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This study examines the impact of market-based environmental regulation on corporate digital transformation, using China’s carbon emission trading pilot policy as a representative initiative. Analyzing data from Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies between 2009 and 2020 through a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) approach with two-way fixed effects, we investigate the underlying mechanisms. By developing a comprehensive evaluation framework encompassing five technological dimensions—artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and digital technology applications—we find that market-based environmental regulation significantly promotes corporate digital transformation, demonstrating a robust positive causal relationship.To ensure reliability, our findings withstand a series of robustness checks, including parallel trend tests, placebo tests, PSM-DID estimations, and variable replacement tests. Heterogeneity analysis reveals substantial variations in policy effects: the promoting effect on state-owned enterprises is approximately twice as strong as that on non-state-owned enterprises. Furthermore, while the policy significantly enhances digital transformation among small and medium-sized enterprises, its impact on large enterprises remains statistically insignificant.This research highlights the crucial role of market-based environmental regulation in driving corporate digital advancement, providing empirical evidence for policymakers to refine environmental regulation systems and implement differentiated strategies for corporate green transformation. It also offers practical insights for enterprises of varying ownership structures and sizes in pursuing digital transformation within sustainable development frameworks.

The private sector is the engine of economic growth, stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation and promoting competition and productivity. While many countries in Africa have developed private sector-driven growth strategies, private investment as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) is only 13 percent in Africa, significantly lower than in other regions, such as South Asia, with many low-income countries. The public sector still occupies the lion's share of economic activity in Africa. This study addresses how industrial clusters could be a springboard for the development of Africa's micro and small enterprise sector, which constitutes the bulk of the region's indigenous private sector. The successful development of industrial clusters in Asia illustrates how small enterprises can help to drive growth led by market expansion at home and abroad.

Objective: The objective of this article is to identify the impact of market orientation and its elements on company competitiveness of internationalized medium-sized and large enterprises present in Central Eastern Europe and Western Europe in the period of economic growth. Research Design Methods: Quantitative large sample statistical analysis was conducted on a sample of Hungarian internationalized medium-sized and large enterprises (n=119). Data was obtained by the survey method, the MKTOR scale was implemented in the survey and financial data was also included. The sample is representative for size, and the sample size is larger than required. Factor analysis was used to determine the components of market orientation, regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses, and Chi-square test was used to determine differences in the elements of customer orientation. Findings: Market orientation influences the competitiveness of internationalized medium-sized and large enterprises present in Central Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Among the components of market orientation, competitor orientation had the most significant and most powerful impact on competitiveness and on market performance as well. Interfunctional coordination had significant impact on adaptivity and operationality. However, customer orientation did not have significant impact on either competitiveness or its elements because customer orientation became a threshold capability of the internationalized medium-sized and large enterprises present in Central Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Implications Recommendations: Executive managers of internationalized medium-sized and large enterprises should focus on competitor orientation if they wish to increase their competitiveness and market performance, while maintaining their companies’ high level of customer orientation. If managers want to increase their companies’ adaptivity and operationality, they should also focus on interfunctional coordination procedures. Contribution Value Added: The main contribution of the article is that customer orientation is a threshold capability of internationalized medium-sized and large enterprises. Moreover, we prove that market orientation and especially competitor orientation increases the competitiveness of internationalized mediumsized and large companies.

Few studies on open innovation (OI) address OI practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and how their use of OI and the resulting benefits differ from those of large enterprises. The lack of resources in SMEs to engage in looking outward is said to be a barrier to OI, but at the same time this shortage is cited as a motive for looking beyond organisational boundaries for technological knowledge. We investigate how OI dimensions impact the innovative performance of SMEs in comparison to large companies. The key finding is that the effects of OI practices in SMEs often differ from those in large firms. SMEs are more effective in using different OI practices simultaneously when they introduce new products on the market, whereas this is less the case for large firms. Turnover from new products in SMEs is driven by intellectual property protection mechanisms, while large firms in this case benefit more from their search strategies.

Recent research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) suggests the need for further exploration into the relationship between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and CSR. SMEs rarely use the language of CSR to describe their activities, but informal CSR strategies play a large part in them. The goal of this article is to investigate whether differences exist between the formal and informal CSR strategies through which firms manage relations with and the claims of their stakeholders. In this context, formal CSR strategies seem to characterize large firms while informal CSR strategies prevail among micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. We use a sample of 3,626 Italian firms to investigate our research questions. Based on a multistakeholder framework, the analysis provides evidence that small businesses* use of CSR, involving strategies with an important impact on the bottom line, reflects an attempt to secure their license to operate in the communities; while large firms rarely make attempts to integrate their CSR strategies into explicit management systems.

