Search

With the rapid growth in the number of passenger cars (PCs) in China over the past decades, more than ten million tons of used tires have already become solid wastes and subsequently caused serious environmental issues. Due to the presence of synthetic rubber in PC tires, waste PC tires cannot be disposed through rubber reclaiming technology. Thus, waste PC tires have become one of fastest growing solid wastes in China. First, the current disposal capacity of the pyrolysis method, regarded as a promising technology for the disposal of waste PC tires, is surveyed and compared with other disposal methods mentioned in previous papers. Second, this work establishes a model to predict the total number of waste PC tires in the next five years depending on the rate of PC growth and current waste tire disposal capacity. Moreover, pyrolysis is evaluated on 15 collected waste PC tires selected from the most representative tire brands in the Chinese market. The corresponding results imply that ∼68.5% of S was into oil and ∼44.3% N and large amount of heavy metals resided in solid carbon which severely limit further applications. Finally, a new pyrolysis technology is introduced that may represent a solution to the limits in the application of tire disposal methods and relief for the coming waste tire crisis.

We add to the emerging literature on empirical asset pricing in the Chinese stock market by building and analyzing a comprehensive set of factors with 1,160 signals for return prediction. Using various machine learning algorithms, we investigate which signals dominate in the Chinese market, a market characterized by a large proportion of retail investors with speculative motives, state-owned firms, and short-sales restrictions. Contrary to studies for the U.S. market, liquidity and fundamental factors emerge as the most important predictors, while price trend signals are less significant. We find that retail investors' dominating presence positively affects short-term predictability, particularly for small stocks. Another feature that distinguishes the Chinese from the U.S. market is the high predictability of large stocks and state-owned enterprises over longer horizons. Our portfolio analysis shows that this overall increased predictability leads to significantly higher out-of-sample performance than in other markets, which remains economically significant after transaction costs.

Default risk prediction can not only provide forward-looking and timely risk measures for regulators and investors, but also improve the stability of the financial system. However, the determinants of corporate default risk in China have not been well-identified. An empirical analysis was conducted using a unique dataset of default events in the Chinese market to fill this gap. First, we demonstrated that the default probability estimated by a structural model, which is widely used in the literature, do not fully reveal the default risk of firms in China. Second, we classified default events into minor and major defaults for empirical analysis. We found that firms that survive minor defaults behave differently from other bankrupt firms. Our results suggest that the determinants of corporate default risk in China and the United States differ. We also found that a firm’s continued increase in cash holdings is one of the most important signs of default. Overall, our study significantly improves the accuracy of forecasting corporate default risk in China.

The agricultural futures prices are generally considered difficult to forecast because the causes of fluctuations are incredibly complicated. We propose a text-based forecasting framework, which can effectively identify and quantify factors affecting agricultural futures based on massive online news headlines. A comprehensive list of influential factors can be formed using a text mining method called topic modeling. A new sentiment-analysis-based way is designed to quantify the factors such as the weather and policies that are important yet difficult to quantify. The proposed framework is empirically tested at forecasting soybean futures prices in the Chinese market. Testing was based on 9715 online news headlines from July 19, 2012 to July 9, 2018. The results show that the identified influential factors and sentiment-based variables are effective, and the proposed framework performs significantly better in medium-term and long-term forecasting than the benchmark model.

Although online retailing has expanded dramatically over the past decade, research on the topic by economic geographers remains sparse. One recent hitherto unstudied trend has seen online retailers establishing physical grocery store networks in the Chinese market. This paper utilizes a case study of Alibaba’s Hema grocery store chain to identify and analyze the distinctive and innovative methods that online retailers are adopting in the Chinese food retail market in the context of developing physical stores. Four aspects of innovation are examined, namely: format innovation involving the store as a local fulfillment centre providing efficient last-mile delivery; developing a more consumer-centric retail model; transforming domestic supply networks; and sourcing live seafood globally. These developments are all achieved and facilitated by the strong data-driven capabilities of Hema in the context of the wider Alibaba platform ecosystem. Overall, the paper demonstrates how the digital data capabilities of online retailers embedded in wider platform business groups are rapidly altering the competitive landscape of the food retail sector in China.

Green bonds, which are designated for specific climate and environment-related projects, have been a promising financing tool for mitigating global climate change. The global green bond market has developed rapidly since the first green bond was issued by European Investment Bank (EIB) in 2007. Among the emerging markets, China is especially impressive, with an exploding expansion of green bonds since 2016. Nevertheless, concerns remain regarding the future development of green bonds for sustainable finance, particularly about inconsistent standards across countries and unfitting government involvement associated with green bonds.

Electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) plays an important role in influencing Chinese consumers’ brand perceptions. While domestic social media managers are keen to understand how to protect their brands, their foreign counterparts are keen to reduce consumer ethnocentrism in order to gain a foothold in the Chinese market. This study uses an online survey to investigate whether positive and negative e-WOM enhance or weaken consumer ethnocentrism and brand equity towards domestic and foreign smart phone brands. Findings suggests that both positive and negative e-WOM influence consumer ethnocentrism and that these effects are contingent upon brand origin. Furthermore, findings show that the effects of positive and negative e-WOM on brand equity are consistent, irrespective of brand origin. Interestingly, consumer ethnocentrism has a positive effect on brand equity for domestic brands, but does not have a negative effect on brand equity for foreign brands. The study further discusses theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

Financialization of the economy is a widespread phenomenon of capital flowing between industries and the financial sector in China. This paper focuses on the relationship between financialization and future core business performance in Chinese listed companies that have been deeply involved in financialization activities over the past decades. It is shown that financialization quickly drags down the future core business performance of enterprises; this is evidenced by the crowding-out effect experienced by listed companies in China during the sample period. The financialization of enterprises has reduced their support for research and development expenditures and the number of patent applications and grants, which reduces a company’s core business growth potential and limits its future profitability. In order for the Chinese market to benefit as expected from the reservoir effect, China needs to guard against the excessive financialization of real enterprises. In the current stage of enterprise development, a high level of internal control can effectively alleviate financialization’s crowding-out effect, and a good macroeconomic environment is guaranteed to reduce the motivation of enterprise financialization as well as slow the financialization process.

This paper performs a two-stage methodology based on the Structural VAR and time-varying parameter regression models to examine the dynamic reaction of a set of oil-related countries’ stock markets to oil price shocks. Oil prices are studied by disentangling demand and supply shocks. Based on monthly data from the 1999–2018 period, the results report evidence of a time-varying reaction of all stock market returns to different oil shocks. Moreover, the stock returns react to the demand shocks more than to the supply shocks. Besides, the effect of supply shocks on stock returns is generally limited and negative, while the aggregate demand shocks exert a positive effect on almost all stock returns. Oil-specific demand shocks have positive effects on the oil-exporting stock returns and negative effects in the case of oil-importing countries, except for the Chinese market. These findings have important policy implications for policymakers and investors.

Background Better midsole materials and comfort have been incorporated into more expensive shoes and are popular with runners. Consequently, knockoff running shoes are currently widely distributed in the Chinese market and and cost only 30%–50% of the total price of genuine branded products. Research question Uncertainty exists concerning the beneficial effects of advanced shoe material application in decreasing foot loading or impact force during running. Additionally, using comfort as a criterion to identify genuine branded running shoes may exclude brand factor. Methods Fifteen healthy male volunteers were asked to perform two different tests, including running and a comfort evaluation. Each participant was asked to identify which footwear was the Adidas brand shoe based on their perception of comfort. Results Time to the first peak of the vertical ground reaction force occurred significantly later when subjects wore the genuine branded shoe compared to knockoff shoe 1 (p = 0.003) and knockoff shoe 2 (p = 0.015) footwea. The genuine branded shoe (p = 0.005) and knockoff shoe 1 (p = 0.029) were significantly more comfortable compared to the knockoff shoe 2. Only four subjects selected the genuine branded shoe, whereas six subjects selected both the genuine branded shoe and knockoff shoe 1. Significance Knockoff running footwear significantly increases impact loading compared to the genuine branded product, thereby posing greater risk of running injury.

In this paper, we report the construction of two accurate mass databases and the development of a combination detection method that simultaneously screens for 733 pesticide and chemical contaminant multi-residues via high-throughput gas chromatography (GC)– and liquid chromatography (LC)–quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Q-TOFMS). This work demonstrates that electronic mass spectral standards may replace chemical-source standard materials as references through one sample preparation and the combination of GC/LC–Q-TOFMS screening. This cutting-edge technique has also replaced multi-residue determination using targeted detection with non-targeted screening. The pesticide residue types, sensitivity, recovery, and reproducibility of this combination technique are evaluated in eight fruit and vegetable matrices. This technique shows three advantages: ① In comparison with the discovery capability of a single technique, the combination technique shows an improvement of 51.1% (GC–Q-TOFMS) and 39.6% (LC–Q-TOFMS), respectively; ② the combination technique can satisfy a screening limit lower than 10 μg·kg−1 and meet the requirements of “uniform standards,” although some of the pesticide residues could be optimized to further improve screening sensitivity; ③ over 488 pesticides with recoveries between 60% and 120% and relative standard deviation (RSD) ≤ 20% at a spiked level of 10 μg·kg−1 were detected with the combination technique in eight different matrices. From 2012 to 2017, this combination technique was applied in an investigation to screen pesticide residues from 1384 sampling locations for 38 138 batched samples covering 18 categories and 134 types of fruits and vegetables obtained from across the mainland of China. After statistical analysis, 533 pesticides in 115 891 determinations were detected, and the regularity of pesticides in the fruits and vegetables sold on the Chinese market was shown.

The past decade has witnessed a remarkable growth of automobile sales and production in emerging economies, with China developing into the largest global auto market since 2009. This paper focuses on an important but neglected aspect in these emerging markets, namely, vehicle recalls. The aim of this study is twofold. The first is to show that a significant difference exists in the number and volume of vehicle recalls between the emerging Chinese market and the established US market; the second is to detect whether this difference can be attributed to the initiator level (voluntary versus involuntary recalls) and/or the firm level (organizational ownership structure and nationality of the foreign partner in international joint ventures). To that end, we quantify the recall performance by means of 4 metrics: total number of recall events per annum (NRE), total number of units recalled per annum (NUR), average number of vehicles recalled per event per annum (NRPE), and recall rate (RR); for each of these, we benchmark the US market and assess the relative performance of the investigated market using a bootstrap method. The empirical results indicate that the recall metrics in the Chinese market have un-derperformed relative to those of the established market. This is extremely pertinent in light of the current "Going Out" policy put forward by the Chinese government, as subpar quality awareness hampers the successful access of Chinese automakers to foreign markets. The authors would like to thank the Editor-in-Chief, and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that helpedimprove the manuscript. The work was partially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.71971219, 71402048, 71790615, and 71671060

