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Although working memory (WM) and language aptitude (LA) are essential cognitive skills for second language learning, their stability and sensitivity to experience remain debated. Language acquisition is considered a unique skill and a reliable indicator of learning success, with age and exposure influencing development. Cognitive models suggest that practice may continue to promote growth beyond early learning phases, but empirical data on whether these capacities, especially in listening, change with experience are limited. This study investigated the relationship between WM, LA, and Chinese listening competence in 306 learners aged 18–29 from 64 countries. Participants completed listening tests, aptitude tasks, and a Language History Questionnaire across 108 cross-sectional assessments and 15 longitudinal follow-ups spanning three months to two years. The longitudinal subset included 15 valid datasets from learners with HSK 3–5 proficiency (CEFR B1–B2), motivated by teaching, business, or joint ventures. Results show that longer learning duration and sustained use of Chinese significantly improved listening proficiency, particularly in socially immersive environments. In contrast, neither LA nor WM exhibited significant change over the study period, indicating substantial cognitive stability. Listening performance was primarily predicted by phonetic coding and executive WM, which accounted for a substantial portion of variance. Learners with higher levels of these abilities consistently achieved better outcomes. The findings address three theoretical questions. First, aptitude and proficiency are distinct constructs: aptitude reflects underlying learning capacity, whereas proficiency denotes achieved skill. Second, changes in proficiency do not necessarily entail changes in aptitude, as longitudinal analyses showed improvements in listening did not correspond with significant changes in auditory language aptitude (ALA). Third, quantitative variation in proficiency was not associated with detectable qualitative changes in aptitude within the follow-up period, underscoring the relative stability of phonological coding and executive WM. Several limitations should be noted. The longitudinal sample was small, with only two measurement points over three months, limiting power to detect subtle changes. Participant diversity and short tracking periods may have contributed to variability beyond experimental control. Future research should involve larger and more homogeneous samples, multiple measurement waves, and extended follow-up, potentially incorporating native and second language competence tests to examine mediating effects. Pedagogically, the findings indicate that instructors should consider learners’ linguistic backgrounds when designing listening instruction or aptitude-based interventions, as individual differences influence the effectiveness of auditory training. Overall, WM and LA shape early learning efficiency while maintaining long-term stability, highlighting their importance for predicting and enhancing listening outcomes in diverse second language learners.

ESG1) has gradually evolved from a discussion centered on corporate social responsibility to a core issue in capital markets and corporate strategy. As Chinese firms accelerate their global expansion, cross-border M&As stands out as a capital-intensive and high-risk strategic choice. Whether firms can successfully integrate resources and mitigate institutional and cultural differences after the deal is completed largely determines the potential for performance improvement. Against this backdrop, a key question arises: what is the relationship between acquirers' ESG performance and post-acquisition operating performance in cross-border M&As? Combining perspectives from the resource-based view, signaling theory, and institutional theory, this study proposes that ESG performance is central to explaining post-acquisition performance, exerting both direct and indirect effects, but also indirectly improving outcomes by attracting foreign shareholders and optimizing the investor structure, thereby further strengthening governance efficiency and post-acquisition integration capability. A panel dataset covering cross-border M&As by Chinese A-share listed firms during 2008–2023 is constructed to examine these hypotheses. M&A transaction data are obtained from CSMAR data. ESG is proxied by Huazheng ESG ratings (nine grades from C to AAA), ROA in the first post-completion year (t + 1) is used to capture post-acquisition performance. Foreign ownership is incorporated as a mediating variable, and the moderating role of ownership structure is further explored. In addition, the empirical models control for firm age, firm size, largest shareholder ownership, and the ratio of independent directors. The empirical results indicate that: (1) superior ESG performance is associated with higher post-acquisition profitability, as reflected in ROA; (2) ESG performance significantly increases foreign ownership, and foreign ownership further contributes to improved post-acquisition performance, suggesting that part of ESG's effect operates through foreign ownership; however, after incorporating both year and industry fixed effects, the effect of ESG on foreign ownership becomes statistically insignificant, indicating that this mediating pathway is not robust at the firm level and that foreign ownership functions only as a partial mediator, with the signaling effect of ESG being context-dependent; (3) ownership structure serves as an important institutional boundary condition, as ESG performance contributes more significantly to post-acquisition performance in non-state-owned firms than in state-owned firms, highlighting the role of institutional constraints and governance space in shaping ESG value realization. In contrast, the moderating effects of ownership structure on the ESG–foreign ownership and foreign ownership– performance relationships are not statistically significant. This study contributes by situating ESG in the highly uncertain M&As context and integrating ESG value implications with the governance role of foreign shareholders, thereby clarifying the transmission mechanism through which ESG affects post-acquisition performance and identifying its boundary conditions. The findings also provide practical implications: in cross-border M&As processes, firms should not only focus on synergy valuation at the transaction level, but also treat ESG management as an important tool for enhancing external trust, attracting international capital, and improving post-acquisition integration performance.

