{"title":"Financial institution coverage and firm's cross-regional investment: Evidence from China","authors":"Jennhae Liou , Zijin Wang , Tzeryan Jiau , Qiuyun Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104571","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104571","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the role of financial institution coverage in facilitating cross-regional capital flows within China, offering insights into how financial market development influences spatial capital allocation. Using granular data on 10.5 million city-year observations of Chinese listed firms and their subsidiaries (2007–2022), we demonstrate that cities with greater financial institution density attract significantly more cross-regional investments. Policy banks emerge as key drivers compared to commercial banks, particularly for firms operating in competitive markets or exhibiting higher risk tolerance. Mechanism analyses reveal that financial institution coverage facilitates non-local corporate investment by lowering financing costs through the effects of mitigating information frictions and reducing financial institute market power. Our findings extend the discourse on intra-national capital mobility by identifying financial infrastructure as a critical determinant of spatial investment patterns, with implications for understanding institutional roles in emerging markets' financial integration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48226,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Financial Analysis","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 104571"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Time-varying relationship and diversification between sin stocks, Bitcoin and gold","authors":"Barbara Čeryová, Peter Árendáš","doi":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104533","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104533","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although market preferences appear to have shifted toward sustainability, sin stocks, linked to activities such as gambling, tobacco, alcohol, or weapons, continue to outperform sustainable stocks in returns and resilience to market shocks. However, their relationship with other asset classes remains underexplored. Thus, this paper examines the connections and diversification benefits of sin stocks with gold, a traditional safe haven, and Bitcoin, a quasi-safe haven, for January 1, 2014–December 31, 2024 period. Our findings reveal a weak to negligible positive relationship between sin stocks, Bitcoin, and gold under stable market conditions, which quickly intensifies in market downturns. Both assets provide substantial diversification benefits for sin stocks until mid-2019, when their positive co-movement is minimal. Nevertheless, it strengthens during global crises occurring afterwards, including the COVID-19 pandemic, energy crisis, and Russia–Ukraine conflict, and neither Bitcoin nor gold act as safe haven assets. Nonetheless, the diversification benefits, although reduced, remain more pronounced for gold than for Bitcoin. Bitcoin exhibits both short- and long-term positive correlations with sin stocks, along with unstable lead–lag dynamics, whereas gold displays only short-term positive co-movement before reverting to weaker correlations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48226,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Financial Analysis","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 104533"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"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 of digital infrastructure on urban radical innovation: Evidence from the “Broadband China” Demonstration Policy","authors":"Xinpeng Wang , Yingying Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104528","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104528","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study explores the influence of digital infrastructure (DI) on urban radical innovation (RI) by exploiting the “Broadband China” demonstration policy as a quasi-natural experiment and applying a spatial Difference-in-Differences (DID) model. We find that the DI promotes RI, and this effect is further strengthened by local government's digital focus. Mechanism analysis identifies three key channels: the advancement of the digital economy, increased virtual agglomeration, and optimization of commercial credit environment. Heterogeneity assessment indicates that the positive effect is more substantial in eastern cities, cities exhibiting advanced marketization, and cities with better intellectual property protection. Our findings offer valuable perspectives and policy-oriented insights for emerging economies aiming to foster RI through DI advancement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48226,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Financial Analysis","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 104528"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hamid Beladi , Chi-Chur Chao , Cong Tam Trinh , Mong Shan Ee
{"title":"Green financing for ESG investments and wages in a sustainable economy","authors":"Hamid Beladi , Chi-Chur Chao , Cong Tam Trinh , Mong Shan Ee","doi":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104569","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104569","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the impact of green financing for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments on business dynamism and wages within the economy. Green financing for emission reductions involves certain abatement costs, while the associated green financing can offset these cost increases. The effects on wage inequality and firm dynamics hinge on which effect predominates. Green financing for ESG investments can narrow the skilled-unskilled wage gap in the short run, but the reduction in wage inequality could be mitigated in the long run due to the firm-entry effect. Green financing for ESG investments yields benefits in reducing wage inequality and enhancing market competition within industries. Using three-stage least squares and system Generalized Method of Moments estimations, we verify the theoretical findings. Policy recommendations, including developing green finance through favorable loans, are offered to fund ESG investments that meet environmental and social standards to achieve a sustainable and equitable economy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48226,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Financial Analysis","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 104569"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144898879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhiqiao Xiong , Jianjiang Liu , Daqian Shi , Jin Hu
{"title":"From chains to gains: How green supply chain management drives green innovation in Chinese manufacturing","authors":"Zhiqiao Xiong , Jianjiang Liu , Daqian Shi , Jin Hu","doi":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104579","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104579","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Green supply chain management (GSCM) has received considerable attention as an effective driver of green innovation in organizations, setting it apart from conventional supply chain management approaches. However, despite its potential, GSCM remains insufficiently explored in the extant literature. To address this research gap, our study constructs a theoretical framework grounded in stakeholder theory, encompassing government, society, and enterprises. Using data from publicly listed manufacturing companies in China from 2011 to 2022 and employing the assessment of demonstration enterprises under the GSCM policy as a quasinatural experiment, we apply a multiperiod difference-in-differences approach to evaluate the effect of GSCM on corporate green innovation. Our empirical results demonstrate that GSCM substantially promotes green innovation, remaining consistent across several robustness checks, including placebo testing, interaction fixed effects, double clustering, and eliminating confounding policy influences. Moreover, we explore three underlying mechanisms through which GSCM enhances green innovation: securing governmental environmental subsidies, attracting social green investments, and reducing enterprise transaction costs. Additionally, we find that government ecological concerns, social media attention, and the green human capital of corporate executives exert significant moderating effects, amplifying the positive influence of GSCM on green innovation. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the driving effect of GSCM is pronounced in nonpolluting enterprises, firms with high supply chain efficiency, and those exhibiting superior ESG performance. This paper provides empirical evidence on how GSCM facilitates green innovation and offers valuable insights for policymakers aiming to optimize green supply chain policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48226,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Financial Analysis","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 104579"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145220455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cultural biases in the investment decision-making process of institutional investors","authors":"Haili Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104576","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104576","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With reference to a large sample collected between 2014 and 2024 of nearly 300 fund managers, this paper draws on both qualitative and quantitative studies to examine how cross-cultural differences influence institutional investors' investment decision-making. By so doing, it investigates whether there are significant cultural biases in investment behaviours, in addition to the cognitive and emotional biases found in previous finance literature. The findings indicate that Chinese fund managers—in contrast to Western fund managers—paid more attention to macroeconomic information, were more likely to adopt a top-down approach, tended to have a shorter stock holding period on average and for losing stocks, in particular, and tended to evaluate a company according to its context. This evidence of systematic behavioural differences between two cultural groups indicates that investors may habitually underrate some investment information or strategies because of their cultural biases, which could have significant implications for traditional finance theory, investment practice, (green) financing, and policy making.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48226,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Financial Analysis","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 104576"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144920361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social credit and supply chain resilience: Insights from China's social credit system construction","authors":"Donghua Zhou , Yuanyuan Yang , Yujie Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104568","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104568","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using data from non-financial listed companies in China's A-share market between 2007 and 2022, this study employs a quasi-natural experiment of the China's social credit system (CSCS) pilot cities to examine its impact on supply chain resilience. We find that companies in the CSCS pilot cities have significantly improved supply chain resilience. The main mechanisms driving this effect on supply chain resilience are information, moral, resource, and capability effects. The positive impact of CSCS on supply chain resilience is stronger when companies face higher crisis shocks, weaker cooperation, and less favorable organizational characteristics. Moreover, CSCS's positive effect on supply chain resilience significantly enhances the firm's total factor productivity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48226,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Financial Analysis","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 104568"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144912050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Embracing paradox: The digital innovation strategy and corporate value—The moderating role of CEO-TMT cognitive complementarity and executive equity incentives","authors":"Linjun Cao , Lidong Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104575","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104575","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Overcoming the tension between exploration and exploitation in digital innovation is critical for realizing firm value. Although existing research recognizes this tension as a major obstacle to value creation, long-term empirical studies on strategies to address it remain scarce. To bridge this gap, we draw on paradox theory, ambidextrous innovation, and strategic flexibility and leverage a panel of non-financial A-share listed firms in China to examine how synergistic yet flexible digital innovation strategies contribute to firm value. Our findings indicate that these strategies effectively manage the innovation paradox and enhance value creation, with particularly strong effects when the chief executive officer and top management team exhibit high cognitive complementarity and are motivated by long-term equity incentives. Moreover, the value-enhancing impact of digital innovation strategies is more pronounced for firms operating in regions with strong intellectual property protection and for those subject to high analyst coverage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48226,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Financial Analysis","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 104575"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144895636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital technology preferences in chinese cities from a trade competitiveness perspective","authors":"Sisi Zhang, Dexiang Mei","doi":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104563","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104563","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the selection preferences for digital-factor-biased technologies (DFBT) in relation to cities' foreign trade competitiveness (FTC), using panel data from Chinese cities spanning 2011 to 2022. The findings reveal several key insights. First, cities with higher FTC are more likely to adopt digital-factor-enhanced capital-saving and labor-saving technologies, with this preference strengthening as FTC increases. Second, FTC is primarily driven by economies of scale, comparative advantage, and technological innovation—each of which shapes urban preferences for DFBT in distinct ways. Third, cities with strong FTC leverage their competitive advantages to adopt DFBT by advancing their digital industries. Additionally, both institutional openness and market-based trade accessibility significantly influence DFBT adoption.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48226,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Financial Analysis","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 104563"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144889546","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital transformation and green finance efficiency of tourism enterprises: The effect of credit ratings","authors":"Xincai Ye , Lin Miao","doi":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104527","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104527","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the growth of digital technologies, tourism companies have accelerated their digital transformation in recent years to improve efficiency and profitability. In this research, we explore the implications of digital transformation for tourism firms' green finance efficiency. Grounded in a comprehensive panel of publicly traded tourism enterprises from 2000 to 2024, this paper offers strong evidence that digital transformation has substantially boosted green finance efficiency of tourism firms, and this effect is even larger for tourism enterprises with lower credit ratings. Further research shows that information transparency and cost efficiency are vital economic channels. Our findings are consistent across multiple endogeneity and sensitivity analyses. Overall, this paper greatly advances the burgeoning studies on digital transformation, green finance, and tourism studies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48226,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Financial Analysis","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 104527"},"PeriodicalIF":9.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144889547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}