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SUMMARY In this study, we examine changes in audit opinions and auditor choice decisions in politically connected firms before and after the exogenous termination of their political connections. We use 84 anti-corruption cases involving high-level Chinese bureaucrats between 2004 and 2014 to construct a nature experiment, and identify a set of listed firms whose executives bribe or have connections through family affiliation with these corrupt bureaucrats. We find that within the event years of the ouster of corrupt bureaucrats, connected state-owned enterprises (SOEs) receive more favorable audit opinions than their non-connected counterparts, whereas connected non-SOEs obtain less favorable opinions. Moreover, after the termination of political connections, connected SOEs are more likely, while connected non-SOEs are less likely, to hire local small auditors. Additional analyses show that termination of political ties has more pronounced effects after the recent anti-corruption campaign. Furthermore, the levels of earnings management and audit fees in SOEs decrease when political connections are terminated, but they increase in non-SOEs. In summary, our study suggests that the termination of corporate political connections has a significant influence on auditors' assessments of audit risk and firms' auditor choice patterns, and this influence is subject to corporate ownership structures.

In the 12th Five-Year Plan period, Sichuan province has selected strategic emerging industries such as new-generation information technology, new energy, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials, biology, energy conservation and environmental protection. However, its strategic emerging industries are still in the stage of cultivation and development, and there are some problems such as low industrial agglomeration and obvious industrial restructuring. In essence, this is because the focus of the development of strategic emerging industries is not clear enough, and the location advantages are not fully utilized to select the most suitable strategic emerging industries for the development of the region. This paper constructs a regional strategic emerging industries selection decision model, applies ARCGIS to study the spatial distribution of strategic emerging industries in Sichuan province, and uses fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method (FCEM) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to solve the priority of developing strategic emerging industries. Conclusions: Firstly, Sichuan province should give priority to the development of new generation information technology industry and new energy vehicle industry, then high-end equipment manufacturing industry, energy-saving and environmental protection industry and new energy industry, and finally biological industry and new material industry. The larger the coefficient of influence is, the higher the comprehensive score is, while the larger the coefficient of sensitivity is, the lower the comprehensive score is. Secondly, the number of enterprises in the new-generation information technology industry and the new energy vehicle industry is still not dominant in Sichuan province. Finally, the study found that the current development of strategic emerging industries in Sichuan province is extremely unbalanced in various regions, and the phenomenon of competition and reconstruction is obvious.

An in-depth study of the operational efficiency of Internet banks is essential to enhance banks’ competitiveness and sustainable development. We use the two-stage network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to divide the operational process of Internet banks into the value operation stage (stage 1) and the value creation stage (stage 2). This paper adopts the R&D investment that reflects the characteristics of Internet banks as the input of the value operation stage in the two-stage DEA model. It examines the operating efficiency of China’s Internet banks from 2018 to 2019, including stage efficiency and comprehensive efficiency. The empirical analysis results indicate that the contribution of stage 2 to the comprehensive efficiency is higher than that of stage 1. Similarly, it can also be shown that the average values of the stage efficiency and comprehensive efficiency of Internet banking in 2019 are higher than those in 2018. In addition, the Kruskal–Wallis test shows no significant difference in the average comprehensive efficiency of Internet banks in the three major economic belts. These results have significant strategic implications for managers, regulators, and policymakers who share a common interest in boosting financial sustainability and performance.

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