Does executives’overseas experience improve firms’labor investment efficiency?

Based on upper echelons theory and using a sample of private Chinese A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2020,this paper studies the impact of executives’overseas experience on firms’labor investment efficiency.The results show that executives with overseas experience significantly enhance firms’labor investment efficiency.After distinguishing between different types of overseas experience,the results show that executives with only study experience or with both study and work experience abroad have a significant positive effect on firms’labor investment efficiency,while executives with only overseas work experience have no significant effect.A cross-sectional analysis based on labor adjustment costs shows that the positive impact of executives’overseas experience is more pronounced in labor-intensive firms,firms with a greater proportion of R&D investment and firms with a higher percentage of highly educated employees.The mechanism tests show that executives with overseas experience can optimize labor investment efficiency by lowering agency costs,attracting analyst attention and alleviating financing constraints under conditions of underemployment.This study enriches the literature on the characteristics of executive teams and the efficiency of labor investment,providing reference and inspiration for firms to attract more high-quality returnees and optimize their labor resource allocation.

Effects of Study-Abroad Experiences on Chinese Students’ L2 Learning Activities and Study-Abroad Motivations

This study explores how overseas exchange opportunities might influence Chinese students ’engagement in L2 learning activities and how far such opportunities may satisfy their motivation to study abroad. The analysis of the data, collected and filtered from carefully designed questionnaires and interviews, showed that students ’ L2 learning activities and study-abroad motivations underwent changes after their overseas experiences. Regarding the former, the overseas environment was the cause of the change because it provided students with more chances to talk with native speakers and increased the frequency of their using L2 in their daily life. Regarding the latter, the decline of the students ’ major study-abroad motivations was partly because they tended to treat L2 learning as a tool for realizing other goals and partly because the students had got other important motivations. In view of these findings, suggestions were raised to help future students get better prepared for their overseas study or short-term exchange life.

The Outcomes of Chinese Visiting Scholars’Experiences at Canadian Universities:Implications for Faculty Development at Chinese Universities

This article examines the outcomes of the overseas experiences of Chinese visiting scholars and the implications of visiting scholar programs for faculty development at Chinese universities.On the basis of semi-structured interviews with 17 returned Chinese visiting scholars who spent six to 12 months in a faculty of education at one of five Canadian universities,the following significant aspects of their experiences and related outcomes were highlighted:The cycle of overseas experiences and associated outcomes of Chinese visiting scholars,factors influencing the outcomes of their overseas experiences,visiting scholar programs as a type of faculty development,and China-Canada academic collaboration through visiting scholar programs.The findings support the literature-based conceptual model for investigating the experiences and outcomes of visiting scholars.In the new era of sending university faculty abroad,we suggest that visiting scholar programs should be treated as an important approach to professional development for faculty and be incorporated into a comprehensive faculty development package for Chinese university faculty.

A Study of Afforestation Subsidy for Multi-purpose Forestry Development under Global Climate Change:Overseas Experiments and Implication

Global climate change poses new opportunities and challenges for forestry development, and therefore developing multiple-purpose forestry is an important measure to strengthen forestry response to climate change. At present, plantation in China ranks the world first in area, but with relatively low productivity. Constantly expanding forest area and improving forest management for enhancing multiple functions and purposes of plantations are the key measures to upgrade plantation capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change, while afforestation subsidy is the fundamental guarantee for improving and giving play to multiple functions and characters of plantations. The paper employed investigation-based research, literature analysis and in-depth interviews to analyze the policies and practices that the world major countries implement in terms of afforestation subsidy in the context of climate change and to evaluate the impact and effect of afforestation subsidy on forestry development, which provides experiences and implications for China to institute and implement afforestation subsidy policy as soon as possible. Finally, the authors came up with policy recommendations in terms of principles, approaches, standard, fund sources and system set-up of China's afforestation subsidies, which are of important significance to facilitate the development of multi-purpose forestry under global climate change.