Earticle

The consumption of electronic products has increased significantly in recent years with improved living standards and consumer purchasing power. As a result, the number of discarded electronic products is also increasing day by day. On the one hand, discarded electronic products contain many harmful substances. If they are not handled or handled improperly, they will easily pollute the ecological environment. On the other hand, discarded electronic products also contain a great number of useful materials including silver, gold, copper, and others. If they are recycled and processed reasonably, they will have a high reuse value. Many countries are facing the problem of improper disposal of e-waste. Even in countries that have formal e-waste management systems in place, collection and recycling rates are still low. Therefore, there is an urgent need for research on the reverse logistics in electronic waste (e-waste) products. This study aims to clarify the factors determining e-waste reverse logistics (RL) implementation and explore how implementation of e-waste RL impacts a firm’s performance. Based on a review of literature, we adopt a conceptual model showing the relationship among resource commitment, legislation, public awareness, inter-firm cooperation, implementation of e-waste RL, and firm performance. To test our hypotheses, we collected survey data from Chinese electronics companies. The results of our analysis showed that improving resource commitment, relevant legislations, and inter-firm cooperation can increase the efficiency of e-waste RL implementation, which in turn can improve a firm’s economic, environmental, and social performance. However, legislations, public awareness, and professional recycling infrastructure for e-waste RL implementation are still insufficient in many developing nations, including China, resulting in low efficiency. This study offers important insights into how firm performance can be improved by implementing e-waste RL. It also offers relevant suggestions, such as improving legislations, detailing subsidies, increasing consumer participation, encouraging inter-firm cooperation, and information-sharing to integrate resources and encourage electronic product manufacturers to innovate and strengthen ecological design.

The use of big data has benefits for everyday life and can enhance various activities such as information collection, shopping, and education through the Internet; however, negative effects such as privacy infringements cannot be ignored. Concerns over data security and privacy violations are growing as a result of regular unsavory incidents such as data leakage and illegal sales on the Internet. This study applied the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) which is a model explaining the persuasive effect of the fear message through the perceived threat and the perceived efficacy after exposure to the message. EPPM proposes that if the perceived threat and perceived efficacy are higher, the 'risk control process' that attempts to control the risk by implementing the suggested action of the fear appeal message are also higher; on the other hand, EPPM proposes that the ‘fear control process’ rejects the fear appeal message itself in situations of high perceived threat and low perceived efficacy. Focusing on the EPPM, this study attempted to study the effect of the privacy concerns of Chinese social media users in the context of advertising avoidance. In addition, perceived threat and efficacy were considered as factors that have a moderation effect on the relationship between privacy concerns and advertising avoidance. This study conducted an online survey of 678 Chinese social media users. There were two major findings. First, it was found that users’ privacy concerns on social media had a positive (+) effect on advertising avoidance. Second, in the relationship between the user privacy concerns and advertising avoidance on social media, the moderating effect of perceived threats and perceived efficacy was found to be significant. This study examined privacy concerns of social media users and verified the effect of privacy concerns on advertising. This study used the risk control and fear control processes in the EPPM to explain advertising avoidance. In addition, privacy concerns on social media, which has recently emerged as an issue, were assessed, and the effect of privacy concerns on advertising was verified. The findings of this study will be theoretically useful for further study of the problems related to privacy concerns. In addition, in practical terms, it is expected to be a necessary guideline for companies targeting Chinese consumers to establish advertising and marketing strategies on social media that users deem to be safe.

