green finance can improve industrial eco-efficiency in China are put forward, including vigorously developing green finance at the macro and micro levels, and exerting the positive effects of green finance in improving industrial eco-efficiency according to the area and the development level of green finance., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The Green industrial policy is implemented to promote the coordinative development of the environment and industry, while there has been limited research involved in the policy effect evaluation. Taking China's Green Manufacturing Engineering Implementation Guide (GMEIG) released especially for manufacturing industry in 2016 as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper identifies the policy effect on the total factor productivity (TFP) of manufacturing enterprises, and the mechanisms and heterogeneities are further evaluated. The baseline results show that green industrial policy has significant promotion on the TFP of manufacturing enterprises. The mechanism is analyzed from two perspectives, including incentive effect and supervision effect. Moreover, mediating effects of different time points of government subsidy are investigated within the incentive effect. The results reveal that GMEIG promotes the TFP of manufacturing enterprises through incentive effect and the promotion on enterprises' TFP mainly benefits from government subsidies afterwards rather than government subsidies beforehand. When considering the heterogeneity at regional, industrial and enterprise levels, the policy effect is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises, as well as enterprises with smaller scale. What is more, market competitiveness is conducive to the promotion on enterprises' TFP, while current level of green preference fails to positively moderate the policy effect. This study provides theoretical and empirical support for the construction of green industrial policy and further facilitates China's green development., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The digital economy is an important way to relieve current pressure on resources and the environment. Based on ecological modernization theory and global value chain theory, this paper adopts panel data of 17 manufacturing industries from 2000 to 2014, uses the non-radial directional distance function and the meta-frontier method to measure China's green total factor productivity (GTFP) and its sub-indices, and takes the embedding degree and embedding position as moderating variables and threshold variables to construct an econometric model to explore the relationship among the digital economy, global value chain, and GTFP. The results show that (1) the digital economy has a positive effect on GTFP in both time and space. And in terms of time, the digital economy mainly enhances GTFP by improving technical efficiency and narrowing the technology gap. (2) Global value chain embedding position positively moderates the relationship between the digital economy and GTFP; In terms of sub-samples, labor-intensive and capital-intensive industries show the same impact characteristics as the total sample. (3) Further, it is found that the digital economy and GTFP have nonlinear characteristics. There is a single threshold effect on the embedding position. When the embedding position is low, the digital economy is positively correlated with GTFP but not significant; when the threshold value is crossed, the digital economy can significantly promote GTFP. The conclusions of this paper are helpful to realize the digital economy to promote the green development of the manufacturing industry, and provide an effective reference for the realization mechanism of China's green economy transformation and ecological civilization construction in the post-pandemic era., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

