{"title":"Intellectual Property Protection and Labor Employment—A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Pilot Policy of Intellectual Property Demonstration Cities","authors":"Tao Meng, Saihu Song, Cheng Chen","doi":"10.1002/mde.70054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.70054","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Employment is the cornerstone of people's livelihood. It is closely tied to the fundamental interests of the public and serves as the foundation of social well-being. Using the 2012 launch of the Intellectual Property (IP) Demonstration City pilot program as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper applies a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) approach to empirically examine the impact of IP protection on enterprise employment size. The findings are as follows: (1) The IP Demonstration City pilot significantly promotes enterprise employment expansion through channels such as increased production, alleviated financing constraints, and enhanced physical investment, and the results are robust to various tests; (2) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the pilot has a significantly positive effect on the employment size of enterprises located in inland regions, in high-tech industries, and in areas with relatively weak IP protection environments; (3) Further analysis reveals that the pilot facilitates human capital upgrading and increases wage levels of workers in pilot cities, but has a negative effect on labor efficiency. The employment-promoting effect of IP protection is more pronounced in firms that receive higher government subsidies and tax incentives. This study provides theoretical and empirical evidence on how to encourage enterprises to expand employment and improve the quality and adequacy of jobs, offering valuable policy implications for the government to achieve stable and high-quality employment.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":18186,"journal":{"name":"Managerial and Decision Economics","volume":"47 2","pages":"523-540"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146148203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effect of Corruption Priming on Happiness and Negative Emotions","authors":"Meytal Machani, Zeev Shtudiner","doi":"10.1002/mde.70053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.70053","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The 2023 World Happiness Report revealed that Israel had risen from ninth to fourth place in the global happiness index, with the absence of corruption identified as a significant contributing factor. Given the ongoing public discourse surrounding corruption in Israel, this study aimed to isolate and examine the specific impact of corruption perception on subjective happiness and negative emotions. The research employed a priming methodology across four groups (<i>N</i> = 249) to investigate the relationship between corruption perception, happiness, and negative emotions. Results indicated a significant link between corruption perception and increased levels of negative emotions. Additionally, the study highlighted the importance of considering an individual's political stance, as those aligned with the current opposition exhibited higher levels of negative emotions. These findings underscore the need for policymakers to consider both happiness and negative emotion indices, alongside prevailing perceptions of corruption, to foster integrity within governmental systems and promote a stable and corruption-free society.</p>","PeriodicalId":18186,"journal":{"name":"Managerial and Decision Economics","volume":"47 2","pages":"457-467"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/mde.70053","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146155074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comparing Equal Channel Power, Distinct Channel Power and Crisis Cartel in Mitigating the Effect of Production Cost Disruptions—A Game Theoretic Approach","authors":"Sarin Raju, Rofin T M","doi":"10.1002/mde.70045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.70045","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The study checks the opportunities and challenges in using different competition models between downstream channel partners, namely, comparable channel power, distinct channel power and crisis cartel during production cost disruption. We employed a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer-modern trade outlet-e-tailer, and different game theoretic models like Nash, Stackelberg and Collusion games were used to analyse the pre-disruption and disruption cases. The research revealed that the downstream channel partners could enhance profitability during disruptions by engaging in crisis cartels or operating under the competitor's leadership, surpassing pre-disruption levels. However, models involving channel leadership and comparable channel power yield lower profits for downstream partners during disruption. Surprisingly, none of the models offer improved profitability for the manufacturer during production cost disruptions, and both the crisis cartel and channel leadership models prove detrimental to the manufacturer's profits. Similarly, none of the models could improve the consumer surplus of customers. Additionally, we extend the basic model by analysing the impact of customer channel preference and the price elasticity of demand during production disruptions. We found that the channel preference coefficient plays a crucial role in determining the profitability of all supply chain partners. Furthermore, the price elasticity of demand significantly affects pricing strategies for the modern trade outlet and e-tailer but does not influence the manufacturer.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":18186,"journal":{"name":"Managerial and Decision Economics","volume":"47 2","pages":"468-487"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146193625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can Industrial Robot Applications Enhance Corporate Capital Allocation Efficiency?