Efforts by the People's Republic of China to influence Japan to espouse policies favored by Beijing have been far less noticeable than those involving other countries, particularly Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. In part, this is due to the more closed nature of Japanese society compared to other democratic states. Ironically, Japan has been criticized for what some observers see as exclusionary attitudes. In this sense, such attitudes have provided a measure of protection from China's efforts. Some of these attempts at political influence have succeeded nonetheless. Japan's desire to participate fully in the Chinese market, as well as the forces of globalization, have increased its vulnerability, while the government recently has undertaken efforts to address these vulnerabilities.

This study investigates the impact of political connections in terms of party alternation on stock returns in Taiwan. It considers two major political parties namely: Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which compete for presidency every four years and acquired the power during the 2008 and 2016 election, alternately. Taiwan's stock market is export-oriented and considered as one of the major trade partner of China. KMT strongly advocates the importance of the Chinese market while DPP views it in opposite position. This study conjectures that different perspectives of these political parties will affect the existing trade treaties and reflect on the stock market performance. We compare the export rate effect to firms during the leadership of KMT and DPP. Our study reveals that export rate is positively related on stock returns when KMT won the president election. The effect is stronger to firms with high export rate and connected to KMT than firms with low export rate and connected to DPP. This study shows a negative effect on stock returns when DPP won the president election. This result is contrast to the previous study on the impact of PC on stock returns.

This study confirms that the Fama and French (2015) five-factor model is superior to other traditional asset pricing models in explaining individual stock returns in China over the 1994–2016 period. However, several Chinese market features considerably influence the explanatory power of these known risk factors for stock returns. With possible differences in market microstructure, the exchange in which the stocks are listed alters the model performance. Moreover, the Share-Structure Reform is found to cause a structural change in the model performance. A further analysis reveals that the explanatory power of the five-factor model varies with time. Overall, this study identifies some pitfalls that arise in the application of the five-factor model to Chinese stocks.

We examine the effect of short selling on analyst forecast quality following the pilot program in China in 2010 that allows short selling for selected companies. We find that reduction in short sale constraints significantly improves analyst forecast quality for these pilot-firms when compared to non-pilot firms. Specifically, analyst forecast errors for pilot firms are smaller and forecast dispersions are narrower. Further, we show that the improvement of analyst forecast quality is more prominent for firms with lower prior price efficiencies and disclosure quality, and in locations with lower institutional development. Our findings suggest that short selling activities serve an important role in facilitating the speed of information incorporation and improving the information environment faced by firms.

Fatty acid (FA) and triacylglycerol (TAG) composition plays an important role in the nutritional value of infant formulas. The profiles of FAs and TAGs, and regioisomers (rac) of dioleoyl-palmitoylglycerol (OPO) and dipalmitoyl-oleoylglycerol (PPO) in ten brands of infant formulas were analysed and compared between infant formulas labelled as containing rac-OPO (OPO-Fs) or not labelled as such (OPO-NFs). The predominant difference was that OPO-Fs mainly contained rac-OPO (∼70%) and rac-PPO (>95%), while OPO-NFs mainly contained rac-OOP (65.24–100%) and rac-POP (∼90%). With rac-OPO supplementation, the levels of saturated FAs (especially palmitic acid) and TAGs improved. The same results were observed in infant formulas supplemented with palm searin. The levels of short chain FAs, odd-numbered saturated FAs, stearic, myristoleic and palmitoleic acids were mainly affected by the basic materials of infant formulas. Coconut and palm kernel oil addition enhanced the concentrations of medium chain FAs and TAGs.

With booming of the automobile industry, China has become the country with increasing car ownership all over the world. However, the end-of-life vehicle (ELV) recycling industry is at infancy, and there is little systematic review on ELV recycling management, as well as low adoption amongst domestic automobile industry. This study presents a literature review and an interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach is employed to identify the drivers towards Chinese ELV recycling business from government, recycling organizations and consumer's perspectives, so as to improve the sustainability of automobile supply chain by providing some strategic insights. The results derived from the ISM analysis manifest that regulations on auto-factory, disassembly technique, and value mining of recycling business are the essential ingredients. It is most effective and efficient to promote ELV recycling business by improving these attributes, also the driving and dependence power analysis are deemed to provide guidance on performance improvement of ELV recycling in the Chinese market.

Although numerous studies have confirmed the positive link between corporate donations and consumers' attitudes toward companies, the influence of CEOs' personal donations on consumers' attitudes toward companies remains unknown. This paper addresses this gap in the Chinese context. The results from three studies show that a CEO's personal donations may influence consumers' attitude toward the CEO's company, and this influence is stronger than the influence of the company's donation. CEO type moderates the influence. Furthermore, there is an interactive effect between the CEO's donation and his/her company's donation on consumers' attitude toward the company. Consumers tend to have more positive attitudes toward a company when the CEO donates but the company does not than when the CEO does not donate but the company does. Such effects are moderated by consumers' thinking style. Our studies provide implications for companies seeking to strengthen their market position through CSR in the Chinese market.

