Volume 171

In the digital era, the sports industry is undergoing substantial transformations, with digital efficiency emerging as a vital force for economic expansion and significantly impacting the financial results of sports activities. This investigation aims to explore the critical link between digital productivity and the economic consequences of sports events, as well as the influence of digital advancements on business tactics and value creation within the sports field. Through a theoretical analysis, the study highlights how digital productivity enhances resource management, introduces innovative business models, and intensifies audience engagement and participation, fostering a comprehensive growth in the sports economy. The empirical part of the research selects several exemplary sports events to examine economic performance before and after digital transformation, confirming the essential role of digital productivity in boosting event revenues and improving audience interaction. Additionally, it spurs local economic activities. The paper provides strategic guidance on the seamless integration of the sports industry with digital technologies, aiming to offer a theoretical foundation and practical recommendations for the industry's ongoing development. The emergence of digital productivity presents unprecedented opportunities for the sports sector, redefining event administration and driving the prosperity of the sports economy. This study offers an in-depth analysis of how digital improvements can enhance the economic vitality of sports, including superior user experiences, wider event dissemination, and the promotion of sports goods and service transactions. Comparative analyses demonstrate that digital transformation significantly enhances event financial returns, as seen in notable increases in ticket sales, sponsorship revenues, and broadcasting rights fees. Furthermore, digital innovations broaden the reach of the sports industry, introducing novel formats such as virtual reality (VR) viewing, online fitness communities, and e-sports, which create new avenues for economic growth. The theoretical perspectives and empirical results in this paper firmly support the notion that digital productivity is a pivotal facilitator of progress in the sports economy. By embracing digital transformation, the sports industry can more effectively adapt to market changes, thereby strengthening its competitive position and supporting sustainable growth. Therefore, the paper advises sports leaders and decision-makers to proactively utilize digital resources, increase investment in digital platforms, and enhance the production and dissemination of digital content to ensure the long-term prosperity of the sports economy.

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Innovation is the first driving force to lead the development, which is the core competitiveness of the enterprise, and the employees of the enterprise will directly affect the innovation ability of the enterprise. This paper investigates the relationship between employee satisfaction and corporate innovation ability by combining the data related to the results of ‘China's Best Employer of the Year’, basic information of listed companies, financial data and corporate governance data. A two-way fixed-effects model regression analysis reveals that employee satisfaction is positively related to corporate innovation capability. In addition, further tests show that employee turnover rate has a mediating effect between employee satisfaction and firm innovation, and ESG score moderates the relationship between employee satisfaction and firm innovation capability. This study provides empirical evidence and theoretical support for enterprises to formulate more scientific and effective human resource management strategies and innovation-driven development strategies.

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Market risk assessment is crucial for financial practitioners and helps manage potential losses from market volatility. This article compares three common VaR (value at risk) calculation methods - historical simulation, variance-covariance method and Monte Carlo simulation, and applies them to the past ten years of data of the Nasdaq Index. The results show that at a 95% confidence level, the VaR estimates given by these three methods are relatively close; however, at a 99% confidence level, the VaR values of Monte Carlo simulation and variance-covariance method are usually slightly higher than historical simulation. This shows that compared with historical simulation, these two methods are more sensitive to extreme market events and can more effectively capture tail risks when the market is volatile. In the future, machine learning technology is expected to improve the accuracy of VaR calculation, especially in dealing with high-dimensional data and complex nonlinear relationships.

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As an important component of the capital market, the investment behavior of social security funds has increasingly drawn attention for its impact on corporate ESG performance. Based on data from publicly listed companies in China, this paper explores the influence of social security fund investment with respect to corporate ESG performance and its core mechanisms. The study finds that social security fund investment effectively enhances corporate ESG integration. Heterogeneity tests show that the relationship between the two varies across aspects such as auditor quality, information transparency, and analyst attention. This paper provides policy insights for optimizing social security fund investment strategies and enhancing corporate sustainability.

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R&D expenditure has long been regarded as an essential driver of firm innovation and long-term growth. However, its impact on extreme stock price declines remains underexplored. This paper investigates whether and how corporate R&D intensity affects the likelihood of stock price crashes among U.S.-listed companies from 2013 to 2023. Building on signaling theory, growth option theory, and agency theory, this study posits that R&D activities may alter a firm’s short-term profitability and shape investor expectations, thereby influencing crash risk. Drawing on a panel dataset from CRSP and Compustat, one employs Probit and OLS regressions to examine both direct and indirect pathways through which R&D investment impacts crash probability. The findings suggest that R&D can, under certain circumstances, mitigate crash risk over a lagged period, whereas firms with higher current profitability are paradoxically more susceptible to crashes. This study contributes to the literature by illustrating the “time-lag effect” of R&D on crash risk and highlights firm size as an important contingency factor. Overall, the results have meaningful implications for corporate managers and investors. Firms seeking to minimize crash risk should carefully plan R&D allocations and manage investor expectations, while stakeholders need to be aware of the potential overvaluation bubbles that may accompany high-profit firms.

