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As climate change increasingly challenges corporate operations and sustainable development, the role of strategic alliances in managing environmental risks requires critical reassessment. While prior research highlights their benefits for innovation and performance, potential adverse consequences in the face of climate risks remain underexplored. Using panel data of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2023, this study applies econometric models to evaluate the impact of strategic alliances on firms’ climate risk exposure. The findings show that strategic alliances significantly weaken firms’ resilience to climate risks by diverting executive attention from environmental issues, constraining sustainability capacity building, and reducing sensitivity to supply chain risks. These adverse effects are more pronounced for firms with poor carbon performance and lower firm value. Moreover, compared with contractual alliances, equity-based alliances create deeper binding and reduce flexibility in responding to climate change. The study contributes to theory and practice by suggesting that firms should optimize alliance structures, increase partner heterogeneity, and enhance executive awareness of climate risks to improve resilience in the context of climate governance.

The fundamental principles of “sustainable development” and “green” promoted by ESG align with the concept of “green and sustainable” development. Enhancing enterprise ESG is a methodical endeavor that necessitates enterprises to possess ESG investment capabilities, coordinate many stakeholders, and leverage the influence of prominent market players. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) possess a specific level of support within a nation’s economy. SOEs serve as a fundamental pillar of China’s socialist economic system with distinctive characteristics, significantly influencing business conduct and reinforcing corporate value orientation. Consequently, the capacity of SOEs to assume a strategic leadership role in enhancing supply chain ESG performance is of paramount importance for the general elevation of ESG standards among Chinese enterprises. Limited research has investigated the transmission effect of the ESG performance among chain enterprises from a supply chain viewpoint, particularly regarding the pivotal role of SOEs in enhancing the ESG performance of these entities. This article examines the influence of SOEs’ ESG performance on the ESG performance of supply chain enterprises, focusing on the spillover effects of SOEs’ ESG performance within the supply chain context. It investigates how SOEs lead upstream and downstream enterprises in enhancing their ESG performance, aiming to address the existing cognitive gap in this area and provide substantial evidence for pertinent theories and practices. This article, employing an empirical research methodology, discovers that the ESG performance of state-owned supply chain core enterprises significantly enhances the ESG performance of enterprises in a supply chain, while non-state-owned supply chain core enterprises do not exhibit this effect. Furthermore, research indicates that this effect is asymmetric: when the supply chain core enterprise is a SOE and the enterprises in the supply chain are non-state-owned, the leading effect is more pronounced, and this effect is more powerful for upstream enterprises. The heterogeneity test reveals that the impact of the ESG performance is more pronounced in larger state-owned supply chain core enterprises that have been publicly listed for an extended duration and operate in highly competitive markets. The conclusions of this essay address the deficiencies of current research and provide significant practical implications for the development of green supply chains in the contemporary era.

The impact of climate risk on corporations is both complex and systemic. This study finds that an increase in climate risk exposure prompts firms to restructure their strategies, primarily leading to a strengthening of their strategic defensiveness and a decline in their strategic aggressiveness. Mechanism analyses reveal that this shift is primarily driven by the intensification of financing constraints, elevated operational risks, and reduced risk-taking capacity associated with increased climatic risk exposure. These effects are especially pronounced in private firms, firms with lower environmental performance, and those undergoing aggressive digital transformation or exhibiting a high degree of internationalization. Further analysis shows that although firms tend to adopt more passive defensive strategies in response to climate risk, they also actively pursue vertically integrated strategies rather than relying on specialization. This study provides new insights into how firms can strategically adapt to the challenges posed by climate risks.

Based on the perspective of investment and financing term structure, this study verifies that local government debt crowds out bank loans available to corporates, resulting in corporate maturity mismatch between investment and financing, namely, short-term financing for long-term investment. According to our heterogeneity analyses, the real impact of local government debt on maturity mismatch between investment and financing is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises and firms with high financing demand, located in cities with more local government debt and low financial development. Furthermore, our study reveals that local government debt and corporate maturity mismatch between investment and financing bring about underinvestment and default risk, which ultimately affects local sustainable economic development. This research contributes to the literature on Chinese-specific maturity mismatches.