With the rising global concern over environment and energy issues, there are many scholars incorporating them into total factor productivity (TFP) analytical framework. This paper aims to outline the dynamic change trend and convergence characteristics of green total factor productivity (GTFP) of 14 sub-sectors in China's service industry. This is of great significance to the coordinated development and green transformation of sub-sectors of China's service industry. This paper commences to gauge and decompose GTFP of China's service industry by cutting-edge epsilon-based measure (EBM) generalizing slacks-based measure (SBM) and radial measure as well as Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) productivity index, and to examine the existence of convergence hypothesis in China's service industry. The core conclusions are as follows: (1) the average annual growth rate of GTFP in China's service industry is 1.00%, and there exists heterogeneity for GTFP in different sub-sectors; (2) there are phenomena of σ-convergence, absolute β-convergence, and conditional β-convergence in GTFP of China's overall service industry, producer service industry, and consumer-oriented service industry. The main policy suggestions include: increasing investment in green technology innovation of the service industry, formulating more effective industrial development planning and energy policies, and optimizing energy structure and industry structure of the service industry., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Finance has a strong role in promoting green development; however, there are very few studies quantifying this relationship. To this end, based on the official green development indicator system of the Chinese government and province-level data from 2006 to 2017, the quantile regression model was used to analyze quantitatively the impact of finance on green development. The results show that financial development contributed significantly to green development, and furthermore, financial efficiency and green finance have a strong positive effect with the increase of the quantile, and financial scale also has a significant positive effect, but a diminishing marginal effect. In addition, the impact of financial development on green development has regional differences. In the eastern region, the finance factors can promote green development, but the financial scale and the green finance promotion function weaken along with the quantile increase. The financial scale and green finance do not support green development significantly in the central region. Financial scale, efficiency, and green finance support green development in the west region., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The development of modern finance has played a catalytic role in the economic transition to renewable and clean energy, which in turn has an impact on total factor productivity (TFP). However, existing studies have not together addressed financing methods, carbon emissions, and TFP. We analyse how different financing methods affect TFP through the carbon reduction channel. Using data from 1995 to 2019 for 23 major carbon emitters, we adopt a mediation effect model with Stata 17.0. We draw three conclusions. First, financing methods have a differentiated impact on TFP. For every unit increase in debt financing relative to equity financing, TFP decreases by 0.058 units (overall level) or 0.056 units (welfare level). Second, financing has a mediating effect on TFP through carbon emissions. Debt financing reduces TFP through the carbon emission reduction mechanism. The greater the scale of debt financing relative to equity financing, the greater the negative impact on TFP through the carbon emission reduction mechanism, while equity financing plays a positive role on TFP through the carbon emission reduction mechanism. Third, a heterogeneity test demonstrates that the mediating effect is most significant in developed countries and weakest in developing countries. The difference-in-difference framework based on the Equator Principles demonstrates that the marginal contribution to TFP of debt financing aimed at carbon reduction is 0.02 (overall level) and 0.012 (welfare level). From the perspective of financing methods, this study provides enlightenment for promoting carbon emission reduction and improving TFP. First, countries should strengthen the development of the green debt financing market, strengthen the disclosure of information on environmental benefits, and reverse the negative effect of debt financing. Second, they should develop the equity market to activate the role of carbon reduction channel, promote the Equator Principles in the banking industry, and encourage more banks to pay attention to environmental risks. All these financial measures can raise TFP., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces, the Cobb-Douglas production function and GML index were constructed to measure the degree of land price distortion and green development efficiency, respectively, in China, and the System Generalised Method of Moments model was employed to explore the relationship between land price distortion and green development efficiency, and a mediating effect model was further constructed to analyse the transmission mechanism. The results show that, first, land price in China is characterised by a negative distortion, but the degree of negative distortion tends to decrease after 2010. Second, land price distortion significantly inhibits the improvement of green development efficiency; this conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests, and land price distortion significantly promotes the progress of green technology, while significantly inhibiting the improvement of green technology efficiency. Third, the results of the mediating effect show that the inhibiting effect of land price distortion on green development efficiency is mainly achieved through three channels: house price, industrial structure and infrastructure. Finally, policy recommendations for green sustainable development are put forward from the aspects of land supply structure adjustment and so on., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The development of foreign direct investment conforms to the theoretical principles of green total factor productivity and is key to promoting regional industry upgrading. Using three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) based on city-level data, this paper investigates the effect of foreign direct investment on regional green total factor productivity (GTFP) across China. The results show that foreign direct investment affects regional GTFP through technology spillover effect and human capital spillover effect. Under different environmental regulation intensity and marketization, the relationship between FDI and green total factor productivity is non-linear. The phenomena of "pollution paradise" and "bottom line race" survived at low marketization regional and foreign direct investment will inhibit the improvement of regional green total factor productivity in China., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Does the growth of non-polluting exports lead to better environmental performance? The answer depends on how these exports rest on local comparative advantages. The more exports rely on polluting inputs, the worse their environmental performance would be. In practice, it is difficult to directly measure the polluting inputs for exporting products at the local level. This study proposes an approach to measure the reliance of exports on local polluting inputs, based on the product relatedness theories and the resource-based view of firms. This approach applies the locational quotient to indicate local resource advantages. Then, it uses the co-occurrence probability to measure the product relatedness of one export to local resource advantages. Finally, it distinguishes the product relatedness to polluting resource advantages from non-polluting ones. A higher level of polluting product relatedness is expected to depress the environmental performance of exports. Using 30 sectors in 281 Chinese cities as a case, this study applies the fixed effect model and the threshold regression model to examine the effects of product relatedness on environmental performance. Empirical results support the efficiency of using product relatedness to predict the environmental performance of exports. A higher level of polluting product relatedness leads to poorer environmental performance and more adverse effects of export growth on the environment., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

