This paper empirically examines the impact of ESG ratings on the innovation performance of Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2022. The results show that improvements in the ESG ratings are significantly beneficial to the innovation performance of enterprises in the next year. Moreover, corporation age, power concentration, liquidity, the proportion of independent directors, the leverage ratio and the book-to-market value are conducive to the adjustment effect of ESG ratings. Especially, corporate profitability can play a positive mediating role, but corporate growth plays a negative role. Furthermore, competitive level actively enhances the innovation performance and profitability of enterprises. However, the pursuit of high ESG scores can incentivise monopolistic enterprises to innovate. In addition, the marginal effect of ESG investment on polluting enterprises is stronger than that on clean enterprises and that the effect on private enterprises is stronger than that on government-owned enterprises.

Inderscience is a global company, a dynamic leading independent journal publisher disseminates the latest research across the broad fields of science, engineering and technology; management, public and business administration; environment, ecological economics and sustainable development; computing, ICT and internet/web services, and related areas.

This paper aims to develop a comprehensive patent management maturity model (PMMM) in order to support organisations to progressively analyse, understand and improve their patent management maturity (PMM). Through a thorough analysis of existing literature and an extensive survey, we have identified core components of patent management capabilities (PMCs) and categorised them into seven dimensions, each comprising two to four key elements. The meticulous description of maturity levels of the elements provides organisations with a clear roadmap for continuous improvement of their PMM. Furthermore, two Chinese manufacturing firms were chosen as examples to demonstrate how the model may be employed and its efficiency. The model is beneficial for assessing the distribution of strengths and weaknesses in various parts of organisations' PMCs and for upgrading their PMCs through integrating, building, and reconfiguring patent-related processes, thereby increasing the organisation's capability to make intelligent decisions.

Research and development (R&D) has been associated with the accomplishment of business results through capital investment. In recent years, the efficiency of R&D investment by US firms has declined; however, there is a lack of empirical evidence. Therefore, this study empirically analyses the relationship between R&D, capital investments, and the US firms' profitability. A regression analysis was conducted using data from US stock market-listed firms between fiscal years (FY) 2010 to 2021. The results indicate a significantly negative R&D ratio coefficient for all years. Additionally, the capital investment ratio coefficient was significantly positive in FY2019 and FY2021. However, for FY2011 it was positive but insignificant. The coefficients were significantly negative for all other years. The results indicate decreased efficiency of R&D investments by US firms, indicating opportunities to enhance their profitability. Moreover, the findings contribute to the existing literature and will assist practitioners make more informed management-related decisions.

The escalating Sino-US trade tensions have increased the degree of environmental uncertainty faced by firms; however, the impact of such uncertainty on exploratory innovation remains understudied. Drawing on real options theory, we investigate how firms' perceptions of Sino-US trade uncertainty influence their exploratory innovation and how this relationship is moderated by individual-, firm-, and industry-level contingencies (i.e., top management teams with R&D backgrounds, financial slack, and industrial competition). Analysing a panel dataset of 1,119 Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2014 to 2020, we observe a negative association between firms' perceptions of Sino-US trade uncertainty and their exploratory innovation. This negative effect is mitigated if firms possess a higher proportion of top management team members with R&D backgrounds or ample financial slack, or if industrial competition is intense. These findings deepen our understanding of firms' innovative activities in uncertain environments.

While the China-US trade war continues to escalate, the entity list sanctions, as an important part of the trade war, could have a significant impact on Chinese multinational enterprises (CMNEs). This study examines the impact of cooperators being listed on the entity list on the global positioning of CMNEs. Using micro firm-level data, this research encompasses 6,116 firm-year observations, representing 1,869 listed CMNEs. Building on the resource-based view and risk spillover theory, we hypothesise that, as risks emanate through collaborative relationships from sanctioned entities, CMNEs' outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) exhibits greater international location dispersion and increased average geographic distance. Furthermore, we discovered that overseas executive background and resource endowment significantly moderate these effects. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the strategic adjustments CMNEs make in response to the entity list and concludes with practical recommendations for enterprises to mitigate the risks of technological decoupling and deglobalisation trends.

Inderscience is a global company, a dynamic leading independent journal publisher disseminates the latest research across the broad fields of science, engineering and technology; management, public and business administration; environment, ecological economics and sustainable development; computing, ICT and internet/web services, and related areas.

Innovation ecosystem embeddedness is a crucial strategy for non-core firms to address resource deficiencies, achieve innovative development, and rebuild competitive advantages. This study collected sample data from 505 enterprises to empirically examine the relationship between innovation ecosystem embeddedness and the innovation performance of non-core firms, including the mediating role of organisational resilience and the moderating role of ecological maturity. The research revealed that both technological innovation embedding and business value-based embedding significantly positively impact the innovation performance of non-core firms. Organisational resilience partially mediates the influence of both technological innovation embedding and business value-based embedding on the innovation performance of non-core firms. Ecological maturity positively moderates the effects of both technological innovation embedding and business value-based embedding on the innovation performance of non-core firms. This study elucidates the mechanisms through which non-core firms achieve innovative development by embedding themselves in the innovation ecosystem. It provides both a theoretical foundation and practical guidance for non-core firms to leverage the innovation ecosystems to mitigate their disadvantages and achieve growth through innovation.

Intellectual assets, especially its relational forms, have become increasingly important to explain a firm's innovation. To examine relational forms of intellectual assets (IA), this study theoretically and empirically advances a concept of alliance management capability (AMC) to explain the value creation and capture aspects of a firm's innovation process. The concepts of value-creating alliance experiences (VCAE) and value capturing alliance experiences (VCPAE) were introduced in which a firm's ability to learn from these alliance experiences increases the firm's ability to discover and govern partnerships that bring the firm's innovations to market. Hypotheses were developed and empirically examined in the biotechnology industry. A contribution of this study is that a firm's VCAE and VCPAE introduce a greater 'openness' to a firm's innovation process. This openness enables a firm to better adapt and respond to the opportunities of the market and thus impact a firm's competitive advantage to innovate.