The dynamics of employees’ career growth have undergone significant and intricate changes due to the deep integration of AI into contemporary workplaces. The precise influence of AI on employees’ perceived career growth opportunities (CGO) is still a contentious issue in academic circles, even though AI is well known for its ability to create new job positions and reshape existing occupational roles. Among various theoretical approaches, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is relevant to addressing the current research gap. Likewise, career construction theory (CCT) provides a distinct and valuable lens through which to examine the phenomenon in question. Finally, the conservation of resources (COR) theory serves as a well-established theoretical basis to address the identified gap. Although each of these theories has been extensively applied in its respective field of study, their combined applicability to the research on AI and workers’ career development has not been thoroughly investigated. From a career development standpoint, exploring AI’s impact on employees’ CGO holds great theoretical and practical significance: theoretically, it can enrich the digital-era research system of human resource management as well as organizational behavior, and compensate for the lack of in-depth discussion on the connection between AI and individual career development. Practically, it can provide guidance for organizations to implement AI effectively and support employees in navigating and thriving within AI-driven work environments, thereby achieving a win-win situation for organizational digital transformation and individual career development. Using a three-wave time-lagged survey approach, this study collected reliable research data from 499 workers across a range of Chinese sectors. Preliminary empirical findings indicate a robust, positive correlation between employees’ perceived career growth prospects and their AI attitudes (AIA), with perceived AI adaptability (PAIA) acting as a partial mediating factor in this relationship. This perception, in turn, enhances their ability to identify potential CGOs. This result is consistent with the empirical conclusion that AI can supplement and improve job capabilities, opening new avenues for human-AI collaboration and facilitating employees’ career development. In addition, job insecurity (JI) was identified as a critical boundary condition in this study, as it significantly weakens the positive correlation between PAIA and CGO. Thus, the mediating effect of PAIA between AI attitude and CGO is most pronounced among employees with low JI. For employees with a strong sense of job security, AI is perceived as a valuable resource for CGO. Conversely, employees experiencing heightened JI are more inclined to perceive the impact of AI’s adaptive attributes on their career advancement. It should also be noted that the influence mechanism of AI on employees’ CGO may vary across different types of organizations, indicating that the workplace context significantly shapes the interplay between AI and individual career paths. In summary, the findings provide an initial in-depth insight into how AI is reshaping employees’ career trajectories. They indicate that the mere introduction of AI technologies in the workplace is insufficient to achieve positive organizational outcomes for all employees. Organizations must ensure a sufficiently secure work environment to mitigate uncertainty regarding job loss, as such fears may otherwise hinder employees’ career development.

This study aims to explore two key research questions within supply chain relationships. First, it examines the direct effect of "supplier goodwill" on supplier transparency. Second, it investigates the moderating role played by buyer dependence on the supplier in this relationship. To address these questions, this study draws on a dataset of 225 responses. These responses were collected from procurement and supply chain management professionals working in Chinese manufacturing enterprises. This study employs hierarchical regression analysis to test the proposed research hypotheses. The empirical results indicate that supplier goodwill positively influences supplier transparency. Furthermore, buyer dependence positively moderates this relationship, suggesting that the effect of goodwill on transparency is not uniform across different levels of dependence. However, some of the findings are only marginally significant, and therefore they should be interpreted as exploratory evidence rather than confirmatory conclusions. More specifically, the higher the degree of buyer dependence on the supplier, the more pronounced the positive effect of supplier goodwill becomes in promoting transparency. This implies that a high-dependence context may amplify the positive effect of goodwill. In contrast to existing literature, which primarily analyzes how to achieve transparency from the perspectives of technological capabilities—such as blockchain and digital tracking—or from the perspective of buyer power, this paper takes a different approach. This alternative perspective highlights the often-overlooked role of supplier-initiated cooperation. Such cooperation is driven by relational norms rather than contractual obligations. It starts from the supplier's self-willingness, subtly and naturally illustrating that this autonomous and endogenous goodwill is more likely to truly open the door to transparency and collaboration. This leads to several important managerial implications. Compared with mandatory information disclosure requirements and rigid contractual constraints, proactively cultivating and properly maintaining a goodwill-based relationship with suppliers is a more effective pathway. This pathway helps transform potential dependency risks into in-depth information cooperation and synergistic development advantages. Therefore, this study offers direct and clear practical significance for building resilient supply chain systems.

