With the rapid development of internet technology, the digital economy has become a core driver of economic growth in China and even globally. This paper mainly studies the changes in residents' consumption behavior brought by the digital economy environment, such as the gradual shift from offline physical store shopping to online purchasing. The research aims to analyze how digital technologies and online platforms alter consumers' decision-making processes and consumption preferences, and to formulate relevant strategies and references for enterprises. This study adopts two research methods: literature analysis and case analysis. By observing data from e-commerce platforms and consumption trends on social media, it explores the role of technological development in driving consumption upgrading. The research finds that the digital economy has not only reduced the time and financial costs for consumers to search for product information but also given rise to new consumption patterns such as social shopping and personalized customization. However, it has also brought problems like information overload and personal data privacy risks. The conclusion indicates that digital consumption is characterized by online-offline integration, personalized recommendation, and community-based consumption. Future research can focus more on consumption equity issues arising from the digital industry.

In the process of regional economic integration in Southeast Asia, the uneven development of human capital is a bottleneck that affects the overall development of the region.Against this backdrop, the Southeast Asian Education Ministers' Organization (SEAMEO), as the most important educational cooperation institution in the region, plays a crucial role in promoting the improvement of human capital through a series of educational cooperation activities, thereby driving economic development. This article uses literature review and comparative analysis to summarize and extract these projects, exploring the mechanism of how SEAMEO educational cooperation activities promote economic development by improving human capital, and analyzing the changes in education levels in different countries. Research shows that the SEAMEO project can help increase the quantity and quality of human capital in Southeast Asia, thereby promoting economic growth in the region, and the effect is more pronounced for underdeveloped countries. At the same time, this paper points out the shortcomings of the project and proposes improvement measures in order to provide reference for future educational exchanges and economic development in Southeast Asia.

Traditional finance generally takes rational decision-making and market efficiency as its starting point, assuming that investors process information rationally. In actual trading, however, investors are influenced by reference points, their response to losses, and subjective judgment. Focusing on the Chinese stock market, this paper reviews and compares existing studies to explain prospect theory through three elements: the value function, loss aversion, and decision weights. It then discusses the disposition effect, differences across investor groups, and heterogeneous beliefs. The literature shows that individual investors are especially susceptible to behavioral biases because of limits on attention and information processing. Institutional investors may also be influenced by agency problems, performance evaluation, and organizational decision-making. Prospect theory extends traditional financial models by offering a better account of actual choices, but whether individual biases develop into persistent market anomalies also depends on how information spreads, trading constraints, and the strength of arbitrage.

With the deepening of global economic integration and the strengthening financial ties, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy significantly affects the operating environment and financial structure of emerging market firms. These effects operate through changes in dollar liquidity, cross-border capital flows, and exchange rates. This is associated with a typical pattern of "gradual accumulation of risks during easing phases and concentrated risk release during tightening phases" across different stages of the business cycle. This paper examines the mechanisms and heterogeneous effects of the Federal Reserve's cyclical monetary policy adjustments on exchange rate risk and financing costs of emerging market firms, further revealing the underlying logic and transmission channels of its cross-border spillover effects. By reviewing relevant literature and macroeconomic background data on changes in the Federal Reserve's monetary policy cycles from 2010 to 2023, and integrating the structural characteristics of typical emerging market firms in Asia, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe, this paper analyzes exchange rate risk evolution, financing cost dynamics, and firm heterogeneity through theoretical and mechanism-based analysis. The results show that the Fed's easing cycle promotes the expansion of foreign currency debt and the accumulation of exchange rate risk among emerging market firms, whereas the tightening cycle triggers concentrated risk release via dollar appreciation and rising interest rates, increasing financing costs and tightening financing conditions. Export-oriented firms exhibit natural hedging capacity, while firms with high foreign currency debt and domestic demand are more strongly affected.

This paper tests whether active funds can generate extra value beyond passive benchmarks, and how such value should be understood. The paper uses monthly fund returns and A-share indices, including CSI300, CSI500 and CSI800, to examine fund performance from several perspectives, including aggregate fund returns, cross-sectional differences, benchmark regressions, quintile sorting, market-neutral adjustment, and a 2025 out-of-sample test. The results show that the performance of the equal-weighted (EW) active-fund portfolio is better than that of the main benchmarks, but this result masks large differences across individual funds. Many funds have positive alpha estimates, but far fewer funds have statistically significant alpha. A sorting strategy based on past 12-month returns is able to create a clear gap between high- and low-ranked funds, and this gap remains visible in 2025. Nevertheless, after market-neutral and dual-benchmark adjustments, part of the top-quintile return is absorbed by market and style exposure. Overall, active funds appear to add value, but the evidence points to a mixture of exposure, persistence, and smaller residual alpha rather than pure manager skill.

