The enactment of policies that bolster new research and development (R&D) institutions stands as a pivotal strategy to catalyze urban innovation and development. Adopting a strategic lens of innovation chain management and employing the Differences-in-Differences (DID) method to scrutinize panel data from 43 Chinese cities spanning 2008 to 2019, this study probes the efficacy and underlying mechanisms of policies designed to support nascent R&D institutions in facilitating urban innovation. Empirical findings reveal that policies in support of new R&D institutions have markedly enhanced the three integral stages of the urban innovation chain: research and development, transfer, and application. Furthermore, the innovation ambiance within cities and the innovative activities of enterprises emerge as significant mediators between support policies and the output of urban innovation across these stages. A regional heterogeneity analysis unveils that the impact of support policies on the output of urban innovation diverges across regions, with a notably more pronounced effect observed in the eastern region compared to central and western regions. An objective appraisal of the policy's impact on urban innovation not only aids in delving into the profound implementation effects of policy instruments but also furnishes policy-makers with decision-making references for optimizing the utilization of support policies for new R&D institutions to advance the edification of the national innovation system.

Based on provincial panel data from 1998-2018, this paper estimates research and development (R&D) factors, and a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model is constructed to examine the effects of R&D factors on regional total factor productivity (TFP). The results show that both R&D capital stock and R&D personnel can significantly promote regional TFP, but the productivity-enhancing effect of R&D factors is different between regions. Specifically, R&D capital and R&D personnel can promote TFP in eastern and central provinces, and the promotion effect is not significant in western provinces. In addition, compared with investment-driven regions, innovation-driven regions are more likely to enhance TFP by R&D factors.

In the UK, a concern of prejudice, as well as a lack of gender identity and sexual orientation documentation, implies that LGBT persons mostly hidden to health-care providers. One of a review was carried out to examine primary literature on the psychological support requirements of LGBT cancer patients when receive treatment and after. Important findings: Key topics that have been mentioned include the negative impact on mental health, health care professional education and the absence of inclusive support groups, the pervasiveness of discriminatory practices within healthcare services. The research demonstrates how LGBT cancer patients are being failed by healthcare professionals in terms of psychological support, resulting in unmet requirements. There are some suggestions use to guarantee an LGBT inclusive atmosphere in cancer care, as well as the development of support programmes for LGBT people with cancer. Practical connotation: LGBT wellness and awareness education should be offered for HCP personnel. The registration and tracking of gender identity and sexual orientation is critical to ensuring that LGBT persons are not 'invisible' in cancer, radiation, and continued studies. LGBT cancer groups and services should be established, since information from the study indicated that LGBT individuals are actively seeking these services.

The construction and optimization of a portfolio is a complex process that has been a historically active research area in finance. For portfolios with highly correlated assets, the performance of traditional risk-based asset allocations methods such as the mean-variance (MV) model is limited when numerous assets are correlated. A novel clustering-based asset allocation method, called Hierarchical Risk Parity (HRP), provides an opportunity to mitigate these limitations in portfolio construction. HRP utilizes the hierarchical relationships between the covariance of assets in a portfolio to determine weight distributions, eliminating the need for the inversion of the covariance matrix that is required by most traditional risk-based asset allocation methods. This research examines the viability of Hierarchical Risk Parity (HRP) method in portfolio construction of a US equity portfolio and compares the performances of HRP to traditional asset allocation methods exemplified by the mean-variance (MV) method. The results of this research show that the performance of the HRP method is comparable to the performance of the MV method. Given these findings, HRP provides an advantageous approach for portfolio construction in practical scenarios where correlated assets are present in the portfolios.

You have a product or service for which the world has been waiting. You've scraped together enough cash to get your idea off the ground. You are confident that your business will succeed. And yet, it is often the case that a short time later you are out of business. Numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that about half of new businesses fail within the first five years. And with those business failures go the life savings and the dreams of the person who started the business. This article describes five finance and accounting pitfalls that should be avoided in order to increase the likelihood that a small business will succeed. Of course, the most common reason for a small business to fail is that customers don't want the product or service. But small businesses are also often killed because of predictable and preventable finance and accounting mistakes: insufficient capital, poor cash management, poor record keeping and controls, improper product pricing, and uncontrolled growth.

