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AbstractInterest in applying sociological tools to analysing the social nature, antecedents and consequences of artificial intelligence (AI) has been rekindled in recent years. However, for researchers new to this field of enquiry, navigating the expansive literature can be challenging. This paper presents a practical way to help these researchers to think about, search and read the literature more effectively. It divides the literature into three categories. Research in each category is informed by one analytic perspective and analyses one "type" of AI. Research informed by the "scientific AI" perspective analyses "AI" as a science or scientific research field. Research underlain by the "technical AI" perspective studies "AI" as a meta‐technology and analyses its various applications and subtechnologies. Research informed by the "cultural AI" perspective views AI development as a social phenomenon and examines its interactions with the wider social, cultural, economic and political conditions in which it develops and by which it is shaped. These analytic perspectives reflect the evolution of "AI" from chiefly a scientific research subject during the twentieth century to a widely commercialised innovation in recent decades and increasingly to a distinctive socio‐cultural phenomenon today.

With digitalization and the support of policies, the creative industries have shown rapid growth in the last 20 years. Open forms of collective learning, user engagement and social networks have become popular to generate IPs and values. Meanwhile, government policy can support the sectors through subsidies, regulations, standardization, and protections at regional and national levels. This paper aims to explore the role of government policy in the innovation of creative industries from a macro dynamic perspective. The research method combines a structured literature review, a secondary document review of industry reports and government policy, and thematic content analysis. Through in-depth studies of the UK's and China's animation sectors, the paper identifies key elements of closed innovation, social innovation, and open innovation systems in the market. Comparisons of national government policies since 2000 reveal different approaches for countries where creative sectors are well-established, and for those starting with limited knowledge resources. A dynamic model is developed to address the evolution of macro dynamic innovation systems and the role of policies as interactive mechanisms. Practical implementation and future research areas are also suggested.

The objective of this study was to provide a cultural transmission model that partially explains attitudes towards gun ownership and related behaviors. We utilized cross-sectional data collected from Chinese university students in two separate provinces. This paper specifically examines a cultural transmission model of Chinese attitudes towards gun ownership, carrying, purchasing guns for self-defense, and beliefs regarding whether family and friends would own guns. Our model includes measures of attachment, commitment, belief, prior military service, feelings concerning safety in the presence of firearms, beliefs of the respondent regarding whether or not their close associates would own guns, age, gender, and residential location. Findings suggest that the cultural transmission model partially explains Chinese attitudes regarding gun ownership and related activities.

Abstract
Seven Chinese cities have enacted One-Weekday Limit (OWL) driving restrictions following Beijing's implementation shortly after the Olympics in 2008. Existing literature examines the short-run effect of the OWL or the long-run effect of the Olympic-year policy package on air pollution in Beijing. Using two difference-in-differences (DD) approaches, this study compares the long-run effect of the Olympic-year policy package with the effect of the OWL. Using the city of Tianjin as a control, this study finds a significant drop in pollution due to the Olympic-year policy package. Using weekends as a control, this study finds a much smaller and less significant drop due to the OWL. These new findings suggest that compared to the OWL, other policies enforced in the Olympic year account for a greater portion of the drop.

With technology advancement, industrial revolution 4.0, businesses nowadays are in competition in terms of product, service and business model innovation. Meanwhile, the emergent socio-ecological crisis is making it increasingly important to identify the impact of business on environment and the society. To date, much literature has explored how sustainability might be achieved through firms' internal research and development, and supply chain collaboration. However, issues such as how different stakeholders including customers, partners, government, and universities can be involved, forming innovation ecosystem in a sustainable way is under-explored. This paper aims to provide connection between innovation and sustainability, through literature review and exploratory case studies. A conceptual framework is generated starting from firm/intra-firm level, to supply chain/inter-firm level, and towards ecosystem level. With emerging themes of innovation from sustainability perspective proposed, the framework can be enriched and validated through future empirical studies.

This dissertation addresses concerns regarding corporate activities in relation to agency costs and studies the effect of the market for corporate control. In the first essay, we use the mid-1990s Delaware takeover regime shift as an exogenous shock to examine how the removal of takeover threats affects managerial decisions on corporate financing and investment and how it affects firm value. Based on a differences-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) approach, we find that managers reduce debt financing and increase capital investment when they are protected against hostile takeovers, which is consistent with managerial agency models of capital structure and the free cash flow hypothesis proposed by Jensen (1986). We demonstrate that engaging in these entrenched behaviors consequently destroys firm value. Moreover, our evidence indicates that the effect of the takeover regime shift is more pronounced in firms with fewer institutional holdings or lower managerial ownership, supporting the argument of Jensen (1993) that effective internal control systems can alleviate the negative outcomes of a weakened market for corporate control. The substitution effect of internal controls is more substantial than that of the external product market competition. Finally, we determine that empire building, rather than quiet life, is the main consequence of a weakened market for corporate control. In the second essay, we directly examine the causal relationship between managerial entrenchment and diversification. We demonstrate that more entrenched managers adopt higher levels of diversification than do less entrenched managers. We verify the result by using two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression and treating entrenchment as endogenous. In addition, based on an exogenous change in takeover legislation in Delaware in the mid-1990s, we adopt the differences-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) approach and demonstrate that managers increase diversification activities when they are protected against hostile takeovers. Given that diversification destroys value, these results are consistent with the agency costs explanation of diversification. We then explore the motivations that drive managers to diversify. We document that entrenched managers diversify to gain private benefits and to reduce firm risk. Finally, we demonstrate that CEO equity-based incentives increase when takeover-protected firms diversify, suggesting that firms proactively respond to counterbalance the increased costs associated with discretional diversification, which is consistent with theories of optimal contract. ; published_or_final_version ; Economics and Finance ; Doctoral ; Doctor of Philosophy