Against the backdrop of the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, the fresh retail industry has increasingly high requirements for transportation link efficiency, whereas existing research on the relationship between transportation digitalization and operating capacity in the fresh retail sector remains inadequate. Taking Carrefour as a case study, this paper analyzes the structure, characteristics and digital transportation layout of its fresh supply chain, and examines changes in its operating capacity from the perspectives of accounts receivable, inventory and accounts payable management. This study finds that transportation digitalization in the fresh retail industry exerts a significant positive effect on corporate operating capacity. Digital transformation of transportation, procurement and warehousing processes enables data connectivity, reduces information lags and improves the operating capacity of enterprises. This paper refines the theoretical relationship between supply chain digitalization and working capital management and provides a practical reference for transportation link digitalization among fresh retail enterprises. This paper also identifies research limitations in quantitative analysis and research perspectives and proposes directions for future research.

Since the global proliferation of the Toyota Production System, lean management has become one of the dominant organizational models adopted by multinational manufacturing firms. Although lean principles are frequently promoted as universally efficient management solutions, their real-world implementation outcomes differ markedly across national contexts. Some firms achieve higher productivity together with stronger employee participation, whereas others encounter labor conflict, organizational resistance, and intensified work pressure. This paper investigates how institutional environments shape lean management practices in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Drawing on comparative capitalism theory and organizational institutionalism, the study argues that lean management should be understood as an institutionally embedded organizational system rather than a universally transferable production model. The research applies a comparative case-study approach based on secondary academic literature related to labor relations, organizational control, and multinational management systems. The analysis demonstrates that Germany's coordinated institutions support collaborative lean practices and stable labor-management cooperation. Italy's fragmented institutional coordination restricts firm-level organizational transformation and erodes reciprocal trust between managerial staff and workers. The United Kingdom represents a more market-oriented model characterized by managerial autonomy and performance control. The findings suggest that national institutions strongly influence managerial strategies, employee participation, and organizational outcomes in multinational enterprises.

Price signals have the dual functions of cost constraints and quality identification in the consumption of agricultural products, and their effects are differentiated according to consumer groups. This study takes Fengxian Apple, a national geographical indication product, as an example to construct a discrete choice experiment including price, geographical indication certification, production mode, appearance level and traceability information. Based on 1080 samples, the latent class logit model is used to identify the heterogeneity of preference and estimate the willingness to pay. The results show that consumers can be divided into three classes: price-sensitive type (42%), quality trust type (33%) and certification-oriented type (25%); the price marginal utility is differentiated from -0.61 to -0.18 between groups, and the geographical indication premium is correspondingly expanded from 1.2 yuan to 4.6 yuan per catty. The quality recognition function of price signals for credence attributes such as organic and geographical indications is significantly enhanced in high-certification preference groups, providing a basis for group segmentation for differentiated pricing and accurate marketing of agricultural products.

Artificial intelligence is transforming industrial supply chains through instantaneous data exchange, enhanced decision-making capabilities, and automated management processes. AI can enhance efficiency and generate additional value, but it may also exacerbate disparities in benefit distribution. This is because major enterprises and digital platforms often control the algorithms, infrastructure, and aggregated data, while smaller suppliers typically contribute operational insights, production capabilities, and specialized expertise. This research utilizes a qualitative literature review and case analysis methodology to explore the key issues and underlying factors that lead to benefit disparities in AI-driven industrial supply chains. The Thai tuna supply chain serves as a case study, illustrating how data providers may receive minimal benefits from the value generated through traceability and data monetization. The analysis identifies disproportionate control over digital assets, unequal bargaining power, and inadequate assessment of contributions as the primary factors contributing to this imbalance. It argues for the necessity of multi-faceted contribution accounting, adaptive benefit-sharing agreements, data rights protection, and collaborative algorithmic governance to promote equity, transparency, and sustainable stability within supply chains.

As a leading firm in China's bottled water sector, Nongfu Spring has transformed its single water business into a diversified portfolio covering water, tea beverages and other drinks. Its 2024 total revenue hit 42.896 billion yuan with a mild year-on-year growth of 0.5%. Affected by public opinion crises and fierce competition, bottled water revenue slumped 21.3% to 15.952 billion yuan. By contrast, driven by core products Oriental Leaf and Cha π, tea beverage revenue surged 32.3% to 16.745 billion yuan, surpassing bottled water for the first time and building a dual-engine growth structure. In 2025, the company achieved full recovery, with total revenue of 52.553 billion yuan (up 22.5% YoY) and a record-high net profit margin of 30.2%. Nongfu Spring sticks to a "three-high" model featuring high pricing, high gross margins and high cost efficiency, supported by exclusive water source resources and economies of scale. Based on its 2024-2025 financial data, this paper systematically analyzes its business and profit models, offering empirical references for peer FMCG enterprises on transformation, category expansion and risk management.