This paper examines the development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. It has three research issues, namely the role of MSMEs, their constraints, and the importance of MSMEs for the creation of business opportunities for women. More specifically, the study aims to answer the following research questions. First, how important are MSMEs in Indonesia? Second, what are their main constraints? Third, how important are they, especially micro and small enterprises (MSEs), for the creation of business opportunities for women? Fourth, is the growth of MSEs a sign of increased entrepreneurial spirit or a reflection of poverty? This study adopted descriptive analysis using secondary data. It shows that MSMEs in Indonesia are dominated by MSEs, and accounted for almost 100% of all existing firms but only contributed between 58 to 61% of gross domestic product (GDP). About 42.84% of MSEs are owned by women, although the ratio of female to male entrepreneurs in MSEs varies by province. Poverty seems to be the main force behind the growth of MSEs. This study ends with some policy recommendations that the government should: (i) conduct trainings that focus on online marketing, entrepreneurship, management, and improving the quality of product and business efficiency; (ii) provide alternative funding facilities with low interest rates and non-burdensome requirements; and (iii) provide assistance directly in the production site for new entrepreneurs in their first years of running businesses. In addition, all gender discrimination treatments that have been burdensome for women to run own businesses must be eliminated. This study has, however, several limitations, especially with respect to the third and fourth research questions. Secondary data used does not have information about the main/initial motivation of MSME owners to run their own business and their socio-economic profiles.

The paper discusses the role the financial sector can play in supporting growth in Japan. While overall credit conditions have been accommodative, credit growth has remained weak, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Firm-level SME data and sectoral corporate balance sheets show that many SMEs have faced structural challenges of high leverage and low profitability. Moreover, the global financial crisis has weakened the financial position across SMEs, particularly for those with low credit worthiness. These challenges are closely related to low availability of riskcapital and the pervasiveness of credit support measures. This paper argues that to encourage the supply of risk-based capital, costly government support measures should be phased out and SME restructuring be accelerated. Efforts are also needed to deepen capital markets to enhance risk capitalavailability and address regulatory barriers to starting businesses. In that regard, addressing SMEweaknesses would improve private investment, enhance firm productivity, and lift growth.

Although the circumstances in which Kenyan firms must do business have improved since 2004, including an increase in productivity, Kenyan firms still face an adverse business environment. 'An Assessment of the Investment Climate in Kenya' reports on the main impediments to productivity growth identified by managers of Kenyan businesses: -- Lack of access to financing. Despite a favorable lending regime, 90 percent of microenterprises and 60 percent of small firms in Kenya declared that they needed loans, compared to 40 percent of medium-sized and large firms. -- Corruption and crime. Seventy-five percent of firms in Kenya reported having to make informal payments to 'get things done'. This sort of corruption costs Kenyan firms approximately 4 percent of annual sales. In 2007, approximately one-third of Kenyan managers rated crime as a major business constraint. In addition, Kenyan companies lose 2.6 percent of their sales because of spoilage and theft during transportation. -- Unreliable infrastructure services. Transportation and energy remain significant bottlenecks. Close to 80 percent of firms in Kenya experience losses because of power interruptions. As a consequence, almost 70 percent of firms have generators, which are costly to obtain and operate. Managers also complained about taxes. Kenya has reduced corporate tax rates in recent years, but some objective indicators suggest that the country's tax burden remains higher than in most comparator countries. Given the potential impacts of high taxes—high evasion and the presence of a large informal economic sector—the report recommends a more detailed assessment of the effective rate of taxation. 'An Assessment of the Investment Climate in Kenya' recommends specific changes in each of these areas of constraint, as well as in the areas of transportation and regulatory reform. The book will be of interest to readers working in business and finance, economic policy, corproate governance, and poverty reduction.

This article explores whether political connections are important in the United States. The article uses an original hand-collected data set on the political connections of board members of S&P 500 companies to sort companies into those connected to the Republican Party and those connected to the Democratic Party. The analysis shows a positive abnormal stock return following the announcement of the nomination of a politically connected individual to the board. This article also analyzes the stock-price response to the Republican win of the 2000 presidential election and finds that companies connected to the Republican Party increase in value, and companies connected to the Democratic Party decrease in value.