In this paper, I find that sorting stocks into portfolios based on their residual, as opposed to raw past returns, generates significant profits in the Chinese equity market and cannot be subsumed by the well-established factor models. Moreover, the residual momentum profits do not reverse in the long run (up to three years), supporting the investor underreaction hypothesis. Further analysis reveals that residual momentum is priced in the cross-section of stock returns whereas the Carhart (1997) momentum factor is found to be redundant for describing average stock returns.

Travel is the best education. There has been, however, a paucity of research investigating educational benefits for children that motivate family travelers, in particular for the burgeoning Chinese market. This paper develops a conceptual model to test hypothesized relationships leading from motivation for children's experiential learning to educational benefits, through engagement at world heritage site (WHS) locations. In addition, the joint moderating effect of the WHS′ brand awareness and generation of Chinese family travelers is investigated. The results indicate that family travel at a WHS brings positive learning outcomes. Furthermore, children's experiential learning is more effective at a well-known WHS, although this moderating effect is diminishing among Generation Y family travelers. These findings advance the knowledge of Chinese family tourists and their generational differences in educational practices during travel. Managerial and marketing implications are also discussed.

Based on an online survey with 1164 participants, this paper investigates the risk perceptions and anticipation of insurance demand for autonomous vehicles in the Chinese market. The findings reveal that autonomous vehicles are highly familiar and have a positive impression in China. Of the respondents, 42.35% and 45.28% expect lower risk and lower insurance premiums for autonomous vehicles, respectively. By using one-way analyses of variance, this paper further examines the statistical effects of perception of autonomous vehicles, insurance purchases and claim experiences as well as personal information on responses to risk perception and insurance anticipation. Several significant factors were found that correlate with each other. Both the understanding of autonomous vehicles and personal information affect risk perception of autonomous vehicles, all of which collectively determine the anticipation of insurance demand for autonomous vehicles.

Mobile personal cloud storage services (PCSSs) have become increasingly common among mobile users in recent years. Prior studies largely focused on understanding users' early adoption of mobile PCSSs, but attention to post-adoption switching behavior is still rare. Based on the push-pull-mooring framework of migration theory, to explore the factors that influence the voluntary switching intentions of mobile PCSS users in the Chinese market, we developed a model around three effects: pushing, pulling, and mooring. The results show that two push factors (privacy risk and security risk), six pull factors (referent network size, complementarity, usefulness, technical compatibility, lifestyle compatibility, and enjoyment), and two mooring factors (habit and switching cost) have significant effects on switching intention. Moreover, referent network size, total network size, complementarity, technical compatibility, lifestyle compatibility and enjoyment are significant to usefulness, and usefulness mediates between them and switching intention. The findings will help practitioners devise proper strategies for retaining current users and attracting new users.

By using evidence of the pricing of idiosyncratic skewness (IS), which can represent gambling preferences, our paper finds that the Chinese stock market has a significant gambling pricing anomaly of “higher IS and lower subsequent returns”. Moreover, this paper discusses the reasons for this strong gambling atmosphere in the Chinese market. We find that (1) individual investor attention and trading behavior are important drivers of gambling behavior and that (2) in addition to the irrational behavior of individual investors, arbitrage restrictions in the market may further exacerbate this gambling atmosphere. Therefore, our study suggests that to increase the market's efficiency, market regulators should strengthen the appropriate guidance and management for individual investors and consider relaxing additional arbitrage limits.

We examine the investing behavior of investors in Private Equity (PE) funds in the Chinese market including choice of fund, commitment amount and performance. The Chinese PE market is characterized by information asymmetries, an uncertain regulatory environment, cultural and legal difficulties involved in executing transactions and differing investor risk appetites. The results suggest that foreign investors seek manager and fund characteristics that lessen information asymmetry We find that they are more likely to invest with firms that are more experienced and not government-affiliated. Foreigners are also more likely to invest in larger funds. We show that the size of an investor's commitment amount is determined by fund characteristics such as size, sequence, and stage. In terms of performance, we find some evidence indicating that domestic investor-backed PE funds exit a greater number of companies, and that their exited investments deliver higher returns relative to exits executed by PE funds supported by foreign investors.

Bisphenol A (BPA), a well-known endocrine disruptor, is used as a color developer in thermal paper. More recently, some emerging structural analogues have been introduced to replace BPA due to the strengthened regulations concerning thermal paper. Nevertheless, very limited data are available regarding their occurrence and potential health risks. Here, thirteen potentially toxic compounds were investigated in paper products (120 thermal papers and 81 nonthermal papers) collected in Beijing, China. The results indicated that the replacement of BPA by alternatives such as Bisphenol S (BPS), Bis(2-chloroethyl)ether-4,4″-dihydroxydiphenyl sulfone copolymer (D-90), 4-hydroxyphenyl 4-isoprooxyphenylsulfone (D-8), Bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)sulfonylphenyl (BPS-MAE) and Bis-(3-allyl-4-hydroxyphenyl) sulfone (TGSA) has been significantly advanced in several types of thermal paper (i.e., market weight stickers, train tickets, express labels, air boarding passes and lottery tickets). The mean value for the total analyte concentrations in thermal paper was 6.06 mg/g, and the highest level found was 26.0 mg/g. In addition, the frequent detection of these chemicals in nonthermal paper (>80%, n = 81) demonstrated that the contamination in thermal paper can be spread into other recycled paper, such as corrugated boxes, newspapers, food contact papers, etc. The estimated daily intake of BPA and its alternatives through the handling of thermal paper was 0.025 μg/kg bw/day for the general population. This is the first report on the occurrence of various new BPA alternatives in paper products from China, which will be helpful for further risk assessment and making responsible replacement decisions.