Purpose Sustainable development requires companies to achieve a long-term balance between the economic, environmental and social spheres in their development process, and is not limited to long-term commercial success. Enhancing corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance plays a critical role in achieving sustainable economic and social development. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the influence of short-selling on corporate ESG performance and unravel the mechanisms involved. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the data from Chinese A-share listed companies spanning from 2010 to 2021 as the research sample and conduct empirical research using mediating effect model, instrumental variables and difference-in-differences methods. Findings The findings suggest that short-selling has a positive impact on ESG performance, thus, contributing to the realization of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and achieving a balanced development of economy, environment and society, rather than only promoting corporate longevity. This can be attributed to short-selling’s ability to strengthen supervision constraints on firms, improve firms’ intrinsic capabilities and promote firms’ green technological innovation. Furthermore, the ESG-enhancing effects of short-selling are contingent upon the internal and external governance levels of the firms. That is, short-selling has a more significant effect on ESG performance enhancement for firms with weaker internal and external governance. The extended analysis finds that concerning firms’ market advantage, the positive impact of short-selling on ESG is more pronounced for firms with weak monopoly power and those facing intense industry competition. In addition, when examining firms’ individual characteristics, the ESG-enhancing effect of short-selling is more potent for nonstate-owned firms, those with a shorter listing history and those facing a heightened risk of resource mismatch. Practical implications This study provides theoretical support and empirical evidence from the perspective of short-selling to help boost corporate ESG development and improve corporate contributions to sustainable development. ESG is the concrete projection of sustainable development concept at the firm level. Good ESG performance contributes to the realization of the SDGs by influencing the strategy, operation and management of the enterprise, and promoting the enterprise to more actively create the comprehensive value of the economy, society and environment. Social implications The results of this study show that short-selling can significantly enhance corporate ESG performance and strengthen corporate sustainability initiatives, thereby promoting the realization of SDGs at the firm level. These findings carry substantial implications, not only foster the improvement of China’s capital market system but also provide empirical evidence from China for capital market policy-making and sustainable development practices in other emerging markets. Originality/value This study not only addresses the gap in studying ESG performance from the perspective of short-selling behavior but also enriches the research on the economic consequences of short-selling and enriches the literature on the determinants of ESG performance.

ESG (environmental, social, and governance) has gained widespread recognition as a fundamental investment approach on a global scale. Demonstrating strong ESG performance has evolved into a vital strategic imperative for fostering sustainable corporate growth and bolstering competitiveness. Given their critical roles within companies, it is crucial for decision-makers to investigate the impact of executive overconfidence on ESG performance. Through an examination of Chinese A-share listed companies spanning the years 2009 to 2020, this research reveals a significant correlation between executive overconfidence and improved corporate ESG performance. Mechanism tests uncover that overconfident executives exhibit robust risk-taking abilities and a heightened drive to garner attention, both of which contribute to the enhancement of ESG performance. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that, in companies characterized by lower-quality accounting information, lower institutional shareholding ratios, ample cash flow, and increased government subsidies, the positive influence of executive overconfidence on ESG performance is even more pronounced. Furthermore, our investigation unveils that overconfident executives exert a positive impact on corporate ESG performance through three primary pathways: assuming responsibility for environmental protection (E), embracing social responsibility (S), and fortifying corporate governance (G). It is worth noting that this boost in ESG performance, in turn, translates into an enhancement of corporate value. Ultimately, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the economic ramifications of executive overconfidence and enriches the body of knowledge pertaining to the mechanisms for enhancing ESG performance.

