Advanced scientific and technological advancements, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), are recognized as the driving force behind the emergence of new quality productive forces. The paths and mechanisms of influence between AI and productivity, however, remain unclear. A comparison between new quality productive forces and traditional productivity was first conducted, followed by an elucidation of the characteristics of new quality productive forces elements at the employee, enterprise, and industry levels, along with the application characteristics of AI. At the employee level, the “automation-enhancement" pathway was studied, along with Al's role in capability integration, learning, and reconfiguration. At the enterprise level, Al's role in enterprise functions such as marketing, innovation, and strategic decision-making is studied. Also, the structuring, restructuring, and utilization of resources are investigated. Additionally, the research delves into Al's role in shaping industry-level dynamics via the industrial, innovation, capital, and talent chains, and the mechanisms of labor substitution, spillover integration, technological innovation, and ecological synergies. Recommendations are made to support new quality productive forces development in the short, medium, and long terms. Knowledge on AI's role in new quality productive forces is expanded by the exploration, and discussion with related research is fostered.

Digital technology innovation is the technical support for the development of the digital industry and has an important impact on economic and social development in the digital era. International Patent Classification (IPC) at the level of subgroups was used to construct the quantity and quality of digital technology innovation. Based on this, the Outline of National Informatization Development Strategy issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council which is the most representative national digital industry policy was taken as the entry point. The panel data of China's listed companies from 2011 to 2020 was used to empirically test the relationship between digital industry policy and enterprise digital technology innovation. The results are as follows. The national digital industry policy has a significant effect on the quantity and quality of digital technology innovation of micro-entities. Heterogeneity test results show that the above enhancement effect is only established in private enterprises, large-scale enterprises and high-tech enterprises. The mechanism test shows that easing financing constraints, relaxing industry access and promoting enterprise digital technology investment are the three channels which national policy incentive affect digital technology innovation. It is helpful for the government to formulate reasonable policies to encourage enterprise digital technology.

The construction of high-standard cropland can improve the quality of arable land, which is a strategic base for guaranteeing national food security. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the high-standard cropland construction policy, the effect of high-standard cropland construction policy on the decision-making of grain cultivation on farmland was examined by adopting the continuous difference-in-differences method. The result shows that the high-standard cropland construction policy significantly increases the the proportion of grain sown area and produces a "grain-oriented" effect. The conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. The dynamic effect analysis reveals that as the construction of high-standard cropland continues, its effect of promoting the "grain-oriented" effect on cropland continues to increase. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the high-standard cropland construction policy is more effective in promoting the "grain-oriented" cultivated land in plain areas, higher agricultural dependent areas, and larger cultivated land areas. Mechanism analysis indicates that the high-standard cropland construction policy influences the "grain-oriented" cultivated land by land scaling, service scaling and technological progress. Further research illustrates that the development of cooperatives and agricultural credit investment can strengthen the promotion effect of the high-standard cropland construction policy on the "grain-oriented" cultivation of arable land.

With energy consumption and carbon emissions continue to increase. The climate issues are becoming more severe. Many environmental regulation policies have been promulgated to address the challenges of environmental degradation. Carbon trading policy, as an important means, promotes green technology innovation in enterprises through market forces to reduce carbon emissions. As the main emitters of carbon in China, high-energy-consuming enterprises bear tremendous pressure and challenges for carbon emission reduction. And there is an urgent need to increase investment in green technology innovation to adapt to the market environment. To explore the impact of carbon trading policies on green technology innovation in high-energy-consuming enterprises, a difference in differences model was constructed. Panel data of A-share listed companies in high energy consuming industries from 2000 to 2022 were used to empirically test the relationship between carbon trading policies and green technology innovation of high energy consuming enterprises. The results indicate that carbon trading policies can significantly promote green technology innovation in high energy consuming enterprises. In addition, the research samples were grouped based on different dimensions to further explore the heterogeneity of policy impacts in different contexts. The findings reveal that carbon trading policies have a stronger promoting effect on green technology innovation in stronger enterprises. Compared to green invention patents, carbon trading policies have a greater impact on the number of green utility model patents obtained. When enterprises have a higher proportion of institutional investor shareholding, their green technology innovation is more significantly influenced by carbon trading policies. And enterprises located in key import and export provinces and cities in China are more affected by carbon trading policies than those in other regions.

Promoting digital transformation of enterprises is an inevitable requirement for achieving high-quality economic development. Command-and-control environmental regulations represented by low-carbon city pilot policies play an important role in the construction of "digital China". Based on the pilot policy of low-carbon cities as the entry point, data from China' A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2021 was used to test the impact and mechanism of command-and-control environmental regulation policies on enterprises' digital transformation by the staggered differential model. The results show that the implementation of pilot policies in low-carbon cities can effectively force enterprises to transform digitally by reducing carbon emission level, promoting green technology innovation, easing financing constraints and adjusting from directors' overseas background. The conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the policy effect will depend on the difference of industry type and category of employment. Further analysis shows that while promoting digital transformation, the policy can also promote the expansion of enterprises and the economic development of pilot areas. The economic contribution of pilot cities is 0. 0184%. The research conclusions of this article have important implications for how the government use macro-control means to force enterprises to digital transformation and realize the coordinated development of "green" and "digital" economy.

