From the perspective of the effectiveness of internal control, according to the Stakeholder Theory, Principal-Agent Theory and Reputation Theory, this paper analyzes comparatively the influences of internal control on the assumption of corporate social responsibility (SCPS) from the accrual basis, and the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility (CSRF) from the cash flow system respectively. Using a sample of 1767 firms listed in China between 2011 and 2016, we find that effective internal control has significantly promoted enterprises to assume social responsibilities. Meanwhile, effective internal control substantially improves the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility. This study overcomes the current situation that the two concepts of assumption and fulfillment of corporate social responsibility have not been distinguished in previous literature. We suggest that, in the economic transition period, the positive role of internal control in corporate governance should be promoted to protect the legitimate rights and interests of stakeholders; the adverse impact of the principal-agent relationship between shareholders and management on corporate governance should be avoided, building high-quality internal control; enterprises achieve steady and sustainable development process by the positive reputation value and robust external monitoring mechanism. This research is of practical importance to strengthen the subsequent construction of the internal control system and the long-term practice of corporate social responsibility.

This paper introduces energy consumption and carbon emission into the analysis framework of the green productivity of tourism. By comparing and analyzing the two main methods used to evaluate the energy consumption and carbon emission estimations of tourism, namely, the “top-down” and “bottom-up” method, and considering the availability of data, the “bottom-up” method was adopted to evaluate the energy consumption and carbon emissions of tourism in the Yangtze River Economic Zone (YREZ). Then, using the Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) index in the super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, the green productivity of the tourism in 11 provinces and cities in the YREZ from 2006 to 2015 was measured. The empirical results show that: (1) The energy consumption and carbon emissions of tourism in the YREZ have increased steadily over the past 10 years, which has caused a certain degree of pollution to the environment, indicating that tourism is no longer a “smoke-free industry”; (2) there are significant provincial differences between the energy consumption and carbon emissions of tourism in the YREZ, with Shanghai always ranking first, while Guizhou and Yunnan ranks last, which represents that the tourism economic development level is positively correlated with the tourism energy consumption and carbon emissions; (3) the green productivity of tourism in the YREZ shows a fluctuating increasing trend in the past 10 years, and technological progress has become the main reason for its growth in green productivity; and (4) the green productivity of tourism in 11 provinces and cities in the YREZ can be divided into three types: Progressive type of tourism green development, stagnant type of tourism green development, and declining type of tourism green development. Consequently, different types of provinces should explore effective dependency paths based on their own conditions.

This study analyzes the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) fulfillment on corporate risk-taking to assist stakeholders in identifying the “double-edged sword” role of CSR activities and provide empirical evidence for enterprises to properly carry out CSR activities. The results show that the self-interest instrumentalization of CSR activities intensifies agency conflict, and CSR fulfillment weakens risk-taking to a certain extent. When CSR fulfillment reaches a certain value, CSR activities can improve risk-taking. Then, CSR fulfillment and risk-taking show a U-shaped relationship. Further analysis shows that the impacts of CSR on debt financing and R&D input reflect the U-shaped effect pathways of CSR fulfillment on risk-taking. Finally, it is suggested that CSR activities should be avoided to become the “self-interest tool” of the management. The regulators guide enterprises to break through the inflection point of the U-shaped effect and consider more for the stakeholders’ overall interests. Additionally, the regulators establish an effective compensation system to ensure that the enterprises with adequate CSR fulfillment obtain high-quality capital resources and promote the sustainable development of the capital market.

Product recovery is an important business because of its great economic, social, and environmental benefits in practice. In this paper, a location-inventory problem (LIP) in a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) is investigated to optimize facility location and inventory control decisions by considering product recovery. The objective is to optimize facility location and inventory control decisions to minimize the total cost of business operations in a closed-loop supply chain system. We formulate this problem as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model and design a modified hybrid differential evolution algorithm (MHDE) to solve it efficiently. Finally, numerical results are presented to validate the performance of the new algorithm. The results show that MHDE is more efficient and effective than Lingo and other algorithms for the research problem under study. Managerial insights are also derived for business managers to improve their supply chain performance.

Based on the principal-agent theory and the financial management theory, this study analyzes the impact of fund shareholding on corporate insufficient R&D input, and explores the action mechanism of fund shareholding on corporate innovation activities. The results show that fund shareholding is helpful to inhibit the insufficient R&D input. Moreover, this inhibiting effect is mainly reflected in the case of higher risk of financial failure. The further analyses show that the higher level of marketization strengthens the inhibiting effect of fund shareholding on insufficient R&D input. Finally, it is suggested that fund companies should be encouraged to hold shares of listed companies, and the proposal power of fund companies in the shareholders’ meeting should be appropriately enhanced. And it is suggested that the regulators continue to promote the development of securities investment funds, and guide fund shareholding to play an active role in external governance. Also, it is suggested that the regulators promote the process of regional marketization, to strengthen the positive effect of fund shareholding on innovation activities.