The paramount prerequisite for effective anti-cancer drugs is their ability to eradicate malignant cells while sparing non-cancer cells. The divergence in properties between malignant and non-cancer cells establishes a "therapeutic window," a critical consideration for achieving desirable treatment outcomes. Central to this is the imperative of a cancer drug's "selectivity and specificity." Taxanes, a pivotal class of successful anti-cancer drugs, continue to serve as the linchpin of cancer treatment due to their efficacy across a spectrum of cancer types. Operating as broad-spectrum chemotherapeutic agents, taxanes exert cytotoxic effects on proliferative cancer cells by binding to and stabilizing microtubules, disrupting mitosis, inducing mitotic catastrophe, and resulting in cell death. The distinct proliferative nature of cancer cells, as opposed to less proliferative non-cancer cells, affords taxanes a measure of specificity and selectivity. Nevertheless, sporadic yet recurring evidence suggests that taxanes also operate through non-mitotic mechanisms. Taxanes' binding and stabilization of microtubules lead to micronucleation and subsequent cell death, impacting both mitotic and non-mitotic cells. Recent discoveries indicate that the flexible and weakened nuclear envelope of malignant cells renders them sensitive to taxane-mediated micronucleation and cell death during various phases of the cell cycle. Conversely, non-cancerous cells typically exhibit a more robust and sturdy nuclear envelope, rendering them more tolerant to taxane-induced nuclear envelope fragmentation and subsequent micronucleation and cell death. The expression levels of nuclear envelope structural proteins, particularly Lamin A/C, emerge as indicators of taxane sensitivity. This evolving understanding underscores that nuclear envelope malleability, in conjunction with a high proliferation rate, is a pivotal determinant of taxane specificity and selectivity against malignant cells. These insights necessitate reconsidering oncological strategies to augment taxane efficacy, overcome resistance, and mitigate side effects.

This study analyzes how the presence and the composition of nomination committees could influence innovation. Specifically, we focus on the committee size, the frequency of meetings, and the presence of independent and female members. Innovation is measured by (1) the firm’s ability to produce innovations such as new or improved products/processes and the number of patents, and (2) innovation expenditures (R&D spending and the number of scientists and experts per R&D teams). This study is drawn on firms listed on the SBF120 index, between 2002 and 2016. It provides the following results: First, the presence of nomination committees is negatively associated with the number of patent applications and the number of scientists and engineers in R&D teams. Furthermore, most of the nomination committee’s attributes (such as the presence of independent and women members) have no significant association with innovation proxies. We show, also, that large nomination committees are prone to increase innovation income (such as the R&D expenditures and the number of scientists and experts per R&D teams) as well as the number of filed patents. Turning to the committee functioning provides evidence that the frequency of meetings could reduce asymmetric information regarding innovation projects and lead to an increase of R&D expenses. This article brings practical insights to board structures issues. This study contributes to the current debate on how boards should be organized, specifically; the nomination committees. It shows that boards should pay attention to the nomination committee features as they could undermine innovation projects, specifically in innovation-sensitive industries.

Green credit policy (GCP) relies on financial means to promote environmental governance. Whether it can achieve the goals of economic development and environmental protection, especially in the context of different institutional supplies, remains to be scientifically tested. Based on the implementation of China’s Green Credit Guidelines in 2012, this study uses panel data of Chinese companies from 2009 to 2019 to explore the influence of GCP on green technology innovation and the role of institutional supply in it. The results show that GCP is instrumental in promoting green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises, and the promotion effect is heterogeneous based on green patent types, firms’ ownership, and regional financial development levels. Further analysis finds that the supply of environmental protection systems by local governments can strengthen the green innovation effect of GCP. However, the institutional supply of innovation has not yet released a promotional effect. This paper finds that green credit can be used as an environmental governance tool and provides inspiration for local governments to issue environmental protection policies scientifically.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the everyday ways of life across the world. The objective of this study is to understand the impacts of nationwide lockdown restrictions on female workforce of New Zealand. To conduct this study three subsets were selected: working mothers, essential workers and women in high-risk industries. New Zealand has a gender segregated workforce, and more women on the frontline as essential workers who faced risks from COVID-19. A quantitative approach based on secondary data published by the Government of New Zealand was employed in this study. The analysis was carried out under three themes: family wellbeing, essential workers and women in high-risk industries. All the themes point to the fact that the working women of New Zealand indeed have been critically impacted compared with working men.