Anchoring on the shareholding structure, the A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen in China from 2013 to 2019 was taken as a research sample, and the impact of reverse mixed ownership reform on the "greenwashing" behavior of private enterprises was discussed. Results show that by enhancing the financing capacity of enterprises, improving management's short-sighted behavior, and promoting enterprise' sense of responsibility for environmental protection, reverse mixed ownership reform can significantly alleviate the worsening problem about "greenwashing" behavior of private enterprises. The governance effects of state-owned equity was analyzed deferentially, the results show that reverse mixed ownership reform has a more significant inhibitory effect on selective disclosure compared to expressive manipulation. The quadratic term of reverse mixed ownership reform was introduced into the research to verify the existence of an optimal shareholding ratio for state-owned equity. Heterogeneity analyses revealed that governance effects of reverse mixed ownership reform in different contexts in terms of the nature of the industry, the degree of corporate disclosure, and corporate reputation. It puts forward relevant suggestions from three aspects, including that deepening the process of reverse mixed ownership reform in private enterprises, improving laws and suggestions on information disclosure, and strengthening the construction of corporate teams.

Innovation is crucial for achieving high-level self-reliance and accelerating the development of new productive forces in the latest development stage. However, due to the high risk and long-term nature of innovation, not all managers, as the leaders of enterprises, can maintain the persistence required for innovation. There is limited research systematically revealing how managerial myopia affects ambidextrous innovation in enterprises. Based on the upper echelons theory and from the perspective of ambidextrous innovation, a panel dataset of 2139 A-share listed manufacturing companies in China from 2007 to 2020 was constructed. Analysis techniques were used to build an index of managerial myopia. The impact of intrinsic managerial myopia on the performance of exploratory and exploitative innovation is investigated empirically. Additionally, the mediating role of ambidextrous innovation investment and the contingent influence of managerial incentives on this process were analyzed. The empirical results demonstrated that managerial myopia significantly negatively impacts the performance of both exploratory and exploitative innovation. Managerial myopia inhibits the investment in exploratory and exploitative innovation, thereby suppressing the output of ambidextrous innovation performance. Equity incentives mitigate the negative impact of managerial myopia on ambidextrous innovation performance, while compensation incentives amplify the negative impact of managerial myopia on exploratory innovation performance and mitigate the negative impact on exploitative innovation performance. The findings of the research extend the analysis of the behavioral consequences and mechanisms of managerial myopia on enterprise innovation. It would provide important theoretical and practical implications for further optimizing enterprise innovation governance mechanisms, incentivizing and guiding enterprises to enhance their independent innovation capabilities, and thereby accelerating the formation and development of new productive forces.

Global contingencies and economic climate risks create uncertainty for firms. To explore the impact of uncertainty on business decisions and investment behavior of firms, economic policy uncertainty, trade policy uncertainty, geopolitical risk, and climate policy uncertainty were combined and analyzed to explore the characteristics and mechanisms of their impact on corporate investment with a sample of A-share listed companies in China from 2013 to 2022, and to further analyze the heterogeneity of the three dimensions of the type of corporate investment, the nature of the ownership system, and the type of industry. It is found that, firstly, all four types of uncertainty inhibit business investment, but the degree of inhibition varies. Secondly, economic policy uncertainty and geopolitical risk discourage business investment in fixed assets and financial assets but promote investment in R&D, while trade policy uncertainty does the opposite, and climate policy uncertainty discourages the three types of business investment. Thirdly, the impacts of trade and climate policy uncertainty on business investment are more variable than the other two. Finally, uncertainty can affect business investment through the financing constraint channel and the business external demand channel, and business growth opportunities can mitigate the relationship between uncertainty and business investment.

ESG is an important breakthrough in the process of moving towards sustainable development and promoting high-quality development at the micro enterprise level, which is also an important realization way to promote the sustainable development of the capital market. A reasonable assessment of the innovation value effect of ESG is of great significance for accelerating the construction of a scientific and technological powerhouse at the new development stage. Grounded in the data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2012 to 2021, the empirical results using the individual fixed effect model show that, firstly, corporate ESG performance can strengthen corporate innovation efficiency and possess the efficiency improvement effect of corporate innovation, and the conclusion of the study still holds after a series of robustness tests and consideration of endogeneity issues. Second, corporate ESG performance improves corporate innovation efficiency through the triple mechanism of strengthening corporate R&D investment, alleviating corporate financing constraints, and reducing corporate agency costs, and it improves corporate innovation efficiency through R&D incentives and cost-saving effects. Third, there is heterogeneity in the improvement effect of corporate ESG on corporate innovation efficiency, which is more obvious in the sample enterprises with higher degree of marketization, private enterprises and overseas executives. The findings provide empirical references for the optimization of innovation resource allocation based on ESG strategic change in the new development stage.

Do the carbon trading policy and low-carbon city policy, as two typical carbon emissions reduction pilot policies, have a policy overlay effect on reducing pollution and carbon emissions? The multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model was used to explore the policy effect of carbon emissions reduction policies on reducing pollution and carbon emissions from the perspectives of policy synergy and target synergy, basing on the panel data of 279 cities in China from 2006 to 2020. The results show that the dual pilot policy has an obvious synergistic effect on reducing pollution and carbon emissions. The longer the policy is implemented, the stronger the emissions reduction effect is. The dual pilot policy reduces pollution and carbon emissions by the innovation effect and source reduction effect. The implementation of dual pilot policy in western regions, non-resource-based cities, non-old industrial bases and developed cities has achieved better effect on reducing pollution and carbon emissions. Both single pilot policies can promote to reduce pollution and carbon emissions. Comparison between two policies, the carbon trading policy plays better effect on carbon emissions reduction, and the low carbon city pilot policy plays better effect on pollution reduction. The double pilot policy is more effective than the single pilot policy in reducing pollution and carbon. The double pilot cities that first becomes the low carbon city pilot and then implements the carbon trading policy have stronger effect on reducing pollution and carbon. It provides a reference for implementing carbon emissions reduction policies.