A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Financing Efficiency and Entrepreneurial Vitality: Evidence from Chinese College Students
Claudio Porzio
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear author,
Please see comments on your paper submitted to SI of Sustainability below:
Introduction
The motive of your research needs to be better engaged with academic literature, and to be better aligned or inform the hypotheses derived in the following section. Also, explain why you choose to target in the Chinese college students? What are the main purpose of your research?
Literature review and hypotheses development
It lacks a strong and clear ground theory to develop your hypotheses in relation to the main effects. Though you propose the goal theory, I am not convinced it provides a plausible theoretical underpinnings to your three main hypotheses. The remaining hypotheses regarding the moderation effects were developed based on empirical evidence (which could be inconclusive), not supported by theory.
Methods and Data
Why do you only include the studies published between 2015 and 2022, and exclude those prior to 2015? You didn't explain how the key variables (IVs, DVs and moderators) were measure, which could significantly differ among different independent studies. You will also need to correct for measurement errors for each focal variable. How did you deal with the multiple correlations reported in independent studies? Did you corrected the within-study correlations? Which particular meta-analytical method did you follow when testing H1-H3? Regarding the meta-regression, what was the sample size? I would expect it to drop dramatically compared with that reported in main effects. In Table 4, the result in the first row was insignificant (z=1.61). H1 was not supported.
Research conclusions, suggestions and prospects
Your discussion of the findings were not engaged with the existing body of literature. The contribution to the theory and current literature was unclear as it was not covered in this section. What are the main limitations of your research?
Other issues:
Need to engage with more recent literature (2019 and onwards)
Your paper requires good proofreading.
Good luck with your paper.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your suggestions and comments. Now I would like to talk about my modifications
First of all, I adjusted the title of this article to make it more consistent with the title style of our journal and more concise to reflect the focus of my research
Secondly, I adjusted the abstract. I directly cut into the topic at the beginning of the abstract, and summarized the conclusion of the research in the second half of the abstract.
From the perspective of the historical background and current significance of the development of innovation and entrepreneurship, I made a major revision in the introduction to reflect the urgency of the research topic and the practical significance and value of the research. The practical significance lies in solving the financing problems in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in China and even in the world. Then solve the problem of low entrepreneurial rate and low success rate of college students in China and even the world, expounds the development status of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in China, the problems to be solved, as well as the focus of this paper, starting from the problem to study, and then put forward constructive opinions or suggestions according to the actual situation.
In terms of literature review, since the relationship I studied is the relationship between financing efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality, the first paragraph mainly discusses the literature theories related to financing from the perspective of financing, as well as the specific literature research situation, and divides financing efficiency into financing efficiency and financing availability and financing channel. In the second section, relevant literature research and theoretical results are discussed from the perspective of entrepreneurial vitality, which is divided into two aspects: college students' entrepreneurial willingness and entrepreneurial performance.
In terms of the establishment of research hypotheses, I mainly take a large number of references as the basis for the establishment of research hypotheses and important references for logical reasoning, and then establish research hypotheses.
Due to the insufficient analysis of the method and description of the original analysis, the application of this methodology and the advantages and disadvantages, this revision mainly discusses the original analysis from the perspective of the advantages and disadvantages of the past development and the applicability of specific operations.
In terms of data, I analyzed the endogeneity problem, and then replaced the data that were not suitable for the study of this paper and the data that did not pass the robustness test, conducted further meta-regression and meta-analysis, and obtained a new round of data.
Conclusion advice, when I was in advise fully combined with the conclusion of my research and the actual situation of the present innovation entrepreneurship development, in the future, I combined with the current international trend of the development of innovative undertaking and the social from all walks of life perception of entrepreneurial innovation, gives the related future also to the original analysis of the limitations of application in the field of innovative undertaking and advantages are analyzed.
Finally, in terms of references, I have made more adequate citations, and I have collected more high-quality journal literatures as important theoretical support and theoretical sources for my article research.
The revision mode of my article is the revision mode, and the details of the modification are clear at a glance. Thank you very much for your review.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
General comment
Based on a sample of 444,106 observations from 21 domestic studies, through a meta-analysis, the paper investigates the relationship between financing and entrepreneurship of college students from 2015 to 2022, by focusing on the moderating effects of five variables (i.e. entrepreneurial competence, entrepreneurial education level, age, entrepreneurial location environment, and entrepreneur social capital).
The results of the meta-analysis show that financing efficiency significantly improves the entrepreneurial vitality of college students; entrepreneurial competence, entrepreneurial education, and entrepreneurial location environment significantly and positively moderate the relationship between them, and financing effectiveness and financing availability have significantly positive effects on entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial performance.