Liquid chromatography coupled to isotope ratio mass spectrometry (LC-IRMS) was developed for determinations of caffeine δ13C from commercial tea in the Chinese market under lower temperature condition. On the basis of the carbon isotope analysis of 116 commercial tea samples including black tea, Oolong tea, green tea, dark tea, white tea, yellow tea and scented tea, it explained that the range of caffeine δ13C for commercial tea were from −26.14 to −33.68‰. Partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) modeling of caffeine δ13C data indicated that six main types of Chinese tea presented significant difference, and caffeine δ13C in Chinese tea was related to the fermented process except yellow tea. The method was also used for measurement of caffeine δ13C in the 19 tea drinks, and the results showed that caffeine in the seven tea drinks was not from the natural tea. Thus, LC-IRMS can be very promising tool for evaluation of natural caffeine from commercial tea and tea drinks authenticity.

Using the renaming of companies in the Chinese market, where managers are more likely to take advantage of cosmetic effects in an attempt to influence investors, we find that, during the announcement period, the stock price and trading activities both react positively to renaming, especially when it is for image improvement reasons. However, in the long run, renaming has negative BHARs (buy and hold abnormal returns). Over time, the market and investors overreact less to renaming. Companies with problematic financial performance and negative media coverage are more inclined to change their name. We offer new and more detailed evidence to support the rational pricing hypothesis, rather than the investor mania hypothesis.

This study examines Chinese adult children’s holiday travel with their parents as a unique type of family travel. A netnographic examination of 158 detailed online blogs was conducted to explore the adult children’s motivations for taking such travels. The results of the netnographic study revealed that the motivations for traveling with their parents by Chinese young adults include health and recovery, novelty and knowledge, commemoration and celebration, dream fulfillment, family togetherness and relationship, compensation and reward, expression of filial piety, escape and relaxation, and pleasure seeking. These motivations can be classified as parent-oriented motivations, family-oriented motivations and self-oriented motivations. The study identifies features of the adult children-senior parents’ travel market and offers insights about the continuity of family roles in the social context of an aging Chinese society. Marketing implications for this growing Chinese market are provided.

With increasing ecommerce penetration, it is believed that consumers are spending more shopping time online and away from physical stores. This brings to question the role of physical stores in an increasingly digitized landscape and whether they remain relevant. The measurement of the impact of physical stores has been characterized by the difficulty of attributing the increase in online sales to customers seeing and experiencing products showcased in physical stores, as this information is not typically observed and captured. Should physical stores remain valuable in the digital age, which products should be showcased in stores? In this study, we attempt to shed light on these questions using a quasi-experiment, taking place through a nationwide retailer that expanded its physical presence during the study period. This work distinguishes from past studies in that it studies purchasing behavior in the underexplored Chinese market. Through a ``triple-differences'' framework, we provide a more direct evidence on the effect of the physical channel on online sales outcomes. We find that online sales for products showcased in physical stores increase for both high and low involvement products, suggesting that two possible mechanisms are at work in driving the online sales of showcased products.

This paper examines whether and how business diversification affects financialization in non-financial corporations. Using data from the Chinese market, we find that business diversification strategy will significantly increase non-financial corporations' investment in financial assets. Furthermore, exacerbated agency problems, increased investment inefficiency and high operational risk are found to be the consequences of business diversification, which induce companies to hold high-risk financial assets. The impact of business diversification on financial investment is stronger in small-cap firms, SOEs, and firms with weak monitoring mechanisms. Finally, the diversification effect on corporate financialization is more significant where regional economic development and regulatory environment is weak.

Soybean proteins are the main component of plant‐based meat alternatives in the Chinese market. The effects of non-covalent interactions between polyphenols and proteins on the protein structures, the rest physicochemical properties, and formations of heterocyclic amines (HAs) were examined using a polyphenols-containing soybean protein isolate (SPI) complex as a model to dry heating at 170℃ for 10 min. The results showed that tetrahydro-curcumin had extensive inhibitory effects on the HA formation. In addition, tea polyphenols, grapeseed procyanidins, and dihydromyricetin were also found to have inhibitory effects only on some HAs. Correlation analysis showed that polyphenols altered the secondary structure and steric structure of the protein by interacting with the protein, which affects the HA formation. The results provided theoretical references and a basis for the formation mechanisms of HAs in polyphenol-inhibiting protein foods.

We investigate the foreign and domestic credit ratings on Chinese seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). Our results indicate a negative association between acquiring credit ratings and SEO underpricing. Ratings from the international agent Moody’s and multiple ratings contribute more to reducing market uncertainty and underpricing than local rating agencies. This finding is attributed to the intense competition in the Chinese market, which exacerbates the conflicts of interest between local rating agencies and rated firms. The negative association disappears in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), in firms with political connections, and for issuers located in the specific economic development areas.

