A large body of evidence demonstrates the key role played by entrepreneurship in promoting economic growth. However, the potential connections between entrepreneurship, social networking, and economic development still require in-depth exploration and discussion. This paper first establishes a theoretical framework combining entrepreneurship capital theory, resource dependence theory and transaction cost theory, then examines the possible associations between entrepreneurship, social networks, and economic growth based on the dynamic panel data model. To achieve the research objectives, the investigators collected data spanning the period between 2007 and 2016 from 31 provinces and cities in China. The authors adopted the enterprise employment rate as a measure of entrepreneurship and used the information sharing rate to assess social networks, which were then both introduced into the economic growth model. Additionally, by using the system of generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation, this article measures the influence of entrepreneurship and social networks on the economic growth of a local area. The empirical results reveal that both entrepreneurship and social networking significantly promote regional economic growth in China. Further, the effect of entrepreneurship is significantly enhanced after introducing the joint effects of entrepreneurship and social network. The findings also expound that entrepreneurship of the eastern zone and social networking of the central section exhibit the strongest potential for economic development of the respective areas. Conversely, entrepreneurship may actually hinder the economic advancement of the central areas of China. Corresponding to the findings, the researchers suggest that it is necessary to devise flexible policies for heterogeneous entrepreneurial environments and to appropriately utilize interpersonal networks to maximize the efficiency of the outputs of economic activity, which are likely to strengthen the role of entrepreneurship and social networks in contemporary economic and business milieu.

Non-performing loans of commercial banks have long hampered the development of the banking sector, and directly reflect the credit risk and asset quality. With the continuous development of the financial industry, the introduction of financial inclusion has greatly eased the shortage of funds, and narrowed the gap between poor and rich. However, whether the promotion of financial inclusion in the financial industry could affect the non-performing loans of commercial banks has not been verified. Therefore, this paper discusses the possible associations between financial inclusion and non-performing loans of commercial banks on the regional level, constructs a panel data model by selecting the data of 31 provinces (including 4 municipalities) in China from 2005 to 2016, and uses the fixed effect model for empirical test. The empirical results (from an overall national sample) reveal a negative impact of the financial inclusion on non-performing loans. Moreover, the development of the banking sector and the regional consumption could enhance the impact of financial inclusion, while government intervention and unemployment could reduce the impact of financial inclusion. From the analysis of the regional sample, when the development of financial inclusion reaches a high level, the lagged financial inclusion promote the non-performing loans of commercial banks; however, when the financial inclusion is underdeveloped, the development of commercial banks act as a disincentive to non-performing loans. Therefore, the local governments should pay more attention to the influences of financial inclusion on the financial industry, in order to maintain the stability of banking asset quality. In addition, the negative impact of financial inclusion on non-performing loans of commercial banks is significant in China central region, while its impacts in China eastern and western regions are not significant. This indicates that the development of the financial industry and economy can hamper the effects of financial inclusion. It is necessary to adjust the financial resource allocation according to the characteristics of different regions in China, so that the financial inclusion can effectively promote the regional financial industry upgrade, improve regional capital flow efficiency, and fundamentally reduce the non-performing loans of commercial banks. According to the sample analysis by time, there is a significant negative impact relationship between inclusive finance and commercial banks’ non-performing loans after the financial crisis, while the impacts before and during the financial crisis are not significant. This demonstrates that the impact of the global financial crisis on China’s regional economy has further enhanced the inefficiency of the inclusive financial system on credit risk, which in turn, helps commercial banks better maintain asset quality stability.

Emerging economies face the challenge of increasing labor costs but also provide an opportunity to promote environmental governance and green development. Based on the perspectives of impetus and capability, the effects of rising labor costs and market environment on green technological innovation are investigated in this study. The empirical studies used the data of high-pollution firms in China from 2009 to 2018. Results demonstrate that rising labor costs deteriorates high-pollution firm performance, while highly competitive industries are affected more than other industries. Meanwhile, the influence of rising labor costs on green technological innovation has a threshold effect which illustrates an “inversely U-shaped” variation trend with the increase of degree of market monopoly. The labor costs will make biggest impact on the green technological innovation in the moderately concentrated market environment. Basing from these results, this study provides the following suggestions for emerging economies’ green development: Take rising labor cost as an opportunity to advance technological progress to the green direction, establish a sound market competition environment, and develop green finance to reduce the financing constraints of green technological innovation.

The upgrading of industrial structure is the core means of coordinating economic development and environment protection. Its spatial agglomeration can also reduce environmental pollution partly. The upgrading of China’s industrial structure has become an important issue concerned by the whole society. To better understand this issue, based on the provincial data of China (1997–2017), this paper strives to explore the spatial effects of foreign trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) on the upgrading of China’s regional industrial structure by constructing the weight matrix of economic distance, and by introducing the spatial autocorrelation analysis method and spatial panel econometric model. The results show that: 1. The Moran’s I index of China’s import, export, FDI, and industrial structure upgrading has passed the 5% significance level test, displaying remarkable spatial agglomeration characteristics. 2. Foreign trade and FDI are important driving factors to upgrade China’s industrial structure. 3. Foreign trade has a significant spatial spillover effect. Imports and exports can not only promote the upgrading of local industrial structure, but also radiate to other regions, promote or inhibit the development of its industry, and further affect the national data. 4. The spatial spillover effect of FDI is not significant. Finally, some policy suggestions are put forward.

High-polluting industries are important sources of pollutant emissions, and closely related to many environmental issues. High-polluting firms face the pressure to exploit technological innovation for improving their environmental operations. This paper explores the impact of corporate social responsibility and public attention on the innovation performance of high-polluting firms. Based on a sample of China’s listed firms in high-polluting industries from 2011 to 2016, we use a panel data model to investigate the associations among corporate social responsibility, public attention and innovation performance. The results show that there is a positive association between corporate social responsibility and innovation performance. There is a positive association between public attention and innovation performance as well. The pressure of regional economies can hinder innovation performance. Furthermore, in the subsample of state-owned enterprises, the association between public attention and innovation performance is more pronounced. Meanwhile, the corporate social responsibility of non-state-owned enterprises plays a stronger role for innovation performance, but its effect will be limited by the pressure of regional economies. Our results can help high-polluting firms implement the innovation strategies for obtaining more environmental benefits and achieving sustainable development.