Limiting the rise in “strategic entropy” and enhancing strategic focus are critical for corporations to achieve sustainable, high-quality development. This paper demonstrates that improving the business environment can induce a negative entropy flow within firms, fostering orderly growth and enhancing strategic focus. These transformations are primarily attributed to the mechanisms of buffering financial pressures, optimizing costs, and fostering innovation through an improved business environment. Further analysis indicates that optimizing the business environment positively affects corporate capabilities and reduces risks. Notably, enhancing strategic focus appears markedly pronounced among non-state-owned companies, non-high-technology industries, and companies at non-mature stages. Moreover, a detailed examination of the business environment shows that refining the investment and financing environment, enterprise market environment, government intervention environment, and population consumption environment substantially bolsters companies' strategic focus. This research offers theoretical and empirical support for enhancing corporate strategic focus and promoting orderly development.

In the current context of economic transformation and a complex environment, increasing economic policy uncertainty may lead to deviations in corporate green behaviour, and it is particularly important to correct such deviations. On this basis, this paper empirically analyses the impact of economic policy uncertainty on corporate green behaviour bias based on statistical data of Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2019. We find that economic policy uncertainty inhibits corporate green technology innovation but increases corporate innovation as a whole. Using the mechanism test, it was found that the internal inducement is mainly due to the prominent financing problems and limited development ability under the influence of uncertainty. After carrying out a heterogeneity test, it was found that economic policy uncertainty causes enterprises to deviate from green technology innovation more significantly in state-owned enterprises and protected industries, while this effect is significantly reduced when firms face fierce product market competition. Furthermore, strengthening executives’ power and implementing incentive mechanisms can more effectively correct the deviation. This study provides empirical evidence with which to strengthen corporate green innovation practices.

Etant donné que les avantages de l'optimisation par essaims particulaires (PSO, le sigle de « partcile swarm optimization » en anglais), cet article approfondit l'amélioration de l'algorithme de PSO traditionnel et son application dans la planification des ateliers de maroquinerie. Tout d'abord, la planification en ligne de la chaîne d'approvisionnement sans attente a été décrite en détail, tout en améliorant l'algorithme de PSO. Dans ce contexte, l'auteur a proposé un algorithme de planification en ligne sans attente basé sur l'amélioration de PSO de la chaîne d'approvisionnement pour les ateliers de maroquinerie. Après cela, l'algorithme proposé a été utilisé pour programmer un exemple d'atelier de maroquinerie. Les résultats montrent que notre algorithme peut trouver le plan de traitement optimal avec un petit essaim et par un nombre limité d'itérations malgré le nombre considérable de commandes. Considering the advantages of the partcile swarm optimization (PSO), this paper probes deep into the improvement of the traditional PSO algorithm and its application in leather workshop scheduling. Firstly, the online scheduling of no-wait supply chain was described in details, while improving the PSO algorithm. On this basis, the author proposed an online no-wait scheduling algorithm based on the improved PSO for leather workshop supply chain. After that, the proposed algorithm was used to schedule an example leather workshop. The results show that our algorithm can find the optimal processing plan with a small swarm and through a limited number of iterations, despite the huge amount of orders..

Increasing studies have shown that N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification plays an important role in cardiovascular diseases. In this study, we systematically investigated the regulatory mode of m6A genes in myocardial infarction (MI) by combining bioinformatics analysis of clinical samples with animal experiments. We utilized gene expression data of clinical samples from public databases to examine the expression of m6A genes in heart tissues and found a large difference between the healthy control group and MI group. Subsequently, we established an MI diagnosis model based on the differentially expressed m6A genes using the random forest method. Next, unsupervised clustering method was used to classify all MI samples into two clusters, and the differences in immune infiltration and gene expression between different clusters were compared. We found LRPPRC to be the predominant gene in m6A clustering, and it was negatively correlated with immunoreaction. Through GO enrichment analysis, we found that most differentially expressed genes between the two clusters were profibrotic. By means of WGCNA, we inferred that GJA4 might be a core molecule in the m6A regulatory network of MI. This study demonstrates that m6A regulators probably affects the immune-inflammatory response and fibrosis to regulate the process of MI, which provides a potential therapeutic target.