Aim: With a view to finding a method for Spanish wine to open up a wider market in China, this paper analyses the opportunities and threats that Spanish wine faces in the Chinese market in order to understand the Chinese and Spanish wine market, and analyses how Spanish wine exporters export wine to China. Methodology: Data analysis, bibliographical search and case study. The main source of data on the wine market in China and Spain was the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV). For the information on the case, the company Torres, this was obtained mainly from the content published on their official website. Results: The study revealed that the main competitors of Spanish wine in the Chinese wine market are France, Chile and Australia. Economic relations and trade policies between countries have a major impact on the wine trade. In addition, Spanish wine exporters need to pay attention to consumer characteristics in the Chinese market, so that Spanish wine can create a clear image for Chinese consumers, combining multiple online and offline distribution channels to improve their performance in the Chinese market. Limitations: The study identifies different factors that influence the export of Spanish wine to the Chinese market, but lacks more specific figures, coupled with information to be able to analyse in depth the different degrees of importance of these factors.

Existing research attributes investor return heterogeneity to individual characteristics such as sophistication. We bring a new perspective from the supply side by showing that return heterogeneity can be magnified as assets offered by the market become more complex. Using detailed account-level data, we examine the trading of B funds—complex, structured products in the Chinese market. During a three-year market cycle, the return gap between the naive and sophisticated is an order-of-magnitude greater when trading B funds than when trading simple, non-structured funds. In an event study, we confirm that this disparity is driven by differences in investors’ understanding of product complexity.

Previous studies of the U.S. market regard short-term reversal as compensation for liquidity provision. However, we find that intraday reversal has no significant dependence on stock liquidity for the Chinese market. Hence, based on a stylized framework, we propose an alternative explanation: uninformed retail traders, who underestimate the information component in equilibrium price due to physiologi cal anchor, trade against previous price movement, generating an opposing price pressure. The empirical results confirm this liquidity oversupply explanation. The negative correlation between previous intraday returns and future returns in the Chinese market is reversed once we extend the holding period. This indicates that reversal is a pricing error due to excessive liquidity provision from uninformed retail traders instead of a price correction from a temporary price concession due to lack of liquidity.

Low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) are heterogeneous mixtures of glycosaminoglycan chains composed of mixture of different lengths and substitution patterns. Structural characterization and quality control of LMWHs have always been challenging. The Chinese drug regulatory authorities have been committed to improve the supervision standards of LMWHs to better regulate the quality and safety of LMWHs in current Chinese market. In the present paper, 80 batches of three types LMWHs (dalteparin, enoxaparin and naldroparin) marketed in China from different manufacturers were studied by 1H NMR experiments and chemometric analysis. The method can be used not only to monitor impurities and contaminants, but also to check the batch-to-batch consistency of each manufacture. Moreover, for the biosimilar LMWHs from different manufactures, they can be differentiated and clustered according to their slightly different structural compositions originated from production process. By using this method, the quality and safety of LMWHs marketed in China were initially assessed.

New ventures have to develop innovative new products with substantial advantages over existing products to gain a market foothold. Building on the institution-based view, we examine how institutional environments in emerging markets (legal inadequacy and environmental turbulence) differentially moderate the innovativeness-new product performance links in new ventures. Using a sample of 136 new high-tech ventures in China, we find that technological innovativeness and market innovativeness both are associated with perceived new product performance, and the effect of market innovativeness is significantly greater than that of technological innovativeness. The relationship between technological innovativeness and perceived new product performance is strengthened by high levels of environmental turbulence but weakened by high levels of legal inadequacy. On the contrary, the link between market innovativeness and perceived new product performance is enhanced when legal inadequacy is high but mitigated when environmental turbulence is high. As such, our research enriches the new product development literature by differentiating the effects of technological innovativeness and market innovativeness in new ventures, and specifying the distinctive roles played by external institutional factors in facilitating or hindering the efficacy of product innovativeness. Our study provides new venture managers with practical implications on how to choose and implement an appropriate product innovativeness strategy in the emerging Chinese market.

In this study the labelling compliance of 40 caviar products collected from a major Chinese Business to Customer online platform was assessed. The label information was analyzed according to the requirements of the Chinese standard for prepackaged food and of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Resolution on Conservation and trade in sturgeons and paddlefish. A molecular analysis based on DNA barcoding targeting two mitochondrial genes (COI and cytb) was used to support the label assessment. All products were fully compliant to the national labelling standard, and they were verified as belonging to Chinese producing plants. On the contrary, CITES requirements were never satisfied and no reference to the production method (wild catch or aquaculture) and to the origin of the roes processed for caviar production was reported. The sturgeon species or hybrid were declared in 32.5% of the products. Despite the limits in discriminating among Acipenser spp. and commercial hybrids, the molecular analysis was confirmed as an effective screening tool to monitor products authenticity. The molecular analysis highlighted no counterfeiting with heterologous species, being all the products confirmed as sturgeon species. However, 42.5% of the products did not fully match their label information. Evidences from the study stressed the need to fill an evident gap in the traceability of caviar products by promoting the use of CITES labelling to ensure products fair trade and sustainability, as well as consumers protection.

