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We propose a theoretical framework and develop a game-theoretical analysis to advance understanding of the cooperation dilemma in team production. We conceptualize team production as a process where productive and appropriative activities coexist, shifting the focus from whether team members cooperate to what type of cooperative behavior they are willing to adopt. Depending on the extent to which members cooperate to create value and compete to appropriate value, we can observe scenarios of full, partial, and no cooperation. After characterizing member behavior in the different scenarios, we study which form of cooperation can be sustained through repeated interaction, mutual monitoring, and reciprocity. To do so, we allow for different deviations from cooperation, which are then accompanied by different reactions according to an equivalent retaliation strategy. Our focus is on how member behavior and incentives to cooperate relate to team size. We also introduce conceptual elements that describe team production in organizational teams as well as interorganizational relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though research has repeatedly shown that non-cash incentives can be effective, cash incentives are the de facto standard in crowdsourcing contests. In this multi-study research, we quantify ideators' preferences for non-cash incentives and investigate how allowing ideators to self-select their preferred incentive—offering ideators a choice between cash and non-cash incentives—affects their creative performance. We further explore whether the market context of the organization hosting the contest—social (non-profit) or monetary (for-profit)—moderates incentive preferences and their effectiveness. We find that individuals exhibit heterogeneous incentive preferences and often prefer non-cash incentives, even in for-profit contexts. Offering ideators a choice of incentives can enhance creative performance. Market context moderates the effect of incentives, such that ideators who receive non-cash incentives in for-profit contexts tend to exert less effort. We show that heterogeneity of ideators' preferences (and the ability to satisfy diverse preferences with suitably diverse incentive options) is a critical boundary condition to realizing benefits from offering ideators a choice of incentives. We provide managers with guidance to design effective incentives by improving incentive-preference fit for ideators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic collaborations are critical to the success of efforts aimed at discovering new drugs and therapies in the biopharmaceutical industry. These collaborations aim to leverage domain expertise, asymmetries in production costs and/or capabilities to improve efficiency. Despite increasing collaborations, the biopharmaceutical industry lacks a structured guideline for choosing contracts. We present contract models with effort-based formulations that capture the key characteristics of biopharmaceutical operations and analyse incentive mechanisms such as fixed payment, revenue-sharing, risk-sharing, and cost-sharing in biopharmaceutical collaborations. We show that traditional incentive schemes do not achieve supply chain coordination, although they are commonly used in the industry. We introduce a new contract model called fee-for-effort-and-output contract that encourages the parties to exert higher efforts by offering discounts on their operating costs, and show that this contract achieves coordination with an appropriate selection of contract parameters. We also investigate the efficiency of noncoordinating contracts with traditional incentive schemes and identify the capability and cost structures under which they achieve the highest efficiency possible, to both determine the next-best alternatives and explain their popularity in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retirement plans can create strong financial incentives that have important labor market implications, and many states have adopted alternative plan designs that significantly change these incentives. The authors use longitudinal data to investigate the impact of Washington State's 1996 introduction of a hybrid retirement plan on late-career attrition. The unique setup of Washington's plans allows them to provide empirical evidence on the influence of financial incentives created by statutory retirement eligibility thresholds. Findings show that despite facing very different financial incentives, teachers enrolled in the hybrid and traditional plans respond similarly to reaching a key retirement eligibility threshold. The authors hypothesize that teachers are anchoring to the eligibility thresholds, muting the influence of the financial incentives. They also provide evidence that, in the presence of bright-line eligibility thresholds that can anchor workers' separation behavior, commonly used structural models may overpredict workers' responsiveness to the financial incentives embedded in retirement plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group-based incentives are attractive in contexts where production is interdependent. Prior work shows such incentives increase group performance despite freeriding concerns, yet little is known about the effort response of individuals. Using individual-level data, the authors assess the introduction of group-based performance pay using difference-in-difference estimation. Overall, performance increased by 19%. Nearly all workers contributed to this effect. Further, two-thirds of this effect stems from increased efficiency (more output per unit of time) and one-third from higher attendance. Both incentive and selection effects are present. By leveraging individual-level data, the authors pose new questions and evidence to the group-based incentives literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how rank-order tournament incentives in the top management team (TMT) influence the quality of management earnings forecasts (MEFs). Instead of breeding feelings of inequality and fostering peer sabotage, the large pay gap between the CEO and subordinates may motivate top executives to issue more accurate and precise forecasts to win the prize of promotion. The positive tournament effect on the quality of MEFs is weakened (strengthened) when the perceived probability of promotion for candidates is low (high). We find that firms with higher tournament incentives are more likely to issue supplementary forecasts to increase the credibility of MEFs. By examining the tournament effect at each subordinate manager level, we find that CFOs are the driving force in controlling the frequency and quality of management forecasts and chief marketing officers (CMOs) may also contribute to the quality of management forecasts. The results are robust to multiple measures of tournament incentives and multiple research designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Management incentives for engaging and excelling in corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance is an important theme as business sustainability gains momentum. We examine the role of tournament incentives, which are created by competition among non-CEO (chief executive officer) senior executives (vice presidents [VPs]) for promotion to the CEO position, in firms' CSR performance. Using a sample of U.S. Standard & Poor (S&P) 1500 firms from 1993 to 2014, we find that tournament incentives proxied by pay gaps between CEOs and VPs are negatively associated with CSR performance, suggesting that competition for promotion could be detrimental for CSR performance. We further show that such association is more pronounced when the perceived probability of promotion increases prior to CEO turnover. This article provides policy, practical, and education implications and contribute to the literature on the integration of CSR into the business culture and strategic management processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Biosimilars have the potential to save a significant amount of money in cancer treatment costs. However, barriers exist in the adoption of biosimilar products. Japan introduced a new health policy in 2022 to promote the use of biosimilars in oncology by offering financial incentives to eligible hospitals. This study aims to examine the association between these financial incentives and prescription patterns. Methods: The study analyzed Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC) data