This study examined how social relationships with parents, teachers, and peers influence the level of depression among Chinese migrant adolescents(CMAs) through the mediating roles of hope and resilience. An online survey was administered to Chinese migrant adolescents enrolled in middle and high schools in Shandong Province, yielding valid responses from a total of 355 participants. Structural equation modeling(SEM) was conducted using SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.3 to test the hypothesized pathways in the study’s model. The results of the analysis showed that positive relationships between teachers and adolescents significantly increased their senses of hope, which in turn significantly reduced their depression. Furthermore, the relationships with peer and teacher significantly enhanced the adolescents’ ego-resilience, but did not significantly reduced their levels of depression. These results suggest that some practical efforts to increase the sense of hope by fostering positive relationships between teachers and adolescents in the school’s environment can be crucial for improving depression among the migrant adolescents from rural areas. The key findings of this study, along with specific intervention strategies, can be summarized as follows: Firstly, peer and teacher relationships were found to significantly influence the ego-resilience of CMAs. Therefore, encouraging the CMAs to develop problem-solving skills through more collaborative tasks with peers, or providing teachers with process-based feedback and modeling of goal-oriented pathways, can enhance their levels of ego-resilience. Secondly, the relationship between CMAs and their teachers was found to significantly influence their sense of hope. Therefore, granting CMAs more autonomy and applying clear school rules can increase the likelihood of achieving their academic goals, thereby enhancing their sense of hope. Thirdly, positive relationships with teacher not only increased CMAs' sense of hope but also significantly reduced their depression. Therefore, fostering positive relationships with teachers can enhance CMAs' cognitive level of goal orientation, thereby helping them manage external environmental stressors more effectively and reducing negative emotions such as depression. In other words, hope theory can be applied to these individuals by effectively reducing their depression through school-based interventions. Finally, this study is significant in that it empirically verified the discussion on depression among CMAs by extending it beyond the internal characteristics of individual adolescents to the context of social relationships consisting of parents, teachers, and peers, and the mechanisms of hope and self-resilience operating within them.

This study investigates the asymmetric effects of US–China tariff shocks on exchange-rate volatility and dynamic co-movements in East Asian foreign-exchange markets. Particular attention is given to whether major tariff-policy regime changes generate heterogeneous volatility responses across currencies and whether exchange-rate relationships differ between the Chinese renminbi (CNY), Korean won (KRW), and Japanese yen (JPY). While previous studies have largely focused on trade policy uncertainty, exchange-rate pass-through, and bilateral trade effects, relatively limited evidence exists regarding how large-scale tariff shocks influence volatility transmission and dynamic exchange-rate linkages across East Asian currencies operating under different exchange-rate regimes. The analysis employs 2,046 daily observations from January 3, 2018 to May 7, 2026, covering the first US–China trade war, the COVID-19 pandemic, the post-pandemic monetary tightening cycle, and the Trump 2.0 extreme-tariff regime. To examine volatility dynamics and exchange-rate interconnectedness, this study adopts a two-stage empirical framework combining an AR(1)-EGARCH-X(1,1)-GED model and a DCC-GARCH(1,1) model. The first stage estimates conditional exchange-rate volatility while accounting for asymmetric shock responses and fat-tailed return distributions. The second stage evaluates the effects of tariff-related events and global risk factors on volatility behavior and examines time-varying conditional correlations among currencies. In addition, the JPY–KRW correlation is employed as a benchmark reflecting global risk-aversion effects, allowing the analysis to assess whether the CNY–KRW relationship exhibits distinct characteristics beyond common regional factors. The empirical results reveal a pronounced sign-reversal pattern following the introduction of the Trump 2.0 extreme-tariff regime. Conditional volatility of the renminbi declines significantly, whereas volatility in both the Korean won and Japanese yen increases. These findings are consistent with the possibility that exchange-rate stabilization policies may have contributed to lower observed volatility within the managed renminbi regime, while higher volatility was observed in the Korean won and Japanese yen during the same period. Dynamic-correlation analysis further shows that the persistence of the CNY–KRW correlation is substantially lower than that of the JPY–KRW pair, suggesting that the CNY–KRW relationship is more sensitive to policy events and regime shifts, whereas the JPY–KRW relationship is more closely associated with persistent global risk-aversion factors. Event-study and structural-break analyses provide additional evidence consistent with asymmetric volatility adjustments across currencies following major tariff-policy changes. This study contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it provides a comprehensive examination of exchange-rate volatility dynamics across both phases of the US–China trade conflict, including the recently emerging Trump 2.0 extreme-tariff regime. Second, it integrates asymmetric volatility modeling and dynamic-correlation analysis within a unified empirical framework to jointly examine volatility behavior and exchange-rate co-movements. Third, by comparing the CNY–KRW and JPY–KRW relationships, the study documents evidence consistent with China-related spillover effects and discusses the possible role of exchange-rate management in shaping volatility patterns under heightened trade and geopolitical uncertainty. Overall, the findings suggest that major trade-policy regime shifts can alter both exchange-rate volatility and regional currency-market linkages across East Asia.