Han Fei Tzu(韓非子) cited law(法), art(術), and influence(勢) as three means of exercising power. Humor and satire correspond to art among these three means. The important point here is that humor and satire not only can be used as a means of exercising power by the ruler. Humor and satire can also be used to protest against rulers, even if remonstrators powerless or a commoner. A remarkable phrase of humor and satire has the potential to destroy even the most solid power. Mencius is an example of humor and satire being used in that sense. The method of humor and satire with allegories was used in Mencius as a means of criticizing the world, the political situation, and other scholars. In particular, one such sharp criticism is of a scholar who holds the opposite position and lives the opposite life of the Confucianist Mencius himself and happens to be a representative of the basic view of life and spirit of Daoism in the Warring States Period. Mencius is an unusual book that began to be considered very important almost 1,000 years after its writing. Although the book Mencius itself has experienced ups and downs, including being belittled and valued by the times, the classic stories of Mencius are thought to have eternal value. This is because the stories are the most interesting and easily accessible without putting much effort into the basic teachings of Confucianism. There are many unique political messages in Mencius, and the art of allegory has been used to attract the readers' attention. Allegory appears to share various characteristics of humor and satire. Humor and satire evoke laughter, which requests the demand for sociality as the most important factor. Perhaps politics is at the peak of sociality, and humor and satire have strong political characteristics in that respect.

The relationship between national distance and the CSR activity of MNE subsidiaries remains controversial. From an economic point of view, the greater the distance, the more actively companies in host countries need to engage in social responsibility activities to overcome “external responsibility”. Behaviorism theory, on the other hand, asserts that the greater the distance, the lower the CSR activity of the host country. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of various types of geographical distance between countries on the CSR activities of subsidiaries of multinational corporations. In addition, this study investigates whether the distance between subsidiaries and local governments also plays a role, and further analyzes the moderating effect of language barriers and pollution industries. The study results are as follows. The results of this study confirm that there is an overall negative correlation between the geographic distance between countries and the CSR activities of multinational companies. Second, as a result of comparing various types of geographic distance, this study confirms that the distance between the geographic center of China and the multinational corporation’s home country is the optimal solution. Finally, this study confirms that multinational corporations engaged in industries that cause pollution are more actively engaged in social responsibility activities. The limitations of this study are as follows. First, the determinants of CSR activities vary by country, region, and community, and financial data such as corporate cash flows, advertising spending, and debt all play an important role. However, it was difficult to obtain such data because the subsidiaries of multinational corporations are not separately listed companies. Second, the results of this study reflect China’s characteristics, where the territory is vast and the central government has strong influence. Therefore, there may be limitations in generalization in that it is difficult to apply the results of this study to other countries.

One of the significant impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the economy is the large fluctuations in price levels. Moreover, since 2022, the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has been superimposed, and global inflationary pressure has increased further. Therefore, the imported inflation pressure faced by China has increased significantly. Hence, this study examines whether there is imported inflation in China and profoundly investigates the transmission path of China’s imported inflation as a breakthrough to complete this study. Imported inflation refers to the phenomenon that, under the condition of an open economy, price changes in the international market lead to inflationary pressures in a country’s domestic economy through commodity and monetary channels. The commodity path is mainly based on changes in asset prices. Specifically, in terms of commodity path, the transmission mechanism of imported inflation is expressed as “changes in foreign market prices → changes in prices of imported commodities → changes in costs and prices in domestic open economic sectors → changes in costs and prices in domestic non-open economic sectors → changes in the general domestic price level”. Another transmission channel is the monetary path, the massive inflow of foreign capital. Inflationary pressure is caused by a passive increase in the money supply caused by the inflow of foreign capital. This study uses monthly data from January 2008 to July 2022 to construct a vector autoregressive (VAR) model and uses the Granger causality test method to analyze deeply the causes of inflation in China. This study uses consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) to represent China’s inflation level. Meanwhile, this study selects the CRB index to represent the commodity channel factor of imported inflation. In addition, foreign direct investment (FDI) can reflect the impact of international capital flows on China’s imported inflation. Thus, this study uses FDI to represent the monetary channel factor of imported inflation. Moreover, the impact of different types of international commodity prices on domestic inflation may be inconsistent. Therefore, this study also adopts two sub-indices of the CRB index, namely the CRB primary industrial products sub-index and the CRB metal sub-index for robustness testing. This study carried out the stationarity test of the variables. The method adopted is the ADF test to verify the long-term stable relationship of each time series variable. In this way, this study performs VAR model regression on stationary time series variables. Furthermore, this study uses the Granger causality test to determine the causal relationship between variables and the direction of influence. Results show that the commodity channel factor can predict China’s inflation rate. Conversely, the monetary pathway factor has no predictive power for China’s inflation rate. This result shows that global inflation is mainly imported into China through commodity channels rather than monetary channels. The results of the robustness test again show that the commodity channel factor has a significant impact on China’s inflation. Therefore, China’s inflation presents an import-oriented feature dominated by the commodity channel.

