In this perspective paper we introduce the concept of social credits and a circular and social credit exchange. The proposal is to develop an credit exchange where individuals, organizations, and ...policymakers can help finance socially and environmentally beneficial programs and projects.
A variety of commercial and local government social credit systems (SCSs) are now being implemented in China in order to steer the behavior of Chinese individuals, businesses, social organizations, ...and government agencies. Previous research finds that these SCSs are employed by the Chinese state as “surveillance infrastructure” and for social management. This article focuses on a different angle: the public’s opinion of SCSs. Based on a cross-regional survey, the study finds a surprisingly high degree of approval of SCSs across respondent groups. Interestingly, more socially advantaged citizens (wealthier, better-educated, and urban residents) show the strongest approval of SCSs, along with older people. While one might expect such knowledgeable citizens to be most concerned about the privacy implications of SCS, they instead appear to embrace SCSs because they interpret it through frames of benefit-generation and promoting honest dealings in society and the economy instead of privacy-violation.
Social credit management is a global issue, has become an important aspect of the economic development of various countries. In the process of social transformation in modern China, the social credit ...management system has undergone three stages of evolution: from scratch to existence, from existence to reality, and from reality to refinement. Based on the review of the transformation of market order and the construction of social credit system in China, this paper makes a systematic analysis of its main content and internal logic. From the perspective of Huntington’s “political decline” and other Chinese and foreign theories, this paper discusses the relationship between the three main bodies of social credit construction — market, society, government and market order respectively, in an attempt to provide inspiration and ideas for the construction of China’s future social credit system.
Social credit refers to establishing mutual trust among diverse social entities through adherence to contractual principles. Despite the acknowledged significance of risk-taking in fostering ...corporate performance, scant attention has been devoted to exploring the influence of social credit on corporate risk-taking. Based on China’s social credit reform policies, we use a staggered difference-in-difference (DID) estimation approach to conduct our study and find that good social credit significantly enhances corporate risk-taking. This phenomenon can be attributed to ameliorating agency costs and alleviating financing constraints. Furthermore, our findings are more significant for firms with weaker corporate governance, higher external financing constraints, and regions with insufficient formal institutions. In conclusion, this study not only expands the research on the influencing factors of risk-taking, but also provides useful references for government departments on how to further improve the construction of social credit system.
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•We evaluate the effect of social credit on corporate risk-taking.•We use a comprehensive dataset from Chinese firms with a Difference-in-Differences estimations.•Social credit significantly increases corporate risk-taking.•The underlying mechanism is alleviating agency costs and financing constraints.•The effect is more significant in firms with weaker corporate governance and higher external financing dependence.
•Improvements in the social credit environment of a company's location can significantly enhance the ESG performance levels of enterprises within that region.•The effect is more pronounced in ...non-state-owned enterprises.•The effect is more pronounced in companies located in regions with lower levels of marketization.
This article explores the influence of the social credit environment on corporate ESG performance in China. By analyzing the impact of China's initiative to build pilot cities for the social credit system, the study introduces a unique approach to assessing corporate sustainability. Findings indicate a positive relationship between an enhanced social credit environment and superior corporate ESG performance. This relationship is notably stronger among NSOEs and in limited marketization regions, highlighting the significant role of the social credit system in fostering corporate sustainability practices. The study's insights contribute to the discourse on the interplay between societal factors and corporate governance.
Building on research on organizational transparency and surveillance, mediated visibility and Foucauldian dispositional analytics, we develop the concept of transparency matrices for studying the ...interplay of mediating technologies and normative arrangements in the formation of transparency as a heterogeneous regime of visibility. Using the emerging and controversial social credit system in China as a critical case, we make two contributions. First, we enrich the conceptual vocabulary for the study of transparency as a dynamic multiplicity with varying power effects in different contexts, challenging in this way universalizing and otherwise reductive notions of transparency. Second, by emphasizing the operation of several coexisting matrices we provide a novel way of approaching the ‘post panoptic’ condition which can account not only for the power effects of different modalities of transparency, but also for the instabilities and potential openings that are generated by their interplay. Transparency is heterogeneous, irreducible to a single reality and open to future becoming.
In the contemporary era, technological advances have rapidly led to a reality where the risk of the emergence of the phenomenon of digital totalitarianism, such as that given by China's coercive ...biometric surveillance systems, can also emerge in the member states of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The digital information ecosystem has become a central element of the human psyche as a result of the development of the Internet of Things (IoT)1 , exerting a profound influence on human perception and the state of consciousness. This article aims to analyze the interaction of the biometric information ecosystem sphere with social credit while integrating nuanced psychological aspects into this emerging paradigm through the impact such a system can have. Through this approach, the psycho-social implications of coercive digital systems engaged in experiencing reality and the evolution of contemporary society are both brought into discussion.
Big data technologies have been adopted by both the public and private sectors to develop and expand surveillance capacities. This article traces the institutional processes and political‐economic ...interests of the public and private stakeholders involved in the construction of China's Social Credit System (SCS), which is currently on track for full deployment on 1.4 billion citizens by 2020. The SCS aims to centralize data platforms into a big data–enabled surveillance infrastructure to manage, monitor, and predict the trustworthiness of citizens, firms, organizations, and governments in China. A punishment/reward system based on credit scores will determine whether citizens and organizations are able to access things like education, markets, and tax deductions. While the SCS is widely described by the Western news media as a means of “big brother” or political control, we find that it is a complicated system that focuses primarily on financial and commercial activities rather than political ones. This article presents a framework for understanding state surveillance infrastructures by exploring how various government agencies are cooperating to establish this centralized data infrastructure with the aim of scoring credit, and discussing the distinct but interconnected processes of data collection, data aggregation, and data analytics.
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