China has a vast territory and abundant resources, and there are significant differences in the development of pig breeding in different regions. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) produced in the process of pig breeding will affect China's environmental quality. In view of this, based on the Minimum Distance to Weak efficient frontier model, this paper constructs Metafrontier-Malmquist-Luenberger (MML) index considering negative output under the common frontier to comprehensively evaluate the green total factor productivity of Chinese pig breeding (GTCP). This has guiding significance for improving China's pork production and reducing pollution emissions. The results manifest that (1) no matter under the common frontier or the group frontier, GTCP presents large temporal and spatial differentiation characteristics. Compared with the central region and the western region, the eastern region has obvious advantages in GTCP. (2) GTCP has shown an upward trend as a whole, which is mainly due to the technical progress. (3) Compared with small-scale and medium-sized GTCP, large-scale GTCP has apparent superiorities. Based on the above outcomes, this paper finally raises policy recommendations for improving GTCP: (1) give full play to the advantages of pig breeding in different regions, (2) increase the research and introduction of pig breeding clean technology and improve the application efficiency, and (3) give full play to the scale effect and vigorously develop large-scale pig breeding., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Based on an analysis of policy documents, questionnaires and interviews, the paper discusses the experiences of Chinese young academics on tenure-track contracts. Findings suggest that young academics perceive tenure as a managerial solution to governance reform. Meanwhile, a population-resource imbalance and the uncertainty in career progression interactively and collectively create an involuted culture where overwork is normalised for self-adaptation. While young academics are experiencing insecurity and anxiety, the study found that they adopt a wide range of strategies to actively adapt into the context. Drawing on the competitive nature, the tenure system is interpreted as both a managerial approach and a training mechanism. This competitiveness and its related precariousness seem to remain, however, uncharted in social perception. An analysis of these issues illuminates tensions and conflicts in the implementation of the tenure-track system in the Chinese context, which have important implications for future managerial policies and practices.

This study investigates economic convergence and sustainable development in Africa. By introducing an aggregate production technology and directional distance function, it examines the productivity growth of 28 African economies from 1990 to 2019. The proposed approach considers all decision-making units (countries) as a whole, and the productivity gains are then estimated under a nonparametric framework. In the empirical analysis, the carbon emissions are included in the Luenberger productivity measurement, called green productivity. The results show that the annual average growth rate of green productivity is 1.51% in African, and different types of club convergence for green productivity indicator and its decomposition are observed during the sample period. The decomposition of the Luenberger indicator shows that green African growth is mainly driven by technological progress, not efficiency change. Furthermore, the overall inefficiency is decomposed into technical and structural effects. The latter measure the potential improvement in terms of resource reallocation. Structural inefficiency is larger than technical inefficiency, suggesting that African countries could improve their economic and environmental performances by optimizing input/output mixes., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The Interpretative Theory of Translation (ITT) was first developed on the basis of empirical practice and observation of interpreting. Its core idea is that the interpreter understands the source language and grasps the intention conveyed by the source language, then breaks away from the external form of the source language and expresses the speaker's intention in idiomatic target language. Business interpretation is characterized by being purposeful, extemporaneous, time-limited, and comprehensive. In view of these features, business interpreter should observe the principles of faithfulness and efficiency. The main purpose of interpretation, according to ITT, is to transfer the information and explain the true intention of the speaker. This paper, on the basis of real example analysis, puts forward two coping strategies--simplification strategy and adaptation strategy, under the guidance of ITT. Simplification means to simplify the content expressed by the speaker without changing the speaker's real intention, whereas adaptation strategy totally forgets the original structure and tries to express the speaker's intention. Compared with the simplification strategy, the adaptation strategy is more flexible, but the main purpose of both is to express the true intention of the speakers and promote business activities.