to assess the impact of the new health policy on the use of biosimilar products in oncology. The policy provided an additional fee for hospitals using biosimilar products. The study included patients with specific types of cancer and analyzed the proportion of monthly biosimilar prescriptions using the number of prescriptions of reference and biosimilar products. A generalized synthetic control method was used for analysis. Results: From April 2020 to March 2023, the study involved 27,737 patients in 114 hospitals, with 63 eligible hospitals receiving financial incentives. The average number of prescriptions of the drugs (rituximab, trastuzumab, and bevacizumab) increased gradually in both eligible and ineligible hospitals. The financial incentives were associated with a significant increase in the proportion of biosimilar product prescriptions, with a monthly increase of 0.092 per month (95% CI, 0.040–0.145) [9.2%, 95% CI, 4.0–14.5] compared to ineligible hospitals. Conclusion: Our study indicates that providing financial incentives to hospitals to utilize biosimilar products increased their prescriptions. Japan's recent health policy of moderate financial incentives is an effective approach to increasing prescriptions of biosimilar products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contingency management (CM) is notably successful as a substance use disorder treatment and is most effective when targeting monosubstance use. Evidence suggests the effects of CM exceed predictions based on the value of the incentives delivered for monosubstance abstinence. In this systematic review, we examine common variations of CM interventions applied to a single substance to determine what factors may contribute to the larger effect. Our results show that CM produced moderate to large effect sizes when single drugs were targeted, with stable effects over time. We also found that interventions targeting cocaine abstinence overwhelmingly outperformed their predicted effect, whereas interventions for smoking cessation did not. Thus, incentives alone may not account for the success of CM, at least when applied to stimulant use disorder. We propose other potential sources of the effect including social reinforcement and the specific parameters of the reinforcement schedule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital finance provides new possible ways to promote innovation-driven development strategies. Using data of 257 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2019, this paper examines the impact of digital finance on regional innovation, as well as the mediating effect of resource mismatch underlies it. The empirical results are as follows. First, digital finance can significantly boost innovation, both in terms of the quantity and quality. Second, the incentive effects of innovation have been more obviously observed in the eastern cities and the cities with high financial levels or light digital divides in China. Third, the mechanism effect implies that digital finance works positively on innovation through improving the factor allocation efficiency by alleviating the misallocation of labour and capital. These conclusions indicate that to better promote regional innovation, it is crucial to encourage the digital transformation of the financial industry, enhance digital infrastructure development, and facilitate the free flow of resources among regions. The paper offers both theoretical and empirical evidence that digital finance influences regional innovation by alleviating resource mismatches. It also examines the role of the ‘digital divide’ in shaping innovation through digital finance. These two points constitute the key innovations of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Dragon boat racing, a popular aquatic folklore team sport, is traditionally held during the Dragon Boat Festival. Inspired by this event, we propose a novel human‐based meta‐heuristic algorithm called dragon boat optimization (DBO) in this paper. It models the unique behaviours of each crew member on the dragon boat during the race by introducing social psychology mechanisms (social loafing, social incentive). Throughout this process, the focus is on the interaction and collaboration among the crew members, as well as their decision‐making in various situations. During each iteration, DBO implements different state updating strategies. By accurately modelling the crew's behaviour and employing adaptive state update strategies, DBO consistently achieves high optimization performance, as validated by comprehensive testing on 29 benchmark functions and 2 structural design problems. Experimental results indicate that DBO outperforms 7 and 16 state‐of‐the‐art meta‐heuristic algorithms across these test functions and problems, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The model of pay-for-knowledge incentivizes individuals with financial rewards for sharing their expertise, facilitating a transactional exchange between knowledge providers (sellers) and seekers (buyers). While this model is effective in promoting paid contributions, its influence on free knowledge exchanges remains ambiguous, creating uncertainty about its overall impact on platform knowledge ecosystems. This study aims to explore the mechanim of how knowledge payment influences free knowledge contribution. Based on relational signaling theory, this study posits that a buyer's payment for knowledge acts as a positive relational signal in the buyer–seller relationship and examines how the signaling effect varies across different social contexts through attribution theory. Design/methodology/approach: This paper empirically tests the hypotheses by analyzing a data set comprising 630 instances from 359 unique knowledge sellers on Zhihu, a prominent knowledge-sharing platform in China. This paper use zero-inflated negative binomial models to conduct this analysis. Findings: The findings reveal that when buyers pay for knowledge, this action positively influences sellers to contribute knowledge for free. However, the strength of this influence is moderated by the platform's social functions: appreciation feedback tends to weaken this effect, while social network ties enhance it. Originality/value: Prior research has predominantly focused on the financial incentives of pay-for-knowledge and its spillover effects on unpaid users' activities. This study shifts the focus to the social dimensions of pay-for-knowledge, arguing that buyer-initiated knowledge payments signal buyers' commitment to foster reciprocal relationships with sellers. It expands the literature on the relationship between knowledge payment and contribution, moving beyond financial incentives to include social factors, thus enriching our understanding of the interplay between paid and free knowledge activities. Additionally, the empirical evidence supports the efficacy of pay-for-knowledge in promoting both free and paid contributions within knowledge-sharing platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to use the knowledge management perspective to examine the mechanism through which entrepreneurship drives firms' technological innovation in the digital age. The objective is to develop a multi-stage integrated theoretical model to explain how entrepreneurship exerts its influence on firms' technological innovation with a particular focus on the knowledge management perspective. The findings can be used for the cultivation of entrepreneurship and for the promotion of continuous technological innovation activities. