Purpose The purpose of this paper is to cluster and analyse the level of agricultural science and technology in China’s provinces by using grey clustering model, to have an overall understanding of the current situation of agricultural science and technology development in these provinces, and to offer a reference for decision-making departments to draw up agricultural science and technology development plans. Design/methodology/approach First of all, the grey clustering assessment is used to evaluate the clustering of agricultural science and technology level in China’s provinces in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Also a comparative static analysis is made. Then, based on the prediction data of GM (1,1) model, the provincial agricultural science and technology levels in 2017 and 2019 are analysed by grey clustering. Finally, some suggestions are put forward, such as adjusting the allocation of agricultural science and technology resources and providing policy preferences to backward areas, so as to promote the coordinated development of agricultural science and technology in China. Findings The development of agricultural science and technology in various provinces and regions of the authors’ country is unbalanced, with a big gap of agricultural and technology level between different provinces. What’s more, the level of agricultural science and technology in remote areas has been developing slowly, but it has been lagging behind. Through the grey clustering analysis of the provincial agricultural science and technology level in 2017 and 2019, it is concluded that the level of agricultural science and technology will be promoted as a whole, but the gap of agricultural science and technology level between different provinces and cities will be enlarged. Research limitations/implications This paper comprehensively studies the current situation and future development trends of agricultural science and technology in China’s provinces in recent years, and preliminarily analyses the reasons for the transformation of agricultural science and technology level, however, with no further inspection. Related research should be made for further study. Practical implications This paper will provide overall understanding of the current situation of agricultural science and technology development in China’s provinces and cities, and put forward relevant suggestions for the future development of agricultural science and technology in China’s provinces and cities, and provide references for decision-making departments to draw up agricultural science and technology development plans. Originality/value For the first time, the grey clustering method is used to the research of agricultural science and technology level in the province. It analyses and evaluates the past and present situation and predicts the future development trend of provincial agricultural science and technology level by the grey clustering analysis method, which is a complete research.

A general consensus has been reached among many countries that low-carbon development is important for the protection of the environment and the mitigation of climate change. In line with the attitude of a responsible country, China urges enterprises to participate in energy conservation and emission reduction through various policies. Based on the faultline theory, this paper considers the data of 124 listed companies in China’s manufacturing industry from 2015 to 2019 as a research sample. From the perspective of corporate governance, this analysis discusses the influence of the aggregation effect of the multiple characteristics of board members on the environmental protection benefits of enterprises, and empirically studies the board group. The relationship between the faultline and the carbon performance of the enterprise is further investigated, and the internal slack resources of the enterprise are further investigated in relation to the board members and the moderating effect. The study found that the existence of the board’s bio-demographic-related faultline has a positive effect on the carbon performance level of enterprises, but it is not statistically significant. The existence of the board’s task-related faultline has a positive effect on the carbon performance level of the enterprise. Further research found that precipitated slack resources have a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between the existence of boardroom faultlines and corporate carbon performance, and that the relationship had a positive moderating effect, but was not statistically significant. The preceding conclusions not only enrich the research on corporate internal governance in theory, but also provide useful guidance for how to improve corporate environmental protection behavior on a microlevel in practice.

Regional agricultural drought vulnerability (RADV) is a complex nonlinear problem caused by the interaction of multiple factors, and an objective and systematic method is proposed by this paper to identify its influencing factors, which plays an important role in preventing and regulating the risks of regional agricultural drought. Firstly, to provide a reference for the evaluation problem in selecting the number of factors, the influencing factors affecting RADV are revealed by using the method of phase space reconstruction (PSR). Secondly, to rank the importance of influencing factors, a grey trend relational analysis (TGRA) method is proposed, considering the dynamic development relationship between the RADV index and the influencing factors and integrating the absolute and relative variation of sequences in each corresponding period. Finally, to reduce the collinearity between the influencing factors, a grey trend relational clustering (TGRC) analysis method is proposed. According to the above steps, the process of identifying factors based on PSR-TGRC method is formed. Taking Henan Province as an example, 14 main influencing factors and their effects on RADV are identified from all 42 factors, and the identification results which are consistent with the actual drought relief work show the rationality and practicality of PSR-TGRC method and provide theoretical support for formulating strategies of regional agricultural disaster prevention and mitigation.

While residential buildings account for a small proportion of global energy consumption, their significance in terms of energy usage and environmental impact should not be underestimated, especially considering population growth and urbanization. Consequently, low-carbon building has gained popularity as a new architectural form. This article first presents a theoretical model with low-carbon building characteristics as the independent variable, consumer purchase intention as the dependent variable, and user experience as the mediating variable. Subsequently, data were collected through a survey questionnaire. Finally, regression analysis and sequential testing were used to examine the influence of low-carbon building characteristics on consumers’ housing purchase intentions and the mediating role of user experience. The findings reveal a significant positive influence of low-carbon building characteristics on consumer housing purchase tendency, with user experience playing a crucial mediating role. Therefore, real estate companies should prioritize the incorporation of low-carbon building characteristics and continuously enhance user experience in the design, development, and marketing of residential properties to increase consumer purchase intention. This research provides empirical evidence and theoretical support to elucidate the relationship between low-carbon buildings and consumer purchase intention in China.