The digital transformation provides an opportunity for the development of a green and low-carbon economy. This study used panel data collected from 30 Chinese provinces between 2011 and 2018, and assessed the impact of digitization (Dig) on environmental efficiency (EE). Quantile regression is employed to scrutinize the evolution of the marginal effect. From the perspectives of population and institutional factors, this study empirically investigates nonlinear relationships and potential mechanisms using Hansen threshold and mediation models. The findings reveal several key insights. Overall, levels of digitization and environmental efficiency (EE) are increasing with regional dispersion expansion, indicating a “polarization” characteristic. The impact of digitization on EE exhibits noticeable stage and regional heterogeneity. Analysis of population factors reveals that population structure, population size, and human capital trigger a sharp “marginal increase” of positive effects with single thresholds of 0.8155, 7.2284, and 11.0497, respectively. Analysis of institutional factors highlights the significance of fiscal policy quality (tax proportion), education expenditure, and tax system structure as important intermediaries. Finally, this paper presents corresponding policy implications.

Based on the empirical data of 6110 listed export companies in China from 2010 to 2019, this paper studies the impact of China's economic policy uncertainty (EPU) index on the profitability of listed companies from the specific perspective of export companies, and analyzes the moderating effects of different factors on this impact. The results show that China's EPU index has a significant negative impact on the profitability of listed export companies, and the increase in R&D investment and wage returns will aggravate this negative impact. In addition, listed export enterprises with different enterprise characteristics have different responses to EPU. State-owned enterprises and enterprises located in coastal areas are relatively less negatively affected by EPU.

This research focuses on the digital transformation of retail banking in New Zealand, focusing on the challenges and opportunities elderly customers face. The banking industry is undergoing unprecedented change as technology evolves and customer needs change. However, elderly customers face physical and security challenges associated with digital transformation and lower acceptance of new technologies. This paper analyses the characteristics and needs of elderly customers, investigates the different needs of elderly and young customers, and recommends relevant solutions and suggestions. This investigation is based on secondary data, and recently published articles from various sources were used to collect information. In the wave of digital transformation, banks not only need to strive to provide convenient, safe, and high-quality services, but also need to innovate continuously to meet the needs of all customers and enhance their trust and satisfaction. This report provides exclusive digital service suggestions and solutions to help banks better meet the needs of elderly customers.

Environmental concerns are increasing and business firms are inclined towards adoption of eco-friendly products and services. They are hiring employees via set of green HRM practices and struggling to become an environmentally sustainable firm. Pakistani food industry is booming day by day. However, less is known about the green HRM practices executed in the fast food industry of Pakistan. Therefore, this research is interested in examining the impact of Green recruitment and selection, green training and development and green performance and compensation management on the P-O fit, affective commitment and green recovery performance in Pakistan’s fast food industry. The moderating effects of transformational leadership will be examined between Green HRM practices and green recovery performance. A sample of 408 employees who are working at different designations were selected to accomplish the purpose of the research. These managers will be selected through convenient sampling technique. There were 21 fast food restaurants (Burger Joints) selected from all over Karachi, few of them includes; KFC, Burger Lab, Burger O Clock, Vintage, Plan B and more. The collected primary data will be tested through the application of structural equation modeling technique. Smart PLS software is used to assess the objectives. The results of the study revealed significant association between Green R&S, Green T&D and P-O fit. A non-significant association is found between Green P& C and P-O Fit. The study affirmed that Affective commitment posit a direct influence on GRP. The Green R&S and Green P&C revealed insignificant impacts on the green recovery performance within the fast food industry. The indirect association was analyzed between P&C, P-O fit, AF and GRP and revealed an insignificant result. Likewise, an indirect association is found between R/S, P-O Fit, AF and GRP. The future researchers are recommended to analysis the remaining elements of GHRM and investigate their impacts on the fast food industry of Pakistan. There is a need to create awareness regarding green HRM practices and their influence on the Green recovery performance in Pakistan. Policy makers are recommended to develop such policies that promotes GHRM in Pakistan.

