Shuangshuang Fan

With the swift pace of urbanization and industrialization, air pollution has emerged as a critical issue, severely impacting public health and impeding the progress toward sustainable development. This study delves into the nexus between Financial Inclusion (FI) and Air Pollution Reduction (APR), employing a balanced panel dataset that encompasses 255 Chinese prefecture‐level cities from 2011 to 2022. Through the application of econometric models and a series of robustness tests, we uncover an inverse U‐shaped dynamic between the advancement of FI and APR. Our findings indicate that during the nascent stages of FI, there is a positive impact on APR. However, this beneficial effect plateaus and potentially reverses when FI progresses beyond an optimal threshold. Further analysis elucidates three primary economic channels through which FI may influence APR: alleviation of energy poverty, stimulation of innovation, and household consumption. Notably, these mechanisms exhibit distinct patterns of influence across cities with varying levels of economic development and geographical locations. The findings hold significant implications for policy‐making, suggesting that the Chinese government must balance the acceleration of FI with a keen awareness of its regional impacts. Tailored environmental policies and innovative financial instruments can foster green growth and sustainable development.

To address the global climate crisis, the Chinese government has vigorously advanced the “Dual Carbon Goals,” which are designed to attain carbon peak and carbon neutrality by implementing comprehensive measures to reduce carbon emissions in both production and consumption sectors. These goals have been incorporated into the educational system with the objective of cultivating low-carbon and environmentally friendly behaviors among the public, particularly university students. This study examines the impact of environmental education on the low-carbon behaviors of university students in China by investigating the role of various types of environmental knowledge. Specifically, environmental knowledge is divided into three categories: System Knowledge (comprehension of environmental systems and ecological processes), Action Knowledge (knowledge of specific actions to reduce carbon emissions), and Efficacy Knowledge (awareness of the effectiveness of these actions). By leveraging a dataset from 2646 questionnaires collected from students across eight major Chinese cities, we employ Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data. Our results indicate that while Action Knowledge and Efficacy Knowledge positively influence low-carbon behaviors, System Knowledge has a negative impact, likely due to cognitive dissonance. We propose that future environmental education should place greater emphasis on practical knowledge and take demographic characteristics into account to enhance educational effectiveness. This research not only strengthens the theoretical foundation of environmental education but also offers empirical support for policy-making.

This study explores the influence of team communication (TC) and shared mental models (SMMs) on entrepreneurial team efficacy (ETE) within the context of Chinese higher education, introducing a dual-path model to reconcile the discrepancy between policy expectations and practical outcomes in entrepreneurship education. Utilizing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on data from 475 university-based questionnaires from March to May in 2024 in China, the research reveals that structured internal communication significantly enhances the alignment of learning goals, teammate cognition, and activity synchronization, thereby fostering SMMs as a pivotal psychological infrastructure. The findings indicate that shared learning goals and cognitive convergence are primary drivers of task performance, whereas coordinated activity states are more influential in strengthening relational cohesion. The study challenges the conventional “communication frequency–efficacy paradox” by demonstrating distinct pathways through which internal and external communication mechanisms differentiated impact task and relational outcomes. Additionally, demographic analyses highlight that team maturity and age diversity positively correlate with task efficacy, while gender and disciplinary heterogeneity show no significant association. Theoretically, this research advances the understanding of team collaboration dynamics and contextualizes Western entrepreneurship theories within China’s collectivist framework. Practically, it provides robust, evidence-based strategies for refining communication protocols and enhancing both collaborative efficiency and innovation in entrepreneurial education settings.