—Based on the Perspective of Cash Holdings","authors":"Lin Liang, Peng Liang","doi":"10.1002/mde.70046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.70046","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Industrial robots play a vital role in transforming and upgrading the manufacturing industry. They harness automation technologies to drive industrial production and enhance their value through innovations in production tools and knowledge. This paper analyzes annual data from China's A-share nonfinancial manufacturing listed companies during the period from 2007 to 2019, examining the impact of industrial robot applications on corporate cash holdings. The study discovers that the application of industrial robots notably reduces corporate cash holdings, thereby confirming the effect of capital allocation. The analysis rules out the possibility that this reduction occurs through alleviating agency problems. Mechanism analysis reveals that the application of industrial robots reduces cash holdings for precautionary motives by reducing labor leverage and enhancing labor productivity and operational efficiency. Additional tests reveal that the reduction in corporate cash holdings due to industrial robot applications is more pronounced in enterprises with intense market competition, labor-intensive and nonstate-owned enterprises. This study deepens the research focus on industrial robot applications and corporate cash holdings, providing a theoretical basis for policymakers to promote technological innovation and industrial advancement.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":18186,"journal":{"name":"Managerial and Decision Economics","volume":"47 2","pages":"438-456"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146162787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mobile Payment Adoption in China: A Comment on Vatsa et al.","authors":"Muzaffarjon Ahunov, Leo Van Hove","doi":"10.1002/mde.70047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.70047","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Vatsa et al. examine the determinants of mobile payment adoption in China. They do so by applying a probit model to data from a nationally representative survey. In this comment, we identify several conceptual and econometric limitations that affect the robustness of Vatsa et al.'s findings. By improving the methodological approach—most notably by accounting for potential selection bias—we find substantially different results: Health status and party membership are no longer statistically significant, the effects of economic status and social participation prove to be nonlinear, and the impact of most other factors differs in magnitude. When we, in a final step, also try to improve upon Vatsa et al.'s specification, we find, for a sample consisting of mobile phone owners, that the new constructs digital skills and internet experience have a significant positive impact on mobile payment use. Conversely, privacy concerns do not.</p>","PeriodicalId":18186,"journal":{"name":"Managerial and Decision Economics","volume":"47 2","pages":"425-437"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/mde.70047","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146148109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reverse Referral Decisions for Telemedicine-Based Healthcare Alliance Considering Patient Online Choice Behavior","authors":"Miao Yu, Bowen Jiang, Zhi-Yu Li, Wen-wen Wang","doi":"10.1002/mde.70044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.70044","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>To address the disparities between medical resources and patient needs in large general hospitals (GHs), this study examines the coordination of referral processes between GH and community health centers (CHCs) enabled by telemedicine-based online service channels used by GH as gatekeepers. A three-stage game model is developed within a queuing theory framework to investigate the dynamic decision-making interactions among patients, CHC, and GH. The equilibrium decisions are given concerning the arrival rates of both initial offline and online patients, the service capacity of CHC, and the referral threshold of GH. The analysis compares system performance under partial and full referral scenarios. The findings reveal a counterintuitive result: Partial reverse referral from online services may prompt the CHC to reduce its service capacity for profit-seeking purposes, thereby diminishing patient welfare. Numerical experiments indicate that the online reverse referral mechanism is effective when the scale of online patients is sufficiently large. When patient scale is inadequate, the CHC, lacking profit margins, tends to withdraw from the referral system. Moreover, under conditions of expanded GH service capacity, partial reverse referral outperforms full reverse referral in improving overall system efficiency.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":18186,"journal":{"name":"Managerial and Decision Economics","volume":"47 2","pages":"411-424"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146155187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Efficiency of Mental Health Services With Robustness Check of DEA Scores by Income Groups","authors":"Gülnur İlgün","doi":"10.1002/mde.70043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.70043","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The aim of this study is to examine the efficiency of mental health services in different countries based on their economic levels (income groups) and to see how reliable the results are. It also aims to examine whether the efficiency scores of countries vary by region and income groups. Data from 75 countries were used in the analysis. Input factors were the number of mental hospitals, psychiatrists, psychologists, and nurses, while output variables included the prevalence of depression, anxiety, total years lived with disability (YLD) for depression, and YLD for anxiety. To ensure that the decision-making units in this study are homogeneous, countries were separated into three groups based on their income levels, and then the data envelopment analysis (DEA) (input-oriented VRS model) was performed individually for each income level. When comparing middle-income countries (MIC) to low-income countries (LIC) and high-income countries (HIC), I found that MIC has lower efficiency scores (0.48). In addition, I found that LIC (0.93) is more efficient than HIC (0.72). This analysis identifies countries' potential improvement gaps in improving the efficiency of mental health services. The findings of this study are intended to guide policymakers and decision-makers in the field of mental health treatment.