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a case-based qualitative approach to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship and technological innovation. The authors first analyze the case of SANY and then explore the mechanism of how entrepreneurship can promote a firm's technological innovation from the perspective of knowledge management based on the technology-organization-environment framework. An integrated theoretical model is then developed in this study. Findings: Based on a case study, the authors propose that there are three main processes of knowledge management in firms' technological innovation: knowledge acquisition, knowledge integration and knowledge creation. In the process of knowledge acquisition, the joint effects of innovation spirit, learning spirit, cooperation spirit and global vision drive the construction and its healthy development of firms' innovation ecosystem. In the process of knowledge integration, the joint effects of innovation spirit, cooperation spirit and learning spirit help complete the integration of knowledge and further the accumulation of firms' core knowledge resources. In the process of knowledge creation, the joint effects of mission spirit, learning spirit and innovation spirit encourage the top management team to establish long-term goals and innovation philosophy. This philosophy can promote the establishment of a people-oriented incentive mechanism that helps achieve the transformation from the accumulation of core knowledge resources to the research and innovation of core technologies. After these three stages, firms are passively engaged in the "reverse transfer of knowledge" step, which contributes to other firms' knowledge management cycle. With active knowledge acquisition, integration, creation and passive reverse knowledge transfer, firms can achieve continuous technological innovation. Research limitations/implications: This study has important theoretical implications in entrepreneurship research. This study helps advance the understanding of entrepreneurship and literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship and technological innovation in the digital age, which can broaden the application of knowledge management theories. It can also help better understand how to develop healthy firm-led innovation ecosystems to achieve continuous optimization of knowledge and technological innovation in the digital age. Originality/value: This study proposes an integrated theoretical model to address the issues of entrepreneurship and firms' technological innovation in the digital age, and it is also one of few studies that focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation from a knowledge management perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) play a vital role in promoting financial inclusion and reducing poverty by providing credit to marginalized populations. However, sustainability issues arise due to challenges in loan repayment. This study examines the factors influencing loan repayment among microfinance borrowers in Tanzania, specifically the impact of dynamic incentives, joint liability, and regular group meetings. Using survey data from 251 MFI borrowers, we analyzed repayment behavior among individuals in group loans through correlation and multiple regression techniques. The results indicate that dynamic incentives and joint liability improve repayment behavior, supporting information asymmetry and carrot/stick theories by reducing information gaps. Joint liability, in particular, fosters mutual trust and accountability, as members become more involved in monitoring and reporting each other’s activities to lenders. These findings suggest that MFIs should enhance group lending management practices. For regulators, formalizing and legally recognizing community groups would further support their access to financial services. This study highlights the importance of structured group dynamics in improving loan repayment rates, which are crucial for the sustainability of MFIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Incentives are a widely used tool for addressing deforestation and are often implemented as collective contracts. Local institutions are crucial to the solution of collective action problems associated with forest conservation, but we still have little knowledge of how to encourage institutional creation through policy. Since collective contracts do not eliminate freeriding incentives, we argue that their success hinges on their ability to stimulate the creation of institutions for collective action. To test these ideas, we analyze data from an incentivized lab‐in‐the‐field experimental collective action game played with natural resource users in four developing countries. The experiment simulates management of a common forest, and groups were randomly assigned to a conservation incentive payment condition. We observe how much group members attempt to coordinate on the creation of institutional rules and find experimental evidence that an external incentive program can stimulate the endogenous creation of informal institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the growing role and importance of socially responsible business behavior. This is associated with a number of factors, such as the increasing ethical consciousness of society, the growing impact of business on the environment and people’s lives, and intensified competition in the market. It is noted that socially responsible business behavior involves respect for human rights, environmental protection, investment in human capital, and the fight against corruption. The purpose of the article is to explore and substantiate the ways to stimulate business towards socially responsible and respect human rights in the economic sphere. This goal is realized in the article by solving the following research tasks: the author analyzes the concept and essence of socially responsible business behavior and respect for human rights in international legal documents; defines the basic principles of socially responsible business behavior; studies the factors influencing the incentives for business towards socially responsible behavior; and develops and substantiates a complex of measures to stimulate business towards socially responsible behavior and respect for human rights. The author explores the role of business in society and the need to take into account social and ethical aspects in its activities. The author analyzes the impact of socially responsible behavior of business entities on economic development and positive impact on society as a whole. The expected results of the proposed measures are determined. The general conclusion of the article is that socially responsible business behavior and respect for human rights in the economic sphere are important components of sustainable development in modern society. Specific recommendations are proposed for enterprises to engage in these processes and maximize their social impact. The results of this study can be used to develop and implement state policy in the field of stimulating socially responsible business behavior, as well as for self-improvement of business entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of competitive sports, the evaluation of compensation incentive effectiveness is key to the optimization of compensation systems for athletes. This study creates a model of the athlete compensation incentive effect from single and multinomial grouping perspectives, combining empirical research (SEM) with fuzzyset qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) based on a sample of 352 validated data. The results lead to two findings. First, athletes' direct economic compensation, direct non-economic compensation, and indirect non-economic compensation have a significant positive effect on the incentive effect of compensation. Second, that the incentive effect of high compensation has two configurations, namely "economic value" and "economic environmental value." It seems that the effective combination of compensation factors can enhance the motivation effect in a "different way." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of China's growing weight as a technological power in the international arena, an increasing body of literature is dedicated to conceptualizing China as a nascent norm-shaper in global cyber governance. However, a nuanced investigation into the process of China's norm diffusion in cyber governance has been lacking. Drawing on the latest advancements from norm diffusion theory, this study provides a nuanced understanding of the complex and multidimensional nature of China's cyber-governance norm cluster and the diffusion mechanisms. By contesting the linear and static conceptualization of norms, this study conceptualizes China's cyber governance norms through the lens of norm cluster. It demonstrates that China has actively promoted a constellation of values and appropriate behaviours in order to address the myriad of problems and challenges it identifies in global cyber governance, revolving around three core values, namely: cyber sovereignty, multilateralism and the balance between security and development. This research also demonstrates that instead of using a single diffusion mechanism, China has relied on a dynamic combination of socialization and positive incentives which are driven by both state-led actors and