This study seeks to assess the factors influencing the satisfaction of Chinese tourists when they undertake self-drive international vacations. There are few existing studies about this independent travel market. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken to gather initial views about the attributes contributing to self-drive satisfaction. A questionnaire-based survey was then employed in Shanghai. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to test the factors which significantly affected tourists’ satisfaction. Analysis of the data reflected some of the findings from limited previous studies of other international groups: the scenery, road facilities, and available activities all have a significant positive impact on satisfaction. However, for the Chinese drive tourists, the responses of the local community to their trip, as well as key environmental issues, notably air quality, are distinctively important concerns. Implications are identified for international destination management organizations which are interested in promoting to and developing this self-drive Chinese market.

In the present study, a risk assessment of plant food supplements (PFS), traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) and herbal teas containing alkenylbenzenes was performed using the Margin of Exposure (MOE) approach. The levels of alkenylbenzenes in botanical preparations collected on the Chinese market were quantified and the combined estimated daily intake (EDI) was determined using dose additivity. The combined EDI values obtained assuming equal potency of all alkenylbenzenes detected in the PFS, TCM and herbal teas were 0.3 to 14.3, 0.05 to 539.4 and 0.04 to 42.5 μg/kg bw/day, respectively. Calculating combined EDI values taking into account the toxic equivalency (TEQ) approach, the values for PFS, TCM and herbal teas were 0.3 to 7.7, 0.05 to 278.0 and 0.02 to 16.5 μg estragole equivalents/kg bw/day, respectively. The MOE values resulting from consumption of these PFS, TCM and one cup of herbal tea per day during life-time were generally lower than 10 000, suggesting a potential priority for risk management. For short-term exposure such as two weeks consumption, applying Haber's rule, only one TCM 6 (四神丸) still had an MOE value below 10 000. It is concluded that selected consumption of Chinese botanical preparations raise a concern because of exposure to alkenylbenzenes, especially when exposure is for longer periods of time.

Formaldehyde is one of the primary indoor air contaminants that widely exists in construction materials and household consumable products. Acute exposure to formaldehyde causes irritation and dermal allergies, while chronic exposure can result in DNA and chromosomal damage. However, only a handful studies have evaluated formaldehyde removal capacities of portable air cleaners (PACs) both in the field and in the laboratory. The laboratory performance of PACs has not been statistically compared with their field performance. This study evaluated the initial formaldehyde removal capabilities of several relatively popular commercial sorption-based PACs in Chinese market by measuring their clean air delivery rates (CADRs) in an 8 m3 environmental chamber. The modified ‘pull-down’ method was applied in this study, and the total operation time of the tested PACs was 1.5 h. The laboratory results showed wide variations in the CADRs (13.8 m3/h to 75.6 m3/h), which was in agreement with the CADRs reported in previous studies. A single-zone field test under natural ventilation was also conducted in a bedroom with an area of 25 m2 and a volume of 67.5 m3 using the best performing PAC. The results were statistically analyzed for any significant difference between the laboratory and field data. The difference between the laboratory and field performance of the tested PAC was insignificant at a confidence level of 95%.

Light-duty gasoline vehicles have drawn public attention in China due to their significant primary emissions of particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). However, little information on secondary aerosol formation from exhaust for Chinese vehicles and fuel conditions is available. In this study, chamber experiments were conducted to quantify the potential of secondary aerosol formation from the exhaust of a port fuel injection gasoline engine. The engine and fuel used are common in the Chinese market, and the fuel satisfies the China V gasoline fuel standard. Substantial secondary aerosol formation was observed during a 4–5 hr simulation, which was estimated to represent more than 10 days of equivalent atmospheric photo-oxidation in Beijing. As a consequence, the extreme case secondary organic aerosol (SOA) production was 426 ± 85 mg/kg-fuel, with high levels of precursors and OH exposure. The low hygroscopicity of the aerosols formed inside the chamber suggests that SOA was the dominant chemical composition. Fourteen percent of SOA measured in the chamber experiments could be explained through the oxidation of speciated single-ring aromatics. Unspeciated precursors, such as intermediate-volatility organic compounds and semi-volatile organic compounds, might be significant for SOA formation from gasoline VOCs. We concluded that reductions of emissions of aerosol precursor gases from vehicles are essential to mediate pollution in China.

The sn-2 fatty acid composition of 180 commercial infant, follow-on and growing-up formulas with three fat sources (plant oil, cows' milk and goats' milk) was investigated and compared with mature human milk (MHM). Sn-2 fatty acids in formulas were mostly dependent on fat source and stage. Compared with MHM, all types of formulas contained lower levels of palmitic acid (PA), saturated fatty acid and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA), and higher levels of oleic acid (OA), linoleic acid (LA) and α-linolenic acid (LNA) at the sn-2 position. Even some formulas were supplemented with 1,3-dioleoyl-2-palmitoylglycerol, the proportions of relative PA at the sn-2 position in formulas were much lower than that in MHM. Moreover, formulas had higher proportions of relative OA, LA and LNA, and lower LC-PUFAs at the sn-2 position. This study indicated that there were significant differences in the positional distribution of fatty acids between formulas and MHM.