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":18186,"journal":{"name":"Managerial and Decision Economics","volume":"47 2","pages":"403-410"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does Digital Economy Drive New Quality Productivity? Evidence From Dual Machine Learning Models","authors":"Yuchen Jiang, Jiasen Sun","doi":"10.1002/mde.70042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.70042","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Advancing new quality productivity (NQP) is essential to deviate from the traditional paths of productive forces and economic growth. However, further research is needed to uncover effective development strategies for NQP. By applying dual machine learning (DML) on panel data for 282 Chinese cities from 2009 to 2022, this study examines how digital economy (DE) influences NQP. Several key findings emerge from the analysis. First, China's NQP has considerable potential for improvement, with the development of new factors and technologies being the main barriers. Second, DE positively influences the advancement of NQP as confirmed by various robustness checks. Third, DE promotes NQP by promoting green innovation, facilitating human resource agglomeration, and improving urban informatization levels. Fourth, the effects of DE on NQP are heterogeneous. From a regional heterogeneity perspective, DE aids NQP advancement across the eastern, central, and western regions, while from an economic heterogeneity perspective, the DE in the Yangtze River Delta, central Yangtze River, and Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei economic areas significantly drives NQP progress. Theoretically, this study innovatively applies the DML method to examine how DE influences NQP, thereby effectively addressing endogeneity concerns and deepening the present theoretical understanding of their mechanisms and heterogeneity. Practically, this study provides policy insights for governments to design differentiated DE strategies and promote regionally coordinated development.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":18186,"journal":{"name":"Managerial and Decision Economics","volume":"47 2","pages":"387-402"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital Industry Agglomeration and Firm Innovation: Theory and Evidence","authors":"Yaru Yang, Yingming Zhu","doi":"10.1002/mde.70041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.70041","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>With the rapid development of the digital economy, digital industry agglomeration has become a key driver of firm innovation. This study develops a theoretical framework distinguishing between complex innovation and simple innovation from the perspective of data elements and examines the mechanisms through which digital industry agglomeration affects innovation. Using panel data of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2013 to 2021, we find that digital industry agglomeration significantly promotes firms' overall innovation, as well as both complex innovation and simple innovation. Moreover, firms' absorptive capacity positively moderates this relationship, with a stronger effect on complex innovation than on simple innovation. The innovation-enhancing effect of digital industry agglomeration is more pronounced in regions with lower marketization, varies with the intensity of environmental regulation—promoting complex innovation under stricter regulation and simple innovation under looser regulation—and is stronger in regions with higher government intervention. In addition, digital industry agglomeration generates significant positive spatial spillovers that enhance innovation in neighboring regions. These findings provide new theoretical and empirical evidence on the relationship between digital industry agglomeration and firm innovation, highlighting the importance of fostering digital industry agglomeration and strengthening firms' absorptive capacity to stimulate innovation.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":18186,"journal":{"name":"Managerial and Decision Economics","volume":"47 2","pages":"357-386"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146148178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Impact and Mechanisms of Smart City Policies in Promoting Enterprise Digital Transformation","authors":"Long Song, Ruiting Sun","doi":"10.1002/mde.70033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.70033","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Amid global economic restructuring, enterprise digital transformation has emerged as a critical strategy for enhancing competitiveness and upgrading industrial structures. As a major policy instrument to foster the digital economy, the effects of China's smart city pilot program on enterprise digital transformation remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on data from Chinese A-share listed firms over the period 2007–2024, this study employs a multiperiod difference-in-differences (DID) design to evaluate the policy's impact and to investigate its underlying mechanisms and heterogeneity. The findings indicate that the smart city initiative significantly accelerates enterprise digital transformation, primarily through three production factors: talent agglomeration, technological innovation, and capital support. Heterogeneity analyses further reveal that the effects differ across firms, industries, institutional contexts, and regions. These results provide new insights for optimizing smart city policy design to promote more effective digital transformation of enterprises.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":18186,"journal":{"name":"Managerial and Decision Economics","volume":"47 2","pages":"339-356"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146162713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}