{"title":"The impact of the digital divide on household wealth accumulation","authors":"Zhe Li , Chuyu Zhi , Qinghai Li , Hua Qin","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107934","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107934","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As the digital economy evolves rapidly, the digital divide has become increasingly salient and emerged as a pivotal factor influencing household wealth accumulation. Drawing on data from the 2019 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), this study examines the impact of the digital divide on household wealth accumulation and its underlying mechanisms. The results demonstrate that the digital divide significantly curtails household wealth accumulation. This adverse effect is particularly pronounced among urban residents, those in the eastern regions, and areas with higher levels of marketization. Mechanism analysis indicates that the digital divide exerts a negative influence on wealth accumulation by impeding access to credit and diminishing social interactions. This finding underscores the profound impact of the digital divide on economic inequality and offers crucial policy insights for mitigating the digital divide and fostering common prosperity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 107934"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144633112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mi Zhang , Ning Zhou , Jie Gao , Ping Jiang , Yang Zhang , Yining Wang , Lusha Chen
{"title":"The long-term impact of entrepreneurial financing on job creation based on the roles of venture capital and angel investment","authors":"Mi Zhang , Ning Zhou , Jie Gao , Ping Jiang , Yang Zhang , Yining Wang , Lusha Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107930","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107930","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores the long-term impact of angel investment and venture capital on job creation, and examines the moderating effect of executives' financial backgrounds. The findings are as follows: both angel investment and venture capital have a significant positive impact on job creation, and executives' financial backgrounds can moderate the effect of entrepreneurial financing on job creation. Furthermore, the role of executives' financial backgrounds exhibits heterogeneity between profitable and non-profitable enterprises, influencing the effectiveness of entrepreneurial financing on job creation. Through empirical analysis, this study aims to provide valuable insights and recommendations for policymakers, investors, and entrepreneurial companies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 107930"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144606081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Executives' financial background, artificial intelligence empowerment, and corporate human resource management","authors":"Jialian Wen , Jiayi Song","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107927","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107927","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study delves deeply into the association between executives' financial backgrounds and human resource management (HRM) efficiency within Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2022, while also examining the moderating role of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The empirical findings of this paper indicate a positive correlation between executives' financial backgrounds and HRM efficiency. Moreover, AI applications act as a catalyst, amplifying this relationship and playing a significant moderating role. It is noteworthy that there are significant differences in the impact of executives' financial backgrounds on HRM efficiency between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private enterprises (PEs), which underscores the pronounced heterogeneity based on enterprise ownership.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 107927"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144633124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effect of coupling and coordinated development of green finance and fintech on corporate risk-taking: Evidence from China","authors":"Dingjun Yao , Yu Zhang , Jinzhan Hu , Kun Fan","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107912","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107912","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>By taking all A-share listed companies as samples from 2011 to 2021, the paper empirically studies the impact of the coupling and coordinated development of green finance and fintech on the level of corporate risk-taking. The study finds that, first, the coupling and coordinated development of green finance and fintech can improve the level of corporate risk-taking. Second, the mechanisms are easing financing constraints, improving the quality of information disclosure and promoting green technology innovation. Third, in high-tech industries and state-owned enterprises, the coupling and coordinated development of the two improves the level of corporate risk-taking more significantly.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 107912"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144633125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Intergenerational succession and family business investment preference","authors":"Liuming Wang , Chen Cheng , Jinghao Mu","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107923","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107923","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study employs prospect theory and investigates firm-level irrational investment decisions shaped by an economic system with imperfect governance. Focusing on China, we find that second-generation succession significantly increases family firms’ financial investment. This investment preference turns weaker when the successor is high-educated and has no siblings, or when the family firm performs worse, has better institutions, hinging on perceived gains and potential additional risk. The result is plausibly causal considering possible endogeneity issues, various variable specifications, and placebo tests.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 107923"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144596874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Impact of temperature variability on supply chain resilience in China: Mechanisms and insights","authors":"Lian-Xing Yang, Yin-Ting Zhang, Mo-Lei Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107866","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107866","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With global climate change intensifying, extreme temperatures challenge supply chain resilience. Using China’s 2016–2020 enterprise tax data and county-level temperature data, this study constructs a resilience index based on resistance and recovery capacity. Results reveal a nonlinear effect: moderate warming enhances resilience, while extreme temperatures weaken it by disrupting production, lowering efficiency, and destabilizing supply–demand matching. Northern, upstream, and state-owned enterprises are more vulnerable. These findings offer insights for targeted adaptation strategies to enhance resilience and ensure economic stability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 107866"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144596873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Family business succession and strategic CSR disclosure behaviour","authors":"Yi Chi , Yaxi Zhang , Yang Yang , Chenrui Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107921","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107921","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the impact of family business succession (FBS) on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure within family firms, with a specific focus on changes in the linguistic characteristics of CSR reports during the succession process. We find that upon the succession of the second generation, family businesses may adopt a proactive yet deliberately ambiguous CSR disclosure strategy to mitigate pressures arising from internal transformation and the external environment. This strategy is characterized by CSR reports that convey positive signals but exhibit reduced readability. Our findings contribute to the literature on both FBS and CSR disclosure and offer theoretical insights for enhancing the quality of CSR information.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 107921"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144596877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital finance and urban ecological resilience","authors":"Shihan Zhang , Shangle Ai","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107913","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107913","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Digital finance is a key driver of structural transformation in the financial system, supporting high-quality economic growth. Using data from 295 Chinese cities (2011–2022), we find that digital finance improves resource access and allocation, enhancing urban ecological resilience by expanding credit availability and reducing misallocation, especially in central and western China and larger cities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 107913"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144596879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decoding CSR report: How Report Readability and Tone Influence M&A Target and Acquirer Likelihood","authors":"Yufei Li","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107917","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2025.107917","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the influence of CSR textual attributes, particularly complexity and tone, on M&A outcomes for firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges between 2010 and 2023. Using deep learning-based NLP techniques implemented via BERT to measure CSR textual factors and addressing sample selection bias through Heckman’s two-step models, the findings reveal that higher CSR complexity significantly reduces the likelihood of firms becoming M&A targets or acquirers. While CSR tone has a limited effect on M&A likelihood, positive net sentiment enhances investor reactions to M&A announcements, particularly for target firms. These results underscore the critical role of CSR disclosure quality in shaping strategic corporate decisions and market perceptions.","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144613146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reassessing herding in cryptocurrency markets","authors":"Christine Jeanneaux , Elise Alfieri , Radu Burlacu , Sonia Jimenez Garces","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107915","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107915","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present study aims to evaluate the efficacy of existing models in detecting herding behaviors in cryptocurrency markets. The extant literature has employed various methods to assess the presence of herding behavior, mobilizing variables such as the cross-sectional dispersion of returns and the cross-sectional dispersion of assets' sensitivities to the market (beta herding). However, these detection models may not exclusively detect herding behaviors. They may also identify rational reactions to the arrival of new information or changes in investors' risk-aversion. To test this proposition, we incorporate factors accounting for new information arrival and time-varying investors' risk-aversion in classical herding models. Our results do not provide support for the presence of herding behaviors in cryptocurrency markets; rather, they underscore the significant impact of informational and risk aversion factors in explaining the cross-sectional deviation of returns.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"85 ","pages":"Article 107915"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144613196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}