private sectors to diffuse its cyber norms and approaches at regional and international levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The limited existing research on how jurors evaluate informant testimony suggests jurors may not be appropriately responsive to cues that could signal informant unreliability. In particular, jurors may fail to account for and properly weigh evidence that an informant is testifying for an incentive when reaching a verdict. However studies in this area have some limitations in case type, materials used, and statistical power. The objective of the current study is to advance the research in each of these areas and provide new evidence about the impact of juror perceptions of informant incentives. This study used a novel fact pattern, video stimuli manipulations, and a large sample pool to test the impact of informant incentives on juror judgments. Participants who observed a highly incentivized informant, but not those who observed less incentivized informants, were more likely to acquit compared to participants who viewed an otherwise identical non-incentivized informant. Participants were also sensitive to incentive size in making situational attributions about the informant's motivation to testify. The results suggest that jurors may be capable of accounting for informant incentives in reaching a verdict, but only when the incentive size is substantial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a novel parcel locker location problem in the last mile delivery where each parcel locker is equipped with a set of selectable volume sizes and provides services for two types of customers: commuters and home-based customers. We establish a pickup cost model to quantify the effort exerted by customers during the retrieval process. Furthermore, we design a satisfaction function to measure customers' willingness to retrieve items from a specific parcel locker. Finally, we implement a financial incentive mechanism to enhance customer satisfaction by reducing the pickup cost. To solve this problem, we formulate a problem-specific scatter search algorithm. Extensive experiments demonstrate the computational effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses show that the selectable volume size model can reduce the total cost by up to 16.8%, while "pickup on the way" can achieve a reduction of up to 63.97% in our instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is already a wealth of literature on how the design of salary for technicians affects corporate innovation, but the influential mechanisms of executive incentives on corporate innovation have not received sufficient attention. As a source of motivation for executives to promote innovation, the design of pay gap plays an important role in improving firm's innovation performance. In this research, we attempt to examine the impact of the executive team's internal pay gap on corporate innovation using data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2016 to 2021. The results are as follows. Firstly, pay gap among executives can significantly enhance a firm's innovation performance. Secondly, the executive pay gap promotes innovation through the stability of executive team members. Thirdly, executive compensation stickiness moderates pay gap and firm's innovation positively. This paper reveals the mechanism by which the executive pay gap affects corporate innovation and suggests that companies should formulate effective compensation incentive mechanisms to stimulate executives' enthusiasm for innovative projects, and strengthen executive support and promotion of corporate innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the factors influencing the adoption and utilization of Mobility as a Service (MaaS), particularly focusing on carsharing and micromobility. Our objective was to understand how policy, physical infrastructure, social interactions, and individual attributes shape the use of MaaS. To this end, we conducted a systematic literature review using an adapted socio-ecological model. Our methodology involved a comprehensive search in the Scopus database using keywords related to MaaS and socio-ecological aspects, which yielded 420 relevant articles. These articles were analyzed for their alignment with the socio-ecological model across the specific dimensions of Personal Attributes, Community Interactions, Physical and Infrastructural Aspects, and Governance and Policy, as well as their relevance to MaaS. Key findings indicate that political decisions, including cooperation with public transport, environmental zones, and monetary incentives, significantly impact MaaS adoption. The study highlights the importance of policy in implementing micromobility models. Additionally, physical factors like infrastructure, geographic considerations, and urban design are crucial. Social context elements such as age, gender, education, and income also play a significant role, with higher education and income levels, as well as younger age groups, being more likely to adopt MaaS. Individual factors, including personal preferences and ecological consciousness, are pivotal, with perceived economic benefits being a primary driver for carsharing adoption. In carpooling, beyond the expected impacts of financial incentives, we highlighted the critical role of social norms and peer influences, particularly how visible carpooling by peers can drive adoption rates--a key finding for designing targeted social marketing strategies. For micro-mobility, the crucial finding was that infrastructure adaptations (such as the integration of dedicated lanes) not only support usage but also significantly enhance user safety and satisfaction, suggesting that physical infrastructure investments must be at the forefront of urban planning for effective micromobility integration. In conclusion, this research underscores the complex interplay of policy, physical, social, and individual contexts in MaaS utilization. It advocates for a balanced, context-specific approach to promoting shared MaaS, addressing both user-specific needs and broader transportation policy objectives. The study also suggests future research directions, including the impacts of MaaS on transportation, the role of technology and data, and the socio-economic aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that financially incentivizing sustainable behaviors may undermine individuals' conformity to pro-environmental social norms, but it remains unclear why and when such a crowding out effect occurs. Using data from a quasi-experiment in Quzhou, China, this study has tested crowding out in a local incentive program for household recycling and evaluated the causal mechanisms and boundary conditions of crowding out. The reward program reduced residents' inclination to conform to their neighbors' recycling behaviors and persuasion, which was driven by the lowering of the first- and second-order beliefs underlying norm conformity. The crowding out effect and pathways were particularly salient among people with high levels of environmental self-identity or community social embeddedness. Moreover, framing the incentivized behavior in an environmentally beneficial way could not mitigate crowding out. Overall, the results contribute to refined theories of crowding out and have important implications for the design of environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online social media (OSM) has revolutionized the manner in which communication unfolds, enabling users to spontaneously generate, disseminate, share, and aggregate multimedia data across the internet. Nevertheless, in this exchange of information, OSM platforms assume a dominant, central role, wielding excessive power. Blockchain online social media (BOSM) seeks to mitigate the drawbacks of traditional centralized OSM by leveraging the decentralized nature of blockchain technology, migrating the functionalities of social media into a decentralized realm, and positioning the users at the core of the OSM ecosystem. However, current BOSM models often rely on tokens for incentives and are hampered by the centralized, inefficient blockchain consensus mechanisms, alongside vulnerabilities such as collusion attacks. This paper introduces a novel blockchain system, NexoNet, tailored for decentralized social media, exploring the application of blockchain technology in the realm of online social media from both technical and economic perspectives. The NexoNet quantifies and evaluates user