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With the growth of online travel platforms, hotel prices can be dynamically adjusted using systems considering macro (e.g., market demand, season) and micro (e.g., environment, reviews) factors that affect consumer attitudes. This study investigates the impact of hotel dynamic pricing on consumer sentiment and attitude via quantitative research and literature analysis. It collects online reviews of five-star hotels on OTA platforms for quantitative study to clarify the relationship between hotel pricing strategies and consumer emotions and attitudes. Focusing on consumers' emotional responses to dynamic pricing in the Internet context and analyzing them based on OTA reviews provides a novel perspective. By observing consumer feedback, it also aims to offer suggestions for improving hotel pricing strategies on online travel platforms, thereby enhancing user attitudes and the effectiveness of marketing and revenue management in the hospitality industry.

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In the past few decades, China's e-commerce has developed rapidly, becoming one of the most dynamic and potential markets. Its huge consumer base, perfect infrastructure, fast infrastructure and application, strong supply chain system and other advantages provide a broad space for the development of domestic and foreign e-commerce enterprises. However, Amazon, as the leader in the field of global e-commerce, after entering the Chinese market, Amazon has experienced a series of opportunities and challenges, and finally withdrew from the Chinese market. This paper aims to explore the background, development history, internal structure, competition and challenges of Amazon's entry into the Chinese market, as well as the reasons and effects of its final exit from the Chinese market through data analysis and case study. The study finds that the reasons for Amazon's failure in the Chinese market are fierce market competition, restrictions of policies and regulations, and the lag of strategic adjustment. Through the in-depth analysis of Amazon's China case, this paper will provide lessons and enlightenment for multinational enterprises to enter the emerging market.

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Social media has significantly impacted the cosmetics industry today, with platforms like TikTok and Instagram that utilize marketing strategies ranging from viral trends to user-generated content in shaping consumer behavior. Although these strategies increase their visibility and sales, they raise concerns about transparency, ethical marketing, and the impact on adolescent consumers’ behavior. The increasing appeal of social media-driven cosmetic promotions has led to impulsive buying habits and the normalization of unattainable beauty standards. This paper examines the role of influencer marketing in the beauty industry. It evaluates the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA) as a measure to improve product safety and corporate accountability. While MoCRA introduces essential regulatory changes, it does not fully address the deceptive advertising tactics used on digital platforms. As such, many small beauty brands remain exempt from strict compliance, allowing potentially unsafe products to reach teen consumers. This study explores the risks associated with social media-driven cosmetic marketing and proposes solutions, including more rigorous regulation of influencer endorsements, increased ingredient transparency, and enhanced consumer education. By advocating for stronger policies, this research emphasizes the need for a safer and more ethical beauty industry.

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This study took PayPal as a case to explore the Integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) into financial technology (fintech) and focused on the impacts of IoT on payment systems and security enhancements. This study carried out an online questionnaire survey on 65 valid respondents who were PayPal users in Australia. Through the quantitative analysis of the collected survey data, the study argues that the IoT can greatly enhance PayPal’s payment ecosystem by improving user convenience, automated payments, and seamless and contactless transactions. Additionally, biometric authentication that is enabled by IoT can significantly reduce unauthorised access; and PayPal’s advanced real-time fraud detection system can largely reduce fraudulent transactions and enhance financial security. Whereas, this study also finds the challenges of integrating IoT into fintech, mainly including data privacy issues and concerns about unauthorised access. Through the PayPal case study, this study demonstrates the practical applications of IoT in fintech, and highlights the potential and challenges of such integration. This study recommends that future research may involve as many comparative cases of financial institutions as possible, investigate larger samples, and investigate the intersection of IoT with emerging technologies (such as AI, edge computing, etc.) in the context of fintech. It is hoped that these insights will provide effective guidance for financial institutions, technology providers, and policymakers.

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Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022, this paper explores the impact of digital finance on new quality productivity and its mechanisms. The study finds that digital finance significantly promotes new quality productivity. The mechanism analysis reveals that digital finance enhances new quality productivity by facilitating industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation. The threshold effect results indicate that the development of digital finance has a dual threshold effect on new quality productivity, with the promotion effect showing an increasing marginal effect as the level of digital finance rises. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the promoting effect of digital finance on new quality productivity exhibits significant regional differences. The research conclusions of this paper provide valuable insights for boosting high-quality economic development in China and improving the level of new quality productivity development.

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