The extensive, interdisciplinary nature of construction supply chains make them prone to inefficiencies at organisational interfaces. Inefficiencies are accentuated by the project-centric delivery paradigm, and complex logistics systems between multiple stakeholders. They manifest as a multitude of concurrent activities, processes, and systems both on and off-site. Transportation is the largest component of the logistics domain. Transport operations are inherently fragmented, intrinsic to every business, while vehicle ownership and deployment is typically externalised. Differentiated waste removal and materials delivery further disintegrate the already fragmented construction supply chain. Inefficiencies from the insularity of the planning process across segmental boundaries aggregate incrementally, with impacts visible at the macro level. Re-configuration of activities, resources and actors are acknowledged strategies for optimising logistics and transportation function. This paper investigates the impact of three integration strategies on a manufactured construction products supply chain efficiency. These strategies include vertical integration of distribution, integrated planning for transport operations, and integration of reverse logistics into operations. Sustainability impacts are evaluated according to domestically determined monetary parameters in order to benchmark performance at the business and national scale.

Objective: The paper, specifically examines whether the recently formed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) can potentially facilitate minimising the constraints to renewable energy goods exports at the regional level in Asia. Data, Methodology and Findings: Using the panel data from 11 RCEP members from 2006 to 2014, this study has applied the ‘meta frontier stochastic gravity frontier’ methodology and confirms that the establishment of RCEP has the potential to improve trade in renewable energy commodities within the RCEP region. Policy Implications: The policy implication is that when countries work together, it will lead to enormous benefits for national, regional, and worldwide prospects of a more sustainable energy future. Practical Policy Implications: In terms of practical policy implications, the developed RCEP member countries should actively engage in promoting R&D activities and protecting intellectual property rights concerning renewable energy production, which are essential for countries to integrate with the world market and to lift the export frontiers of both the developed and developing RCEP member countries to reach the unrestricted export of renewable energy technology.

When human civilization is thriving to the rapid economic and social development, the deteriorating ecological environment has also pressured the society to put environmental protection issues on the agenda future development. Therefore, green innovation is not merely a requirement for a corporate’s long-term development but the basics of sustainable development of human society. As an objective indicator to measure a company's commitment to social responsibility, corporate environmental responsibility has an extremely important impact on a corporate's business philosophy and innovation strategy. However, the existing literature rarely studies between these two variables. This paper collects the data of listed companies from 2010 to 2019 and empirically tests the impact of corporate environmental responsibility on corporate green innovation. The study finds that corporate environmental responsibility can promote green innovation by reducing financing constraints, improving corporate governance and increasing government subsidies and R&D investment, and the result is still significant under a series of robustness checks. The placebo test suggests that the Jiangsu enterprise responsibility construction pilot has facilitated the development of enterprises' green innovation to a great extent. The conclusions enrich existing literature on corporate environmental responsibility and corporate green innovation, providing implications for government policy orientation, social atmosphere guidance and corporate strategic decision-making process.