As a kind of renewable resources, the effective utilization of marine resources has a significant influence on the sustainable development of economy. This paper employed the global Malmquist index model to measure the total factor productivity (TFP) and its decomposition index of marine science and technology (MST) in China's coastal areas from 2006 to 2016. The empirical results indicated that the overall level of TFP of MST is low with a trend of volatility. By analyzing the decomposition index, it was obvious that the increase of TFP of MST mainly depended on the improvement of technical progress and scale efficiency, and the pure technological efficiency did not have significant effect on it. Moreover, with the unceasing evolution of the spatial pattern of China's TFP of MST, the development of MST innovation industry was unbalanced. It should be noted that the TFP of MST for each region exists a distinct difference, such as Hebei; Hainan have higher TFP of MST, whereas Shandong, Tianjin, and Beijing have relatively low TFP. Thus, it is crucial to strengthen the construction of MST innovation system., (© 2020. Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Improving environmental efficiency of thermal power plants is a crucial way to realize green and sustainable development. This paper investigates environmental efficiency of thermal power plants in China in 2011, 2013, and 2015 by conceptualizing a modified super-efficiency slacks-based measure with materials balance principle (MBP), which also eliminates the infeasibility in Malmquist-Luenberger index (MLI). An improved MLI is proposed based on the new efficiency measure. The results show that (1) the thermal power plants in most provinces have high environmental efficiency and productivity. (2) The improvement of productivity mainly originates from technical progress. This study provides a new perspective for environmental efficiency measurement on thermal power plants and advances related studies by (1) considering the first law of thermodynamics and introducing MBP in measuring environmental efficiency of thermal power plants and (2) defining a new MLI that captures the efficiency change and technical change in a super-efficiency framework. The thermal power plants in China can improve their environmental performance based on the results of current study., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper investigates the efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) growth of the Pakistani banking industry and determines the impact of risk and competition on the efficiency and TFP growth. The data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based Malmquist productivity index is used to measure efficiency and TFP growth of the Pakistani banking industry. The generalized method of moments (GMM) model is applied to observe the impact of risk and competition on efficiency and TFP growth. The motivation behind the use of GMM model is its ability to overcome unobserved heterogeneity, autocorrelation, and endogeneity issues. The results of the study show that the credit and liquidity risks have positive while insolvency risk has negative effect on the efficiency and TFP growth. The competition leads to improve technological efficiency but declines the technical efficiency growth. Among other explanatory variables, operational cost management, banking sector development, GDP growth rate, and infrastructure development show significant relationships with various efficiencies and TFP growth. The banks also facilitate for the purchase of carbon-intensive products in order to reduce carbon emissions. Strong banking development successfully allocate their financial resources for the development of energy-efficient technology while banking sector development is found to be negatively related with environmental sustainability. The strong banking sector possesses a significant negative influence on carbon reduction and environmental degradation.

In the western areas of China, bilingual teaching is in the beginning phrase, and hasn't reached the desirable outcomes. In order to know the development phase of bilingual teaching in less-developed areas of China, this paper chose students and teachers from two universities which respectively located in two provinces of the western areas of China and have different teaching levels as representative examples, and issued total of 352 valid questionnaires to reflect the bilingual teaching comprehensively. The research finds that learners have pessimistic attitude toward bilingual teaching and don't realize that the great importance of bilingual teaching in terms of personal development in the long run. The efficiency of bilingual teaching is affected by multitude of factors, including students' attitudes and learning methods, learning situation in and after class, teacher's levels, assessment methods and students' understanding levels. The thesis also investigates the evaluation systems of bilingual teaching and finds that students prefer the combination of oral and written exam.