participation within the system, employing a multiple incentive mechanism to equitably distribute value created by users without the need for tokens. Furthermore, we propose the Proof-of-Active-Participation (PoAP) blockchain consensus mechanism, enabling all users to partake in the maintenance of the blockchain system, thus ensuring its security and efficiency. Theoretical analysis and simulations across various scenarios demonstrate that the NexoNet, with extensive user engagement, achieves equitable value distribution through its multiple incentive mechanism. It successfully safeguards against a spectrum of malicious attacks and attains high transaction processing efficiency. The simulation results show that NexoNet achieves an average transaction throughput of 2000 transactions per second (TPS) and a consensus delay of 2.385 s with 100 maintainers in the network. Furthermore, our tests demonstrated that even collusion with users comprising 75% of the total would only allow an additional 30 chances to propose a block. By deeply integrating user behavior with the underlying mechanisms of the blockchain system, the NexoNet fosters a user-centric blockchain social media ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online reviews play a crucial role in influencing seller–customer dynamics. This research evaluates the credibility and consistency of reviews based on volume, length, and content to understand the impacts of incentives on customer review behaviors, how to improve review quality, and decision-making in purchases. The data analysis reveals major factors such as costs, support, usability, and product features that may influence the impact. The analysis also highlights the indirect impact of company size, the direct impact of user experience, and the varying impacts of changing conditions over the years on the volume of incentive reviews. This study uses methodologies such as Sentence-BERT (SBERT), TF-IDF, spectral clustering, t-SNE, A/B testing, hypothesis testing, and bootstrap distribution to investigate how semantic variances in reviews could be used for personalized shopping experiences. It reveals that incentive reviews have minimal to no impact on purchasing decisions, which is consistent with the credibility and consistency analysis in terms of volume, length, and content. The negligible impact of incentive reviews on purchase decisions underscores the importance of authentic online feedback. This research clarifies how review characteristics sway consumer choices and provides strategic insights for businesses to enhance their review mechanisms and customer engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a difference-in-differences empirical research framework that utilizes the Green Financial Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone (GFRIPZ) implemented in China in 2017 as an exogenous shock to identify the incentive and synergy effect of green finance (GF) on enterprise green innovation (GI). The results indicate that GF effectively stimulates enterprise GI and significantly influences the allocation of external and internal funds among industries. GF effectively stimulates GI in clean and non-polluting industries by increasing debt financing and productive investment. However, it has a punitive effect on debt financing of heavy-polluting industries, and the GI effect on heavy-polluting industries is insignificant, although it enhances R&D investment among industries. GF can produce a good synergistic effect with green policies, but the synergistic effect on non-green policies is not obvious. GF mainly promotes GI in non-state, big, and enterprises in areas with high marketization. Moreover, only the heavy pollution industry presents significant environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formal recycling of municipal solid waste plays a crucial role in establishing a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society. In China, policy-makers have implemented various financial incentives to promote the growth of the formal recycling sector. However, informal recycling still dominates the market, resulting in relatively low rates of formal recycling. To shed light on the mechanisms and effects of policies, the price competition of recyclers is introduced, and the two-way interaction between residents and recyclers is considered. A multi-agent-based simulation model including residents, formal recyclers, and informal recyclers is constructed to explore the differential effects of subsidy policies on different participants. The results show significant variations in the effectiveness of single-agent subsidy policies. Notably, the subsidy policy for formal recyclers outperforms the negative subsidy policy for informal recyclers. The former promotes the spontaneous regularization of more than 60% of residents while improving the profit level of formal recyclers. Furthermore, a multi-agent mixed policy for residents and formal and informal recyclers is the optimal subsidy strategy for waste management, enabling more than 60% of residents to choose formal recycling while causing the profits of formal recyclers to exceed those of informal recyclers by 1.5 times. Moreover, the price competition of recyclers is a vicious competition mode that blindly pursues the recovery amount at the expense of economic profits. The results not only clarify the differential effects of diverse subsidy policies but also furnish valuable insights for the government to design more targeted waste recycling policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How regime types affect the provision of social spending in the context of developing countries? This article provides a novel political-economic approach, arguing that single-party regimes are more likely to spend on pensions than other types of autocratic states to co-opt the large number of critical members although the regime type does not affect the general welfare spending across autocratic states. The theory emphasizes the effect of institutional and power structure heterogeneity across autocracies in shaping the incentives and strategies that the ruling elites co-opt and respond to the demands of the ruling coalition across different autocratic regimes. Using panel, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with lagged dependent variable along with several empirical strategies, it finds the evidence supporting this argument with a new dataset from 1990 to 2012. The study provides new insights on how autocratic institutions especially the party utilize strategic social policies to resolve the elite-level dictator dilemma for regime survival that are absent in other autocratic types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure has drawn much attention from listed companies, investors, and regulators. In response to the increasing demand of investors and regulators for non‐financial information, listed companies have paid attention to publishing ESG reports consisting of environmental, social, and governance information. Listed companies are increasingly required to provide high‐quality information that is clear and comparable. However, the lack of incentive to listed companies makes it hard to improve the quality of ESG disclosure, and the cost of ESG disclosure leads to the uncontrollable quality of ESG reports and may even manipulation by opportunistic behaviors. In this paper, we illustrate the moral hazard problem in ESG disclosure from the perspective of investors and listed companies, in which the effort level for listed companies to provide high‐quality ESG report cannot be observed by investors. Then we propose a blockchain‐based incentive mechanism for ESG disclosure from a principal‐agent perspective to improve the information quality of ESG disclosure, where investors act as principal and listed companies act as agents. Token in blockchain technology is utilized as the rewards to improve the listed companies' reputation, thus increasing their chance of being promoted to investors for preferential investment opportunities in the blockchain platform. We then design the first‐best (FB) and second‐best (SB) optimal contracts based on classic principal‐agent model to overcome the moral hazard problem. Extensive simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the incentive mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the use of social signaling as a policy tool to sustainably affect childhood immunization. In a 26-month field experiment with public