Based on China's 30 provincial panel data from 2006 to 2018, this paper uses the spatial Durbin model to empirically study the influence path and transmission mechanism of financial development on regional technological innovation, and introduce digital finance environment, marketization degree, and government environmental management as an adjustment variable to verify its regulating effect on financial development and regional technological innovation. The study found that the overall promotion of digital finance to local technological innovation is not significant. Besides, the characteristics of ownership discrimination and weak risk appetite in the bank's medium and long-term credit market have led to its failure to promote regional technological innovation. In contrast, the stock market and bond market in direct financing channels have enhanced local innovation capabilities. When the external environmental system is used as the adjustment variable, the results show that an excellent digital finance development, marketization degree, and government environmental management can effectively and positively regulate the effect of financial development and technological innovation.

The manufacturing sector must incorporate digitalization and greening as crucial strategies to attain high level of development in the context of the digital economy, given its significant role in quality of environment. Most of existing studies explore net effect of a single or several factors on the digitalization or greening in the manufacturing industry. Limited investigation has been done to integrate various factors impacting the connection and synchronized advancement of digitalization and greening within the manufacturing. Factors affecting the synergy of digitalization and green change within manufacturing are recognized in this article, and a theoretical framework is established to analyze. FsQCA tool is also put into use to survey configurational cases, which contains synergy degree of green digitalization from 30 provinces’ manufacturing in China. Results show that: (1) Between 2007 and 2020, the development level of digital-green integration in the manufacturing industry shows an upward trend. There are three types of collaborative modes, namely, "industrial robot driven" "market development driven" and "market development driven - industrial robot driven", with each mode consisting of at least one to four equivalent pathways. (2) The marketization level and application of industrial robots are the important external and internal pulling forces that drive the synergy degree of digitalization and green change within manufacturing industry, respectively.(3) The influencing factors of the collaborative mode choice of digital-green development within manufacturing industry are complementary, among which, the degree of marketization is similar to the role of industrial robots in the configuration, which are capable to weaken the negative impact from insufficient government R&D investment support under specific conditions; (4) The non-high collaborative state of digital green in manufacturing industry is mainly due to the low level of marketization, openness, and economic development, as well as the low application rate of industrial robots and software products. This study enriches the theoretical understanding on digitalization and green change of manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, it also provides insights to advance the integrated and synergistic advancement of digital green transformation in manufacturing practice.

The study analyses the long growth rate period contribution to human development in West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) from 1996 to 2019 introducing time and institutional indicators effects analyses. Time and institutional effects both greatly improve model's diagnostics statistics. Time effects reduce growth variable coefficient and its significance, but not institutional effects. Combined effects inhibit growth contribution to human development. It appears essential to increase the resiliency of growth and the efficiency of government institutions.

In the context of digital economy, Hebei Province, as an important province in central China, has a huge manufacturing base and potential, and the development of digital economy has driven the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry to a certain extent. In order to better play the driving role of digital economy in the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry, this paper establishes an intermediary effect model based on three intermediary variables: enterprise resource allocation ability, enterprise cost and enterprise innovation ability, and conducts an empirical study on the panel data of 11 prefecture-level cities in Hebei Province from 2017 to 2022. The mechanism of digital economy driving manufacturing upgrading in Hebei Province was discussed. The results show that: (1) there is a significant positive correlation between the development of digital economy and the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry, which indicates that the development of digital economy has a direct driving effect on the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry; (2) There is also a positive correlation between the development of digital economy and the resource allocation ability and innovation ability of enterprises, indicating that the development of digital economy can improve the resource allocation ability and innovation ability of enterprises, and is conducive to the stable development of enterprises in the future; (3) Enterprise resource allocation ability and enterprise innovation ability play a significant intermediary role in the relationship between digital economy development and the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry, indicating that digital economy can indirectly accelerate the transformation of manufacturing enterprises' R & D achievements by improving enterprises' resource allocation ability and innovation ability, thus improving enterprises' market competitiveness and increasing enterprises' earnings. Drive the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. Based on this research conclusion, the government should give full play to the role of guidance and support, and introduce relevant policies to help the digital economy drive the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing enterprises. Manufacturing enterprises should seize the tide of the development of the digital economy, use digital technology to improve their resource allocation ability and innovation ability, enhance core competitiveness, and accelerate the transformation and upgrading of enterprises.