The technological innovation of wind power is crucial to energy security and energy structure transformation. The Chinese government has been committed to improving the innovation of the wind power industry for decades. Although academic researchers and wind power policymakers have been widely concerned about the absolute score of innovation output, concentrating on innovation output in isolation is ultimately insufficient. This article goes beyond bean counting and evaluates the innovation of the Chinese wind power industry from the perspective of relative efficiency, and then assesses the efforts of the government to improve innovation efficiency (IE). The study uses the data of 105 wind power listed enterprises in China over the period 2008-2019. According to the recommendation made by the existing papers, IE is defined as the capability to generate innovation outputs per unit of R&D investment. Regression analysis is applied to test the policy effect. During 2008-2019, the average value of IE of Chinese wind power industry is 0.196. The IE of wind power enterprises in eastern China (0.265) is higher than that in central and western China (0.169). Besides, the regression results indicate that all categories of wind power innovation policies contribute to the IE of wind power industry in China. Furthermore, the innovation policies issued by the departments of the State Council significantly improve the IE of wind power industry, but the innovation policies from the National People's Congress and the State Council have no significant impacts on IE.

The equipment manufacturing industry is the industrial base of China, which makes it imperative to coordinate the relationship between industrial development and environmental protection. Using panel data of the seven sub-industries in China's equipment manufacturing industry from 2011 to 2015, this paper evaluates the static and dynamic aspects of green economic development efficiency by combining the super-efficiency slack-based measure model of unexpected output and the data envelopment analysis-Malmquist index model. The results show investments in research and development, and environmental regulations have yielded some positive results, but that regulations have also yielded some undesired output in terms of diminished economic benefits. Pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency have both declined, indicating that the scale and industrial structure need to be further optimized. The results of this study present an objective and comprehensive assessment of green economic development of China's equipment manufacturing industry and provide valuable insights for improving green economic development efficiency.

Approximately a third of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) items in the core domains (math, reading, and science) are constructed-response items and require human coding (scoring). This process is time-consuming, expensive, and prone to error as often (a) humans code inconsistently, and (b) coding reliability in international large-scale assessments varies across items and countries. The shift in PISA 2015 from paper- to computer-based assessment digitized all responses and associated coding, thus providing opportunities to introduce technology and analytical methods to improve data processing and analyses in future cycles. In this computer-based setting, this research explains the framework and approach for improving the accuracy and efficiency of the coding process in constructed-response items for future PISA cycles. In the pilot study associated with this research, we demonstrate how the proposed machine-supported coding system can be utilized using sample reading items from the PISA 2015 cycle.

This paper examined the research efficiency of Chinese higher education institutions with a sample of 105 universities (35 universities in each group of "Project 211", "Project 985" and general universities). In order to analyze the relative research efficiency among "Project 211" and "Project 985" and general universities, the method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was implemented with EnPAS software. The result showed that research efficiency of "Project 211" universities was lower than "Project 985" and general universities. Secondly, the research efficiency of the selected universities in China differed by region (eastern, central, western) and the type of universities (polytechnic, comprehensive, others). The implications of this study were presented at the government and university levels. The government should rearrange the financial support programs and evaluation criteria for universities. Universities also need to formulate strategies and systems for efficient operation and performance improvement.

This research paper examined the continued intention of college students to use DiDi mobile car-sharing services in China. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) was used as the theoretical framework while the data analysis was completed with SPSS. The results have demonstrated that performance expectancy, reliability, efficiency, and security and privacy were significant predictors of the continued intention to use mobile car-sharing services. Contrary to our expectations, effort expectancy was not a significant determinant of the continued intention to use mobile car-sharing services. In addition to these direct effects, the moderating impact of trust in the internet was also examined. The moderating analysis showed that trust in the internet showed no significant moderating impact on the relationship between performance expectancy, effort expectancy, reliability, efficiency, and security and privacy and the continued intention to use mobile car-sharing services. The implications of these findings are discussed.