clinics in Sierra Leone, I introduce a verifiable signal—in the form of color-coded bracelets—given to children upon timely completion of the first four or all five required vaccinations. Signals increase parents' belief in the visibility of their actions and knowledge of other children's vaccine status. The impact of signals varies significantly with the cost and perceived benefits of the action. There are no discernible effects on timely and complete immunization when the signal is linked to an easier-to-complete vaccine with low perceived benefits, and large positive effects when the signal is linked to a costlier-to-achieve vaccine with high perceived benefits. Parents adjust their behavior nine months before realizing the social image benefit, demonstrating the motivational strength of signaling incentives. Of substantive policy importance, bracelets increase full immunization at one year of age by 9 percentage points, with impacts persisting at two years of age. At a marginal cost of US$24.7 per fully immunized child, social signals can be as cost-effective as financial or in-kind incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maker communities are typically guided by noneconomic incentives to produce a positive impact on society. In this study, we offer novel insights into makers' personal values, understood as motivational goals. Specifically, we performed qualitative laddering interviews with 30 makers gathered via snowball sampling in Taiwan. This study maps the hierarchies governing the goals that motivate makers' intentions to dedicate themselves to the maker movement, anchored in seven personal values: self‐direction, hedonism, benevolence, universalism, stimulation, power and achievement. Accordingly, the findings in this study extend the literature concerning the maker movement; these practical contributions can enable managers and practitioners to develop an ecosystem that favours the development of maker communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its impact on imprisonment, no quantitative study has examined the factors related to people's status on prison incentive schemes. This study addresses this gap by using administrative data to explore the factors related to the status of 405 men on a prison incentive scheme. Results revealed that those who had a prior history of passing prison drug tests at time 1, and spent more time imprisoned during the follow-up period, were more likely to be on the highest level of the scheme one year later at time 2. In contrast, those who had a history of past involvement in misconduct, referrals for serious self-harm/attempted suicide in prison, not taken a prison drug test, property offences, and greater periods of custody at time 1 were more likely to be on the lower levels of the scheme at time 2. The potential implications for theory, policy, and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that traditional voting models fail to fully explain the frequency of very close mass elections with high turnout. Instead, we model elections as a competition between incentive schemes to mobilize voters. We elucidate conditions under which parties might prefer close elections, as the potential to be pivotal motivates voters instead of exclusively costly incentives as in nonclose elections. We show that, under those conditions, better voter targeting results in tighter races and increased turnout. Furthermore, the smaller party often has a strong incentive to commit to strategies that ensure a close election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of financial incentives to promote healthy lifestyles, particularly focusing on obesity. Studies have shown that financial incentives can motivate weight loss and healthier choices, but long-term sustainability and outcomes remain uncertain. The effectiveness of financial incentives in managing obesity is promising, but questions about fairness, sustainability, and long-term impact need further exploration. The article highlights the need for a holistic approach that combines financial incentives with education and support to address the complex issue of obesity. [Extracted from the article]

This paper introduces the Principal-Agent mechanism to study the diffusion of information in complex networks. Hot list information is defined as principal information, information that is homogeneous with hot list information is defined as homogeneous agent information, and information that is heterogeneous with hot list information is defined as heterogeneous agent information. The theory of diffusion dynamics is used to study the phenomenon that homogeneous information promotes each other and heterogeneous information inhibits each other in the process of competitive diffusion of network information. Based on the traditional SIR model, this paper introduces the Principal-Agent mechanism, establishes the PA_SIR diffusion model and studies the mutual influence of information in the process of competitive diffusion of multiple information. The research shows that in the process of competitive diffusion of multiple information, principal information has a positive incentive effect on homogeneous agent information through people’s interest orientation, herd mentality and topic public opinion and has a negative incentive effect on heterogeneous agent information. Therefore, if you want your published information to attract more attention, the best release time is when homogeneous information is on the hot search list, which will help to attract people’s attention more quickly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing intensification of market competition, companies need to implement innovative strategies to gain market advantages. As an effective measure for companies to reduce agency costs between management and shareholders and alleviate the conflict of interest between the two, equity incentive can directly affect the behaviour of company executives. Investment decision is the foundation of a company's healthy growth and cash flow growth in the future. This paper selects the panel data of Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2021 as a sample, uses the quality of internal control as an intermediary variable in the process of measuring the implementation of equity incentives, and empirically studies the relationship between equity incentives and corporate investment decisions. The results show that there is a positive correlation between equity incentives and investment decisions, and the quality of internal control plays an intermediary role between the two. Equity incentive can optimize the internal control, improve the quality of internal control, so as to effectively promote the investment decision of companies. The implementation of equity incentives gives companies a competitive advantage while also adding momentum to economic development, thereby enhancing national competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To analyze the participation of mutual help and pension and influencing factors of the elderly in China, and to provide a reference basis for the long -term development of mutual help. Methods Based on the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS) data, single -factor deck analysis, non-conditional logistic regression and Shapley decomposition method was used to analyze the influencing factors and differences in the participation of the elderly people in my country. Results The participation rate of mutual support for the elderly in China was only 19.72%, the participation level was low, and the awareness of mutual support for the elderly was weak. Multivariate Logistic regression results showed that the participation of the elderly in mutual support for themwas affected by the demographic characteristics, personal physical conditions, family conditions, pension concepts and ways. Shapley decomposition showed that the contribution rate of each factor to the elderly's participation in mutual support for the elderly was different, and the physical condition of the elderly had the greatest impact on their participation in mutual support for the elderly, the contribution rate was 19.96%. The second was the participation in insurance and the need for help from others, with the contribution rates of 19.27% and 12.33% respectively. Conclusion It's of great importance tocreate a platform for mutual assistance for the elderly, improve the government incentive mechanism, improve the community support network, and create a good