Volume 18 Issue 4

This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the financial fraud case of Zhangzi Island based on the Fraud Triangle Theory. The study identifies three key factors that drove Zhangzi Island's financial fraud: pressure, opportunity, and self-justification. Pressure stemmed from the risk of delisting due to consecutive losses for two years; the opportunity was due to internal control deficiencies and the difficulty of verifying biological assets; and self-justification was the management's rationalization of unconventional methods to ensure the company’s survival and development. The study suggests that enterprises should strengthen internal controls and cultivate a culture of integrity. Regulatory agencies should leverage modern information technology to enhance supervisory efficiency in order to effectively prevent and combat financial fraud.

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The Fourth Industrial Revolution, led by artificial intelligence, has profoundly reshaped contemporary production methods and daily life while exerting a substantial influence on the labor market. In this context, reexamining the historical impact of technological progress on economic development and the labor market—and drawing lessons from the past—holds significant value. By digitizing the original wage ledgers from Lumford Mill (1811) and Belper Mill (1835) and using this newly created dataset as a basis, this study investigates changes in wage levels and labor structures between the water-frame era and the spinning-mule era. This analysis offers a new explanation for the emergence of Engels’ pause during the Industrial Revolution. Specifically, the findings indicate that technological progress in Britain’s cotton-spinning sector during the Industrial Revolution led to a labor structure characterized by a large cohort of low-income, unskilled workers alongside a relatively small group of high-income, skilled workers. This configuration created a disparity between labor productivity growth and real wage increases, ultimately precipitating Engels’ pause within the sector.

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With the development of information technology, China’s digital economy has played an increasingly important role in the overall economic structure. However, previous understandings of digital economy advancement have been limited to the national or regional level, with little exploration of how digital economy progress reflects firm-level innovation performance. Therefore, this study aims to address the following questions: Does the development of the digital economy promote corporate innovation? In non-state-owned enterprises, is the positive relationship between digital economy development and corporate innovation performance significant? Addressing these questions can contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between information technology integration and corporate innovation performance. To this end, this study utilizes data from the China Urban Statistical Yearbook (2011–2022), including the total per capita use of telecommunications services in Chinese cities, the proportion of employees engaged in computer services and software, the number of internet users per 100 people, the number of mobile phone users per 100 people, and the China Digital Inclusive Finance Index (jointly compiled by the Peking University Digital Finance Research Center and Ant Group). Using principal component analysis, a digital economy index was constructed for different cities and years. This study systematically examines the impact and mechanisms of digital economy development on corporate innovation, as well as the variations in this impact across different types of listed companies. The findings indicate that the level of digital economy development influences changes in corporate innovation. Specifically, the higher the level of digital economy development, the higher the level of corporate innovation. This research aims to help firms recognize the advantages of digital transformation and the emerging trends in corporate innovation.

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