University assets management, as an important content of modern university management, is generally confronted with the issue of low efficiency. Currently, to address the problems exposed in university assets management and take appropriate modification measures is an urgent issue in front of Chinese university assets management sectors. In this paper, based on a survey on university assets management conditions, the author tries to find the problems and conclude some useful countermeasures, in the hope of providing certain references for university assets management sectors and improving the assets management efficiency.

With the variety of environment and method of English learning, Autonomy English learning on the Internet is playing a more and more important role in modern English learning. It challenges the traditional learning approach, and also is forwardness. This paper points out that autonomy English learning on the Internet facilitates the improvement of the English level even more on the basis of the author's acquisition and experience, as well as explains the favorable factors and unfavorable factors of autonomy English learning on the Internet, suggesting the effective strategies of autonomy English learning on the Internet.

With the increasing prominence of climate and energy issues, enterprises, as the micro-subjects of economic activities, need to pay attention to environmental responsibility to promote sustainable and high-quality economic development. However, one of the crucial controversies is whether enterprises will sacrifice efficiency to fulfill their environmental responsibilities. To try our best to answer the controversy, this paper explores the impact of ESG on total factor productivity and its mechanism. The research conclusion shows that Chinese enterprises fulfilling ESG responsibilities can improve staff efficiency, reduce financing costs, ease financing constraints, and increase innovation investment, thus effectively improving total factor productivity. Compared to non-state-owned enterprises, this effect is more significant in state-owned enterprises. In addition, the promotion of ESG construction on the total factor productivity of enterprises also presents specific acceleration characteristics. This shows that in the socialist market economy environment, there is an obvious "social responsibility dividend" in the implementation of the ESG concept by Chinese enterprises, which is helpful to enhance their long-term value and realize a win-win of social value and commercial value. The conclusions of this study help deal correctly with the relationship between business value and social value of enterprises and provide inspiration for promoting healthy and sustainable economic development., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Jian Chen. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Despite significant growth in fiscal expenditure, the overall level of public services in China remains inadequate. One approach to improving government public service efficiency from the perspective of management psychology is to strengthen government competition. However, only a few studies have explored the improvement of public service efficiency through government competition, with even fewer addressing the phenomena of market segmentation and spatial effects that accompany the process of government competition. This paper aims to fill this research gap by examining the effects of government competition and market segmentation on public service efficiency, as well as their spatial disparities. We initially employs the DEA method to assess the efficiency of public services based on inputs and outputs, and examines its spatial variations. Subsequently, a semi-parametric spatial lag panel model is utilized to validate the effects of market segmentation and government competition on public service efficiency. Our findings indicate that inter-provincial market segmentation leads to a decline in public service efficiency. Moreover, the influence of horizontal competition between local governments on public service efficiency varies depending on the degree of positive and negative effects in their competition dynamics. The impact of vertical competition between central and local governments on public service efficiency is influenced by the degree of fiscal decentralization. When the level of fiscal decentralization is below 0.808, vertical competition between central and local governments has a promoting effect on public service efficiency. However, when the degree of fiscal decentralization exceeds 0.08, this promoting effect weakens and gradually transforms into a negative influence. The insights and evidence provided by this study offer valuable guidance for for effectively reshaping the fiscal relations between the central and local governments in China and improving public service efficiency in the context of a new round of fiscal and tax system reforms., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Yao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