atmosphere of mutual assistance, strengthen mutual assistance pension and education, and play a role of family support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To be a stakeholder/validator/token holder is not so difficult in the Proof of Stake (POS)-based blockchain networks; that is why the number of validators is large in these networks. These validators play an essential part in the block creation process in the PoS-based blockchain network. Due to the large validators, the block creation time and communication message broadcasting overhead get increased in the network. Many consensus algorithms use different techniques to reduce the number of validators, such as Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithms, which select the set of delegators via stake transactions for the block creation process. In this paper, we propose S&SEM, a secure and speed-up election process to select the 'z' number of validators/delegators. The presented election process is based on a traditional voting style with multiple numbers of rounds. The presented election mechanism reduces the possibility of malicious activity in the voting process by introducing a special vote message and a round that checks duplicate votes. We did horizontal scaling in the network to speed up the election process. We designed an improved incentive mechanism for the fairness of the election process. The designed reward and penalty procedure controls the nodes' behaviors in the network. We simulate the S&SEM, and the result shows that the presented election process is faster and more secure to select delegators than the existing process used by DPOS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: This article mainly utilizes the advantages and characteristics of evolutionary game theory and, based on the ideas and methods of evolutionary game theory, describes the relationship between the government, power grid enterprises, and power users as a learning progressive evolution system, focusing on the evolution process of the relationship between various stakeholders and the influencing factors of evolutionary stability in the electricity market demand-side management. It provides a reasonable explanation for the spontaneous formation of interest equilibrium between government, power grid enterprises, and power users, as well as theoretical references and policy recommendations for government regulation of the demand-side electricity market. In the process of promoting demand-side management, the core stakeholder groups are government departments, power grid companies, and electricity users. Due to the different positions and conflicting interests of the three parties in the game, intense and complex battles will occur. This paper investigates a tripartite evolutionary game involving government, power grid companies, and electricity users in the context of demand-side management (DSM) and analyzes the dynamic interactions between government departments, power grid companies, and electricity users within the framework of DSM using evolutionary game theory. Using evolutionary game theory, we explore how incentives and strategic interactions among these three stakeholders evolve over time, affecting the stability of DSM policies. The model addresses the asymmetry in the decision-making process and examines the dynamic equilibrium outcomes under various scenarios. The results provide insights into the optimal design of incentive mechanisms to enhance DSM adoption. The findings offer practical recommendations to improve DSM policies, fostering balanced interests between government, grid companies, and users. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of strategic interactions in DSM, revealing how adaptive behaviors can enhance energy efficiency. It also underscores the importance of carefully designed incentive mechanisms in achieving long-term stability and cooperation among key stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an overlapping generation model to examine the impact of fertility incentive policies on economic growth in China, incorporating endogenous fertility, education, and technological advancement by integrating unified growth theory with an R&D-based growth model. We analyze the impact of fertility incentive policies on economic growth by evaluating maternity insurance and public education. The results show that increasing the actual contribution rate of maternity insurance, maternity benefits, and public education expenditures can boost China's fertility rate; nevertheless, extending maternity leave would not incentivize an increase in the fertility rate. The impact of fertility incentives on economic growth is ambiguous, depending upon the extent to which increased fertility dilutes aggregate human capital via technical advancement. If the dilution effect is weak, the sign will turn positive, and vice versa. The simulation analysis of the benchmark model indicates that the fertility incentive policy, which encompasses increasing the actual contribution rate of maternity insurance, maternity benefits, and public education expenditure, can foster economic growth in China by enhancing the fertility rate in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Study Setting and Design Data Sources and Analytic Sample Principal Findings Conclusion To examine the early effects of the financial incentive (FI) implemented in April 2022 in Japan for surgeries within 48 h after hip fracture (HF) in patients aged 75 and older on expedited HF surgery (EHFS), in‐hospital mortality, perioperative morbidity, length of stay (LOS) and inpatient medical expenses (IMEs).We conducted a quasi‐experimental study and constructed segmented regression models for controlled interrupted time‐series analyses, assuming a Poisson distribution, to evaluate the slope changes (SCs) in the outcomes of interest before and after the introduction of the FI.We used Diagnosis Procedure Combination data from the Quality Indicator/Improvement Project database between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2023. Patients aged 50 years or older who were hospitalized with a diagnosis of HF and underwent surgery for HF were included.A total of 82,163 patients from 183 hospitals were included in the analyses. In the age group of 75 years and older, increasing trends in the number of EHFSs were observed even before the introduction of the FI, while before and after the introduction of the FI, none of the SCs in the monthly number of EHFSs within 2 days, within 1 day, and on the day of admission were statistically significant (incident rate ratio: 1.0043, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [0.9977–1.0111], 1.0068 [0.9987–1.0149], 1.0073 [0.9930–1.0219]). Nor were any of the SCs in in‐hospital deaths, perioperative complications, LOS, and IMEs statistically significant. Additionally, there were no statistical differences in the SCs for any of the outcomes between the two age groups.This study suggested that there was no significant, short‐term effect of the FI for surgeries within 48 h after HF on any of the outcomes of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperation on environmental issues is often perceived as a zero-sum game, where individual gains must be sacrificed for collective benefits. This paper offers a theoretical solution that balances individual and collective benefits to foster joint environmental action. Drawing on game theory and insights from the inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) literature, the paper explores how to solve environmental problems that present a collective action dilemma. It aligns with proponents of gain framing for environmental action and introduces the concept of ‘exogenous personalised gains’ in driving environmental action. It demonstrates that if the right exogenous personalised gains are leveraged, joint environmental actions are more likely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reasonable compensation contract arrangements have long been an essential means of promoting the hard work of executives and enhancing corporate performance. While internal pay disparity and its incentive effects have garnered widespread attention, few studies have examined the impact of executive external pay disparity on enterprise innovation. Using panel data from Chinese mixed-ownership listed companies spanning from 2013 to 2020, this study explores how executive external pay disparity affects enterprise innovation. Our findings demonstrate