Sustainable cities are essential drivers of global social progress, but the effectiveness of smart city (SC) initiatives in fostering inclusive green growth (IGG) remains uncertain. This study assesses the impact of SC initiatives on IGG using data from 281 Chinese prefecture‐level cities from 2007 to 2020. We explore both the theoretical and empirical dimensions, focusing on the mechanisms through which SC pilot policies influence IGG. By treating the varied implementation of SC pilots as exogenous shocks and using a difference‐in‐difference (DID) framework combined with machine learning algorithms, we find a significant increase in IGG in cities that adopted SC pilots compared with those that did not. Our results highlight the critical role of SC initiatives in advancing IGG, which remains robust after rigorous robustness checks. The positive effects are primarily driven by three key pathways: enhancing financial inclusion, promoting industrial upgrading, and stimulating innovation. Notably, the impact is more pronounced in economically developed regions, particularly in the eastern part of China and in larger cities. However, the contribution of SC initiatives to IGG is less significant in smaller cities and in areas with weaker economic dynamism, particularly in the central and western regions. This study underscores the importance of SC initiatives in promoting IGG and offers new insights into the relationship between informatization and sustainable development.

Realizing the coordination between the economic and environmental systems through a green growth model is an important goal for China to enter the high-quality development stage. Meanwhile, financial technology (fintech) is rapidly developing in China. To explore the relationship between the two, this research uses panel data from 276 cities in China from 2011 to 2022 and empirically tests through constructing econometric models and machine learning algorithms. The empirical result shows that fintech has an impact on green growth. Specifically, there is a U-shaped relationship between fintech and green growth, meaning that before a certain stage, fintech may have a certain inhibitory effect on green growth. After fintech exceeds a certain development level, it will promote the improvement of green growth. Further mediation tests show that innovation plays a mediating role in the impact of fintech on green growth. Additionally, this research also conducts consistency tests based on different criteria including the location, scale, and financial development level of cities. Based on the research findings, policy suggestions are proposed in this paper to promote the development of fintech and stimulate the growth of the green economy. Overall, our research sheds more light on the fintech-green growth linkage and provides new insights into comprehending the role of fintech in advancing towards a low-carbon economy.

Introduction: China, as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, faces significant challenges in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. The Chinese government has been actively promoting household photovoltaic (PV) power generation, which has great potential for application in rural areas. This study aims to explore whether the promotion of household PV systems in rural areas has a positive impact on farmers’ low-carbon production behavior and to analyze the influencing factors and mechanisms. This research fills the research gap in the analysis of the promotion of household PV systems and farmers’ low-carbon production behavior, providing scientific evidence to support policymakers in promoting widespread use of household PV systems and facilitating the transition of farmers to low-carbon production methods.Methods: This study adopts a qualitative research method and analyzes interview data and semi-structured questionnaire survey data from 48 farmers. By collecting, organizing, comparing, and extracting information and employing the research process of grounded theory, the researchers summarize the model of household PV-driven low-carbon production behavior.Results: The study finds that the installation of household PV systems indeed promotes farmers to adopt more low-carbon production behaviors. Farmers who install household PV systems show a greater willingness to reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides, conserve water resources, and improve land utilization, among others. They perceive the positive effects of household PV systems and their own capacity for environmental protection, enhancing confidence and motivation to engage in low-carbon production behaviors.Discussion: Existing research methods have mainly relied on theoretical deduction combined with quantitative empirical approaches when exploring farmers’ pro-environmental spillover behaviors. However, these methods often start from the perspectives of either egoism or altruism, resulting in biased tendencies toward negative spillover or positive spillover. Nevertheless, neither egoism nor altruism fully captures the decision-making process when deeply understanding farmers’ production, life, and decision-making processes. The installation of household PV systems can change factors such as farmers’ knowledge, skills, cognition, and resources, enhancing their green self-efficacy and helping them acquire more knowledge and skills in renewable energy. Therefore, this research adopts a qualitative research method to more accurately reflect farmers’ decision-making process and provides practical recommendations to promote farmers’ active transition to pro-environmental spillover behaviors.Conclusion: This study fills the research gap in the analysis of the promotion of household PV systems and farmers’ low-carbon production behavior, providing practical recommendations for policymakers to facilitate farmers’ positive behavioral changes. Qualitative research methods enable a more realistic understanding and promotion of farmers’ pro-environmental spillover behaviors by deeply understanding their contexts. The study offers targeted suggestions to policymakers to drive farmers’ transition to low-carbon production methods.