Although the literature (Massa et al., 2011; Karpoff and Lu, 2010) demonstrates the disciplinary effects of short sales on managers, no study has analyzed how short sales can mitigate the agency costs of controlling large shareholders. Using the introduction of short sales in China as an exogenous event, we show that short sales also serve as an effective mechanism in curbing expropriation by the controlling large shareholder. The disciplinary effect is more pronounced for firms with higher ownership concentration and bankruptcy risk, and it is muted when alternative governance mechanisms are in place. Our paper provides new insights into the effects of short sales in the corporate governance domain, specifically in mitigating the agency costs between controlling and minority shareholders.

Establishing rapid and correct detection methods to identify cod fish species is very important to promote labels correction and control fraud behavior. This study developed a systematic method mainly using visible loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) to identify cod and oil fish that are commonly found from the Chinese market. Specific primer sets were designed based on the Cytb gene of each species, and four primer sets were found to successfully achieve very high specificity in identifying the corresponding targeting species, including Gadus morhua, Gadus macrocephalus, Theragra chalcogramma and two oilfish species (Ruvettus pretiosus and Lepidocybium flavobrunneum), respectively. The discrimination of Merluccius australis, Dissostichus eleginoides and Anoplopoma fimbria can be realized by a two-step method with only LAMP or qPCR. The relatively systematic primers and methods explored in this study can be successfully applied against the serious mislabels and adulterations in cod fish market.

Vaccine is a principal and highly cost-effective medical method on controlling infectious diseases and improving population health. Various vaccines are eagerly needed in the low-income countries along the Belt & Road. With the good quality to reach WHO prequalification standard, and the abundant capacity to fulfill the demand from market abroad, upon the platform of China-proposed “the Belt & Road Initiative” the vaccines manufactured in China are exporting to countries worldwide. The independent innovative vaccines’ R&D system, which fruited a series of innovative infectious diseases vaccines (EV71 vaccine, sIPV, HEV, Ebola vaccine, etc.) to be launched in Chinese market, indicates that China has developed rapidly from “a great vaccine-production country” to “a powerful vaccine-innovation country”. The implementation of National Innovation-driven Development Strategy would further push forward the development and internationalization process of Chinese innovative vaccines. Therefore, the China-invented vaccines will make an important role in the prevention and control of infectious disease in various countries and become one of the most powerful weapons in fighting the global epidemic event in the future.

The house market has been rapidly growing for the past decade in China, making price forecasting an important issue to the people and policy makers. We approach this problem by exploring neural networks for forecasting of house prices from one hundred major cities for the period of June 2010–May 2019, serving as the first study with such wide coverage for the emerging Chinese market through a machine learning technique. We aim at constructing simple and accurate neural networks as a contribution to pure technical forecasting of house prices. To facilitate the analysis, we investigate different model settings over the algorithm (the Levenberg-Marquardt, scaled conjugate gradient, and Bayesian regularization), delay (from two to six), hidden neuron (two, three, five, and eight), and data spitting ratio (70%–15%–15%, 60%–20%–20%, and 80%–10%–10% for trainingvalidationtesting), and arrive at a rather simple neural network with only four delays and three hidden neurons that leads to stable performance of 1% average relative root mean square error across the one hundred cities for the training, validation, and testing phases. We demonstrate the usefulness of the machine learning approach to the house price forecasting problem in the Chinese market. Our results could be used on a standalone basis or combined with fundamental forecasting in forming perspectives of house price trends and conducting policy analysis. Our empirical framework should not be difficult to deploy, which is an important consideration to many decision makers, and has potential to be generalized for house price forecasting of other cities in China.

Using a monthly data between 2008 and 2019, this study investigated how the development of the Internet technologies has shaped the consumer consumption pattern of different types of paper products in China during this period. In detail, this study covers four major types of paper products in the Chinese market: newsprint, printing paper, household paper, and packaging paper. The developments of Internet technologies were decomposed into two aspects: the communication technology (CT) and the software platform technology (PT). Granger causality analysis was employed to determine whether the consumption pattern of paper products was affected by the development of the Internet. Furthermore, impulse-response analyses were utilized to measure how the consumption pattern of each paper product was shaped by the development of each aspect of Internet technologies, i.e., CT or PT. The empirical results suggested that the Internet developments are causing the consumption patterns shifts of all four paper products. Specifically, the consumptions of newsprint and printing paper were driven by both CT and PT. However, the consumptions of packaging paper and household paper were driven by the PT only. Compared to the development of CT, we found that the quick evolution of PT plays a more significant role in shifting people's consumption of paper products in China. The empirical results revealed by this study could provide valuable economics and policy implications to both academia and relevant industries.

Using the unique setting of the Chinese market from 2003 to 2018, this study examines how share pledging behavior affects firms' stock price crash risk by analyzing the costs and benefits of the controlling shareholder's pledging decision to hoard bad news. We find that during the controlling shareholder share-pledging period, pledged firms exhibit significantly higher future stock price crash risk than their non-pledged counterparts. The risk is also higher during this period relative to in shareholders' own pre-pledging and post-pledging benchmark periods. Considering the internal and external information environment, we further observe a less pronounced increase in stock price crash risk for pledged firms with a strong internal control system and for those with more media attention. Together, our results reveal controlling shareholders' hedging motivations for engaging in pledging activities and the role played by the internal and external information environment in constraining the opportunistic behavior of controlling shareholders.