Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Confucianism on auditor changes by highlighting the role of the cultural embeddedness mechanism in audit contracts from the perspective of credit governance. Design/methodology/approach Using a unique sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2018, this study uses logit regression as the baseline methodology while controlling for macro-level factors and firm-level characteristics, as well as industry and year fixed effects. This study also conducts different mediation/channel analyses, endogeneity tests (using two-stage least squares and difference-in-differences techniques) and robustness checks. Findings The findings show that the embeddedness of Confucianism in a corporation reduces auditor changes. Furthermore, the channel analyses (using moral self-discipline, social trust, professional ethics and the quality of accounting information as four potential channels) reveal that Confucianism can improve moral credit and consolidate the cultural foundation of credit governance. Specifically, the stronger the embeddedness of Confucianism, the more stable the auditing contract. Finally, Confucianism in formal and informal systems can be mutually substituted. Originality/value There is limited research on how culture affects auditing contracts. This study offers new contributions and extends the literature on the connection between cultural embeddedness and contract stability. Confucianism has the potential to strengthen the efficiency of credit governance and maintain the stability of contracts. This study offers a thoughtful orientation toward duly using Confucianism vis-à-vis credit governance.

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Drawn to the unique natural and geographical advantages of ecotourism scenic areas, tourists can roam the natural environment and, at the same time, promote the sustainable development of the scenic area’s ecology. As a result, ecotourism has gradually become a popular type of tourism. Tourists’ perceived authenticity, perceived values, revisit intentions, and environmentally responsible behaviors, which are important variables in understanding their cognition and behaviors, have received extensive attention from scholars. However, few studies have combined tourists’ perceived authenticity, perceived values, revisit intentions, and environmentally responsible behaviors in the context of ecotourism. Taking Huangshan World Natural and Cultural Heritage Site in Anhui, China, as a case study, this study explored the relationship between the perceived authenticity and perceived values of ecotourists, and the respective relationships of perceived authenticity and perceived values with revisit intentions and environmentally responsible behaviors. A survey research method was employed, and the structural equation modeling technique was used to determine the relationships among variables. The results indicated that the perceived authenticity of ecotourists had a significant positive impact on their perceived values. Tourists’ perceived authenticity and perceived values significantly and positively affected their revisit intentions and environmentally responsible behaviors, respectively, while their perceived values played a mediating role in the impact of perceived authenticity on revisit intentions and environmentally responsible behaviors. Theoretically, this study introduces the concept of perceived authenticity into ecotourism, expands the research scope of perceived values, and fills the gaps in the research regarding the impact of perceived authenticity on environmentally responsible behaviors. Practically, it will assist tourism managers in developing a strategic plan for protecting the unique natural resources and cultural customs of scenic spots, producing a valuable interactive experience, and enhancing the collaborative decision-making process, which will lead to the sustainable development of ecotourism destinations.

In 2017, China released the statement of High-Quality Development in response to the sustainable development goals proposed by the United Nations. As the spatial carriers of human economic, social, and cultural development, cities should be updated in order to enter a new period of high-quality urban development. In this paper, we use a multi-period DID model, consider the opening of high-speed railways as a quasi-natural experiment, and use the panel data of 285 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2007 to 2020 to empirically analyze the effect of high-speed railway (HSR) opening on urban development quality and explore its transmission mechanism. The empirical results find that the HSR opening can significantly promote the level of high-quality urban development. The results remain the same after robustness tests such as PSM-DID and placebo tests. The study mechanism suggests that the HSR opening can significantly improve the quality of urban development through a population agglomeration effect, while capital agglomeration has a masking effect between the HSR opening and high-quality urban development. Further results show that there is heterogeneity in the impact of HSR opening on the high-quality development of cities in different regions and sizes, in which the boosting effect of HSR opening on the development quality of cities in eastern and western regions is more significant compared to cities in central regions; the boosting effect of HSR opening on the high-quality development level of medium-sized cities is stronger.