China is currently confronted with the dilemma of achieving its green development goals while maintaining economic growth. The National Ecological Demonstration Zones (NEDZs) represent an innovative attempt by local governments to balance economic development with ecological civilisation, potentially offering a solution to this issue. This study calculated the Green Total Factor Productivity (GTFP) for 1925 districts and counties from 1999 to 2018. Using the selection of NEDZs as a quasi-natural experiment, a difference-in-differences model was employed to empirically analyse the impact of NEDZs on GTFP. The results indicated that the establishment of NEDZs led to an average increase in GTFP of 0.2175 compared to the control group. The primary mechanisms involved are innovation, structure, and enforcement. Moreover, the green development effects of the NEDZs exhibited regional heterogeneity. Compared to the western regions, the central and eastern regions showed limited green development effects. Areas with smaller populations, lower human capital, and lower administrative levels demonstrated significant improvements after the implementation of the NEDZ. Further analysis reveals a significant spatial agglomeration pattern of GTFP and the NEDZs exert a strong 'siphon effect' on the GTFP of neighbouring areas. This study provides a new perspective on the GTFP research and offers theoretical and practical evidence for assessing the impact of NEDZs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper utilizes an improved undesirable output DEA model to measure the eco-efficiency of cities in five major urban agglomerations in China during 2006-2020. It employs the Theil Index and Geodetector to investigate the spatial-temporal distribution differentiation characteristics and driving factors of urban eco-efficiency. The main findings are as follows. Firstly, the eco-efficiency of all urban agglomerations showed a fluctuating upward trend, but the eco-efficiency performance of different urban agglomerations in China shows a stratification characteristic. Specifically, the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration consistently ranks first in China, while the mean values of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, and Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration are lower than the national average. Secondly, the overall differences in the urban eco-efficiency of all sample cities show a consistently fluctuating downward trend. The factor that affects the level differences of eco-efficiency in different cities is the intra-regional differences. Last but not least, the top three factors affecting the spatial distribution difference of urban eco-efficiency in the whole sample are environmental pollution control investments, innovation level, and environmental infrastructure investments. In the end, this paper proposes that reducing the intra-regional differences is the primary task to achieve the coordinated improvement of urban eco-efficiency in urban agglomerations, and then puts forward some policy suggestions to improve eco-efficiency for the five major urban agglomerations., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Judicial improvement and trade structure optimization are important elements in achieving a high level of openness. This paper develops a theoretical framework on the impact of local protectionism on market integration and export technical complexity, and then empirically analyses the effect of judicial improvement on the technical complexity of urban product exports and its mechanism of action based on a quasi-natural experiment with the establishment of circuit courts. The study finds that the establishment of circuit courts significantly increases the technical complexity of product exports, and the findings remain valid after a series of robustness tests. Further analysis shows that the technology enhancement effect of the establishment of circuit courts is more pronounced in the group of cities with higher administrative levels, better location advantages, and less advanced rule of law. Mechanism Analysis shows that a superior institutional environment can have a two-sided effect on different types of firms. Overall, however, the productivity-enhancing effect of low-productivity firms exiting the market is lower than the productivity-reducing effect of higher-productivity firms' increased compliance costs, which in turn weakens the positive promotional effect of circuit courts. The above theoretical and empirical findings provide policy implications for maximizing the technology enhancement effect of the establishment of circuit courts on product exports, thereby promoting a high level of openness in China., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Gao, Kong. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Direct synthesis of organophosphorus compounds from white phosphorus represents a significant but challenging subject, especially in the context of ongoing efforts to comprehensively improve the phosphorus-derived chemical industry driven by sustainability and safety concerns. China is the world's largest producer of white phosphorus, creating a significant demand for the green transformation of this crucial feedstock. This review provides an overview of advancements in white phosphorus activation by Chinese research teams, focusing on the direct construction of P‒C/N/O/S/M bonds from white phosphorus. Additionally, we offer some insights into prospective directions for the activation and transformation of white phosphorus in the future. This review paper aims to attract more researchers to engage in this area, stimulating follow-up exploration and fostering enduring advances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to explore the relative efficiency of China's research universities of science and technology. According to the finding, when talent training is the only output, the efficiency of research universities of science and technology is far lower than that of comprehensive universities. However, when the outputs of scientific research and social service are taken into consideration, the former will increase remarkably and even exceeds the latter. Moreover, the research universities of science and technology have a higher inner homogeneity because their standard deviation of efficiency score is obviously lower. The study also reveals that the number of research universities of science and technology with redundant inputs is more than that of comprehensive universities. Beyond that, the environmental variables and statistical noise exert no significant effect on the efficiency of Chinese research universities.