The Chinese dance poetry drama <A Tapestry of a Legendary Land>takes as its narrative thread the painting <Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers>created by Wang Ximeng, a young painter of the Northern Song Dynasty. Through the medium of stage art, it recreates the process of the painting’s creation, enabling the widespread popularization of the classical Chinese painting technique and aesthetic concept of ”green mountains and clear waters.” This has significantly stimulated public interest in and identification with Song Dynasty aesthetics and traditional Chinese culture. Since its premiere in 2021, the production has generated a theatrical sensation across China, with tickets frequently selling out—forming a phenomenon of cultural viewing. As of January 2026, <A Tapestry of a Legendary Land>has embarked on a global tour, with over 860 performances to date. It has achieved notably high attendance rates in countries and regions including the United States, Canada, Russia, Singapore, and Turkey, earning widespread acclaim from international critics. Alongside its commercial success, <A Tapestry of a Legendary Land> has also received extensive professional recognition, having been honored with multiple national authoritative awards, including China’s 17th Wenhua Award, the 13th China Dance Lotus Award for Dance Drama, and the 16th Spiritual Civilization Construction “Five One Project” Excellent Work Award. It has thus become an exemplary work in the realm of Chinese dance drama, distinguished by both artistic merit and market appeal. Building upon the work’s significant cultural influence, directors Zhou Liya and Han Zhen have furthered its cross-media transformation through cinematic adaptation, extending the stage production to the screen. This adaptation process deeply integrates Eastern classical aesthetics with modern audiovisual language, enabling the extension and reconstruction of dramatic elements within the context of film and television. This article systematically explores the internal mechanisms and aesthetic enhancement pathways in the fusion of stage and screen arts by analyzing its visual presentation strategies, musical application, narrative structural transformation, and thematic deepening. The study finds that the cinematic adaptation of <A Tapestry of a Legendary Land> successfully achieves cross-media transformation, not only preserving and intensifying the artistic and cultural value of the original work but also providing a new paradigm for the innovative expression of traditional culture within contemporary artistic contexts. At the same time, the article reflects on the limitations and challenges encountered during the adaptation process, offering theoretical reference and directional guidance for related artistic practices. This case study holds significant academic value and practical relevance for understanding the evolution of contemporary art forms and the innovative dissemination of traditional Chinese culture within modern media ecosystems.

Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) paradigm and source credibility theory, this study investigates how influencer attributes (trustworthiness, reputation, expertise, expressiveness, and attractiveness) differentially impact hierarchical consumer engagement stages —observational, conversational, and action participation—in the Chinese live commerce context. Using a sample of 500 Chinese consumers collected in October 2025, the research employed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and path coefficient difference tests to examine the structural relationships between these variables. The findings reveal that influencer attributes exert heterogeneous effects across engagement stages. Expressiveness dominates observational participation, significantly outperforming attractiveness in capturing initial attention. In the conversational stage, trustworthiness emerges as the critical psychological mechanism for encouraging interaction. For action participation (purchase/sharing), no single attribute dominates; instead, reputation, expertise, and expressiveness function complementarily to facilitate high-risk decision-making. Theoretically, this research advances the literature by shifting from a unidimensional conceptualization of consumer engagement to a granular, hierarchical framework that captures the evolving nature of participation in live commerce. Practically, it provides brands with stage-specific strategies for influencer selection: prioritizing expressiveness for reach, trustworthiness for engagement, and balanced, multi-capable influencers for sales conversion. This study contributes to the marketing literature by offering a nuanced understanding of how influencer characteristics drive consumer behaviors at distinct stages, which can inform both academic research and practical marketing decisions. Additionally, the research methodology, using SEM and hierarchical engagement modeling, demonstrates a rigorous approach suitable for complex consumer interaction analysis in digital commerce environments. Future studies may extend this framework by incorporating cross-cultural comparisons or longitudinal data to examine dynamic changes in engagement over time.

As an important cultural carrier, Korean language place names in China not only reflect regional characteristics and local culture but also carry rich social and historical memories. Research on the semantic features, spatial distribution patterns, and formation mechanisms of Korean place names in China is of great value for promoting the protection and inheritance of Korean cultural heritage in the country. However, existing studies are mostly limited to a combination of qualitative description and geospatial technology, focusing on analyzing spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors, while systematic exploration of their underlying formation mechanisms remains insufficient. Based on this, this study comprehensively utilizes mathematical statistics, GIS kernel density analysis, Geodetector, and historical documentary research to analyze the spatial differentiation characteristics, driving factors, and formation processes of different types of Korean place names in China, taking Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture as the study area. The results show that: (1) The cultural landscape of Korean place names in Yanbian Prefecture is cohesive, with a concentration of hotspots in the southeast. Additionally, natural toponyms are fewer in number than humanistic toponyms; (2) The distribution of natural toponyms is mainly affected by topographic conditions, river proximity, and vegetation cover. In contrast, cultural toponyms exhibit clustering characteristics due to natural geographic features and historical transportation routes, and this distribution pattern profoundly reflects the historical migration process and settlement evolution of Yanbian Prefecture; (3) The formation mechanism of the spatial patterns of these toponyms originates from the complex interaction of multiple factors, social regulation, and historical accumulation. This study enriches the cognitive dimension of the living environment of ethnic Koreans in China and reveals the multiple connotations of place names as "cultural fossils". It provides empirical evidence for cultural geography research and the protection of toponymic heritage in Yanbian, and also offers a new theoretical perspective for research in related fields.

Against the backdrop of the deep integration of digitalization and the experience economy, tourists’ emotional feedback has increasingly become a critical driving force in the reproduction of tourism spaces. To address the insufficient exploration of interaction mechanisms between physical space and perceived space in existing studies, this paper integrates the three-dimensional theory of spatial production with the four realms of the experience economy, and constructs a coupled analytical framework of “policy guidance–spatial practice–experience perception– emotional feedback.” Taking Yanji, a representative border ethnic city, as a case study, this research draws upon multi-source data, including Points of Interest (POI) and User-Generated Content (UGC). By employing spatial analytical methods such as spatial autocorrelation, kernel density estimation, standard deviational ellipse, and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), the study systematically investigates the production mechanism of urban tourism space and its interactive feedback relationship with tourists’ emotional perceptions. The results reveal that: (1) at the level of spatial practice, tourism elements exhibit a pronounced “core concentration–peripheral decline” pattern, with a high degree of coordination and coupling among elements; (2) at the level of representational space, sensory-oriented experiences (entertainment and aesthetics) generate significantly stronger emotional responses than cognitively oriented experiences (education and escapism); (3) at the systemic level, policy discourse, physical space, and emotional perception demonstrate a high degree of spatial congruence, indicating a cyclical production mechanism characterized by the interaction of policy orientation, spatial agglomeration, and high-value emotional areas. This study extends the emotional dimension of spatial production theory and highlights the effectiveness of integrating geospatial data with online textual data. The findings provide valuable theoretical insights and practical implications for optimizing tourism spatial structures and promoting high-quality, coordinated governance in ethnic border regions.