As COVID-19 spreads, live streaming commerce is progressively evolving into a new business model. Parallel to this, the live broadcast commerce has entered a period of explosive growth and rising interest. The social atmosphere is shifting swiftly towards the age of Untact economy, marked by characteristics like social distancing, which have hardened in the aftermath of the pandemic, and live streaming commerce, a kind of e-commerce centered on real-time interaction. China's streaming economy is growing at a staggering rate. In this study, the factors affecting the purchase intention of live commerce are distinguished into the characteristic dimensions of influencers (Trustworthiness, Attractiveness, and Professionality) and the selection attributes centered on TikTok platform (Informality, Interactivity), and the influence of each component and the moderating effect of gender are investigated. Although 273 questionnaires were completed, only 219 valid responses were selected for analysis. Prior to conducting the primary statistical analysis, a confirmatory factor analysis was undertaken to assess the scale's reliability and validity. Afterwards, a multiple regression analysis was performed to verify the hypothesis. The control regression analysis and straightforward slope verification of the control effect were performed in order to confirm the control effect of gender. The results are as detailed below. The influencer's credibility (Trustworthiness, Attractiveness, and Professionality) was found to have a favorable impact on purchase intention, and the choice attribute of the platform (Informality, Interactivity) was also found to have a substantial impact on purchase intention. As a consequence of gender input, it was confirmed that the influence of influencers on purchase intentions varied by gender. Increases in the influencer's attractiveness are associated with increased spending by women but a decrease in spending by men. It was proposed that, in the future, gender-specific content strategies can be required, particularly for men. In light of the results of this study's research, expanding live streaming commerce can be a worthwhile consideration, and e-commerce marketing strategies will serve as a useful foundation upon which information can be utilised to assure desired outcomes. In addition, it forecasts that the results will have practical ramifications for TikTok operators domestically and internationally. It has important implications for the gendered future of live-business production as a whole.

The purpose of this study was to investigate Chinese consumers’ practices related to consumer nationalism. Based upon Holt’s typology of consumer practices(1995), we analyzed how Chinese consumers perform consumer nationalism practices in a variety of ways for multiple reasons. To do so, we conducted in-depth interviews with 15 Chinese young adults living in mainland China. First, the results showed that participants explained and evaluated various consumer nationalism phenomena with their own interpretive framework. Most of them evaluated Guochao as evidence of the economic development of China and supported consumer boycotts of global brands. All participants appeared to be competent in performing political and banal consumer nationalism practices in everyday life in appropriate ways with regard to the integration related to construction of self-identity through consumption. Third, play is related to gaining joyful experiences in consumer nationalism practices. The participants were found to experience pleasure while interacting with others online and offline. Fourth, classification is deeply related to the acquisition of status. Most of the participants tried to avoid deviating from social norms, as they were aware of others’ attention on their nationalist consumption. It was also found that people uploaded videos and photos to gain popularity online. The results have several contributions to consumer nationalism research. This study showed a possibility that consumers would engage in consumer nationalism not as a result of their attitudes toward their nation, but in order to enjoy positive experiences or gain social status. Therefore, their nationalist attitudes or patriotism may develop as the result of their nationalist consumption practices.