Issue 4 (December)

Grain trade plays a critical role in global grain security and the balance of grain supply and demand across countries. As globalization progresses, the complexity and diversity of grain trade have become increasingly prominent. Its significance extends beyond the economic sphere, directly impacting social stability and international relations. The dynamic development of grain trade is influenced by a variety of factors, including climate change, international economic policies, technological advancements, and geopolitics. At the same time, the complexity of global grain supply chains, the uncertainty of international trade policies, and the frequent occurrence of extreme climate events pose significant challenges to the smooth operation of grain trade. In recent years, there has been growing attention in the international community on how to achieve the sustainable development of grain trade by optimizing policies, strengthening international cooperation, and promoting technological innovation. This study systematically reviews the existing literature on grain trade, providing a comprehensive summary of the research landscape, covering factors influencing grain trade, development trends, supply chain management, and risk management. The goal is to provide a systematic analysis and insights for both academics and policymakers, as well as directions and references for future research. Additionally, the study explores how grain trade has maintained resilience amid global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, and offers strategic recommendations for achieving global grain security. This research aims to further promote the sustainable development of grain trade systems and provide strong support for global grain security and socioeconomic stability.

This paper investigates the impact of new quality productivity on corporate innovation, and empirically analyzes it using A-share data from 2012-2022. New quality productivity, which includes emerging industries, future industries and digital transformation of traditional industries, has a significant positive effect on corporate innovation. The study shows that new quality productivity promotes innovation by enhancing innovation incentives and improving ESG performance. Improvements in the institutional environment can enhance its role in promoting innovation. It is recommended to enhance new quality productivity, stimulate innovation in SMEs, focus on ESG performance and develop differentiated strategies to support sustained innovation in corporate technology.

Risk management strategies protect the company as a whole as well as employees from unexpected financial impacts. As is the case in personal finance, preparing for certain scenarios helps confront any difficulties the company may face and allows it to get out of this predicament. For any project to be successful, it must be determined how the agency implementing the project will deal with potential risks so that it can identify, mitigate or avoid problems when it needs to do so. Successful project managers realize the importance of risk management, because achieving project objectives depends on planning, preparation, results and evaluation that contribute to achieving strategic objectives, especially sustainable development of communities. To ensure the success of your project, determine how you will handle potential risks so that you can identify, mitigate, or avoid problems when you need to do so.

We investigate the impact of strategic alliances on corporate green innovation by collecting and collating announcements of Chinese A-share listed enterprises related to their participation in strategic alliances from 2007 to 2022, and yields three main findings: Strategic alliances significantly improve corporate green innovation, and it contributes more to symbolic green innovation than to substantive green innovation, using the proportion of other enterprises in the same industry and same province that participated in strategic alliances in the previous year as an instrumental variable, we find that this positive impact is likely to be causal. Mechanism analysis indicates that public attention and productivity play an important moderating role in this process. The research results also show that the impact of strategic alliances on corporate green innovation is heterogeneous in terms of industry competitiveness, enterprise categories and strategic alliances types. Our research sheds mechanisms of strategic alliances on corporate green innovation, and provides a theoretical reference for enterprises to improve their green innovation level and enhance their core competitiveness.

The digital economy exerts both positive and negative influences on urban sustainable development, yet there is a notable gap in the existing research concerning its impact on energy intensity and the underlying mechanisms. this study pioneers the investigation of a nonlinear relationship between the digital economy and energy intensity, revealing a significant inverted U-shaped relationship. Specifically, we observe a noteworthy reduction in energy intensity when the digital economy index surpasses 0.286. Our empirical findings indicate that the digital economy not only directly influences energy intensity but also exerts an indirect impact through initiatives such as the promotion of green innovation and the agglomeration of high-tech industries. Importantly, the promotional effects of the digital economy exhibit heterogeneity with respect to geographical location, resource endowment, and urban scale. This paper contributes to the theoretical understanding of information technology in urban green development by analyzing the mechanisms of the digital economy at the urban level and its intricate impact on energy intensity.