that enterprise innovation is positively influenced by the disparity in executive external pay. This facilitating role is further strengthened in enterprises with a high level of board governance. Additionally, the benefits of executive external pay disparity for innovation are particularly evident in general commercial mixed-ownership enterprises. Mechanism tests reveal that executive external pay disparity plays a pivotal role in enhancing enterprise innovation by increasing corporate risk-taking, ultimately leading to improved enterprise value. This study not only enriches our understanding of the influencing factors behind enterprise innovation from a new perspective but also holds significant implications for deepening the reform of mixed ownership and promoting enterprise innovation through the optimization of compensation contract arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Federated learning, as a novel distributed machine learning mode, enables the training of machine learning models on multiple devices while ensuring data privacy. However, the existence of single-point-of-failure bottlenecks, malicious threats, scalability of federated learning implementation, and lack of incentive mechanisms have seriously hindered the development of federated learning technology. In recent years, as a distributed ledger, blockchain has the characteristics of decentralization, tamper-proof, transparency, security, etc., which can solve the issues encountered in the above-mentioned federated learning. Particularly, the integration of federated learning and blockchain leads to a new paradigm, called blockchain-based federated learning (BFL), which has been successfully applied in many application scenarios. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of recent efforts on blockchain-based federated learning. More concretely, we propose and design a taxonomy of blockchain-based federated learning models, along with providing a comprehensive summary of the state of the art. Various applications of federated learning based on blockchain are introduced. Finally, we expand on current trends and provide new perspectives pertaining to this new and exciting development in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a parametric programming model was developed in order to deliver optimal management plans for various types of farms rearing endangered Greek sheep breeds under three distinct scenarios. The first scenario investigated the optimal internal organization of farms (i.e., management practices and resource allocation strategies that increase profitability of farms) under current market conditions (e.g., product prices) without, however, considering subsidies and compensations. The second assessed the impact of an agri-environmental support scheme on farm optimal structure and socioeconomic performance. The third investigated the effects of integrating farms into value chains and niche markets where premium prices prevail. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was conducted in the wider region of Epirus and Thessaly, collecting management data from 16 farms rearing (i) Kalaritiko, (ii) Orino Epiru and (iii) Katsika rare sheep breeds. The main finding of this study was that the optimal internal organization of farms is essential for their self-reliance and viability. Therefore, it should be the basis in the designing of any initiative aimed at the preservation and valorization of local breeds. Furthermore, the analysis showed that a niche marketing strategy (i.e., a premium price strategy) can have a broader positive impact on farms structure and socioeconomic performance, particularly those engaged in cheese production, compared to an agri-environmental scheme. However, due to the fact that both initiatives possess limitations that may render them inefficient under specific external conditions, the development of an integrated incentive mechanism, which will combine both policy schemes and market-based initiatives, appeared to be a more effective strategy for the long-term viability of farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous expansion of renewable energy capacity and the increasing demand for thermostatically controlled loads in China, new challenges have arisen for maintaining power supply stability. This paper establishes a control model for the aggregation of different types of air conditioning loads. To improve unsatisfactory demand response outcomes, a novel incentive mechanism based on tracking the target load curve is proposed. Additionally, a cost model for air conditioning load aggregators and the regional grid operator, along with an implementation scheme for trading mechanisms, is also developed. Case simulations validate the effectiveness and rationality of the proposed incentive mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasingly severe environmental challenges, the practice and dissemination of green behavior by the public is of great significance for promoting sustainable economic and social development in China. This study is based on the voluntary provision experiment of public goods, and uses non-parametric tests and multiple regression analysis methods to explore the impact of various factors and incentive measures on the public's willingness to spread green behavior. The results indicate that: Spiritual benefits are an important factor affecting the public's willingness to spread green behavior. Secondly, the punitive measures have limitations on the public's willingness to spread green behavior, and their intervention leads to a downward trend in willingness. Thirdly, positive incentive measures have a positive impact on increasing the public's willingness to spread green behavior. The effect of double incentive measures is better than that of single material or spiritual incentives. And higher level of self-interest preference and environmental awareness can significantly enhance the public's willingness to spread green behavior. Finally, heterogeneity analysis shows that there are differences in significance and degree of influence between each group and the total sample, but the positive and negative relationship of variable coefficients is basically consistent with the results of the total sample. Finally, this study suggests strengthening public environmental awareness education, selecting appropriate incentive and guidance measures while considering spiritual benefits, and implementing diversified incentive plans to achieve the vision of the whole society practicing green behavior together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing production and circulation of fresh food, society's requirements for product quality have also increased. Currently, upstream and downstream enterprises in the fresh food supply chain tend to delegate the cold chain transportation of fresh food to third–party cold chain logistics (CCL) service providers who offer more professional integrated preservation services. This study adopts coordination theory to research the delegation, coordination, and incentive strategies between a Fresh Food Producer, Distributor, and CCL Service Provider. The aim is to promote the efforts of the CCL Service Provider in improving freshness and achieving the overall optimal interests of the fresh food supply chain. First, the basic models of the Fresh Food Producer and Distributor individually entrusting the CCL Service Provider are established under different information conditions. Second, a collaborative delegation agency model between the Fresh Food Producer and Distributor is established on top of the basic models. Finally, through the optimal decision solutions under different information conditions and numerical calculations of preservation benefit levels, the following conclusions are drawn: (1) The more transparent and open the information environment, the more it can encourage the CCL Service Provider to improve the quality of their preservation services, allowing the Fresh Food Producer and Distributor to obtain more significant preservation benefits. However, when information is completely transparent, the incentive mechanisms formulated by the Fresh Food Producer and Distributor become ineffective. (2) Collaborative cooperation strategies can encourage the CCL Service Provider to enhance their preservation efforts while strengthening the effectiveness of relevant incentive strategies for the Fresh Food Producer and Distributor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]