This paper investigated the impact of employee quality on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Based on data from China A-share-listed companies for the years 2012–2016 and using ordinary least squares, our empirical results show that the educational level of the workforce, as a proxy for employee quality, is positively associated with CSR, which suggests that higher education can promote CSR implementation. Additional analyses found that this positive relationship is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises in regions with lower marketisation processes, and firms with lower proportions of independent directors. This study extends the literature on human capital at the level of firms’ entire workforce and CSR by elaborating the positive effect of employee quality on CSR in the context of an emerging economy (China). The results suggest that it is necessary to consider the educational level of employees when analysing CSR, which is of strategic significance for corporate sustainable development.

A longstanding objective of managers is to reduce risk to their businesses. The conventional strategy for risk reduction is diversification; however, evidence for the effectiveness of diversification remains inconclusive. According to Organizational Portfolio Analysis, firms are viewed as portfolios of business units, and the key to risk reduction is both diversification and synchronization compensation. This study introduces “desynchronicity”, a process that operationalizes synchronization compensation by assessing the degree of correlation between income streams of business units. Two samples of 737 and 332 firms (from COMPUSTAT) were used to empirically test the relationships between diversification and risk, and desynchronicity and risk. The results show that diversification alone will not always lead to a lower corporate risk. To reduce risk, firms also need to consider the desynchronicity of their business portfolios. Other practical implications include improved decisions on portfolio composition.

At the global level and in particular the European level, challenges related to climate change and the transition to green transactions have created an imperative where identifying or developing innovative financial instruments, appropriate for these priorities, have become our research priorities and objectives. Starting from the analysis of the European Investment Plan for green transactions, as well as the EU Directive 2018/410 of the European Parliament and of the Council, in conjunction with ongoing efforts to identify innovative financing tools, research is presented based on hypotheses using concepts and models of green financing. The paper aims to analyze the main concepts and phenomena that could be considered generative factors for current financial market trends, as well as the inventory of facts and acts that provide a picture of the financial market. Based on these investigations, this paper suggest how we can best analyze the economic environment, processes, and resources in terms of their predictions regarding the sustainability of financial markets in the context of current challenges. Moreover, our paper aims to highlight in our empirical research the above-mentioned aspects, including the analysis of the emergence of new financial instruments at the global level with a direct impact on financial sustainability at the European level, including reflecting certain particularities of financial markets Romania. This research will be both a scientific contribution to the specialized literature and a possible support tool for the practical activities of entrepreneurs in their economic endeavor of developing sustainable businesses.

There is a widespread sense in all chapters of this publication that China plays a more important role in the world today than it did a few decades ago. As President Xi Jinping has noted “this is the right time to innovate and make dreams come true”.

The political history of the Southern European Region is one of the longest and most complex issues in the whole Mediterranean Sea. Many times the natural process in the region has been interrupted by actors of all kinds and, thus, adding to the complexity of the regional harmony and developmental equilibrium. Within this context, the Soft Power dimension is an important component that needs to be addressed as it directly impacts the complexity of international relations. While geopolitical restructure and intercultural manifestations have been the dominant trends in the Southern European Region, the importance of a soft power apparatus as a mechanism of foreign policy has remained constant. In my chapter, I consider “Belt & Road Initiative” (BRI) as a historic and cultural heritage shared by all countries in the Southern European Region. In particular, as China looks to adjust its foreign and cultural policy strategies accordingly, the country’s “Belt & Road Initiative” can generate and leverage basic pillars of soft power in the Southern European Region. Nevertheless, BRI is a powerful apparatus to fortify the heritage as well as the modern cultural position of China in synergy with nation-states of the Southern European Region, which aim to promote the mutual progress of human civilization, prosperity, and development. Besides, in the new era marked by the theme of an harmonious development, the BRI is both a trans-regional bridge and a multidimensional apparatus that makes societies cooperate and engage in a common future based on the principles of peace, openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning, and mutual benefit.