The paper deals with an interesting and timely issue, potentially fitting with the aim and scope of the Journal, but the paper needs some significant revisions before publication. Please find below my major and minor comments.
Original contribution to the existing literature
My main concern refers to the original contribution to the existing literature, as the paper is quite similar to Hua et al. (2022). On page 2 (Section 1. Literature Review and research hypothesis), the authors state that “The contribution of this study is to synthesize the results of these studies, analyze and discuss the relationship between financing and college students' entrepreneurship from multiple perspectives, and make a secondary integrated analysis of the research results by using the meta-analysis method. Referring to the meta-analysis, there are other studies that employ this method in order to analyze the investigated topic, see please for example Hua et al. (2022).
Overall, I think that the authors should pay more attention to explaining their original contribution with respect to the existing literature
Introduction
The authors have to explain the motivation of the paper, that is, the reasons that led him to write the article and to describe better the contribution of the paper to the existing literature. This point is relevant in order to describe the contribution of the paper.
The final part of the introduction must contain the subdivision into sections of the paper.
Tables
In all Tables notes are missing, they need to be rewritten!
References
Jieyu Hua*, Kongdi Zheng and Supei Fan (2022), “The impact of entrepreneurial activities and college students’ entrepreneurial abilities in higher education—A meta-analytic path”
Author Response
Thank you very much for your suggestions and comments. Now I would like to talk about my modifications
First of all, I adjusted the title of this article to make it more consistent with the title style of our journal and more concise to reflect the focus of my research
Secondly, I adjusted the abstract. I directly cut into the topic at the beginning of the abstract, and summarized the conclusion of the research in the second half of the abstract.
From the perspective of the historical background and current significance of the development of innovation and entrepreneurship, I made a major revision in the introduction to reflect the urgency of the research topic and the practical significance and value of the research. The practical significance lies in solving the financing problems in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in China and even in the world. Then solve the problem of low entrepreneurial rate and low success rate of college students in China and even the world, expounds the development status of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in China, the problems to be solved, as well as the focus of this paper, starting from the problem to study, and then put forward constructive opinions or suggestions according to the actual situation.
In terms of literature review, since the relationship I studied is the relationship between financing efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality, the first paragraph mainly discusses the literature theories related to financing from the perspective of financing, as well as the specific literature research situation, and divides financing efficiency into financing efficiency and financing availability and financing channel. In the second section, relevant literature research and theoretical results are discussed from the perspective of entrepreneurial vitality, which is divided into two aspects: college students' entrepreneurial willingness and entrepreneurial performance.
In terms of the establishment of research hypotheses, I mainly take a large number of references as the basis for the establishment of research hypotheses and important references for logical reasoning, and then establish research hypotheses.
Due to the insufficient analysis of the method and description of the original analysis, the application of this methodology and the advantages and disadvantages, this revision mainly discusses the original analysis from the perspective of the advantages and disadvantages of the past development and the applicability of specific operations.
In terms of data, I analyzed the endogeneity problem, and then replaced the data that were not suitable for the study of this paper and the data that did not pass the robustness test, conducted further meta-regression and meta-analysis, and obtained a new round of data.
Conclusion advice, when I was in advise fully combined with the conclusion of my research and the actual situation of the present innovation entrepreneurship development, in the future, I combined with the current international trend of the development of innovative undertaking and the social from all walks of life perception of entrepreneurial innovation, gives the related future also to the original analysis of the limitations of application in the field of innovative undertaking and advantages are analyzed.
Finally, in terms of references, I have made more adequate citations, and I have collected more high-quality journal literatures as important theoretical support and theoretical sources for my article research.
The revision mode of my article is the revision mode, and the details of the modification are clear at a glance. Thank you very much for your review.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper focuses on an actual and timely topic of financing efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality.
The title is appropriate, not only indicating the topic but the main method used and the approach as well.
The abstract is correct written, although it could be longer. Keywords are appropriate.
The introduction is well written, setting the topic in context and defining the research aims.
The literature review analyzes the results of the relevant literature in the field, but the author should precisely refer to the citations and each sentence / paragraph should be provided with a footnote (in the literature review but also in the chapter meta-analysis method).
The methodological chapter describes the procedure, the data collection and sample profile and the variables as well.
The results are supported by the methodological toolset and the datasets.
The conclusions are based on the results. Limitations are also highlighted.
The article should not use the personal form (we).
References should be prepared in accordance with the Publisher's requirements.
The source should be placed under each graph and table.
On pages 14-15, delete the line numbers from the table.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your suggestions and comments. Now I would like to talk about my modifications
First of all, I adjusted the title of this article to make it more consistent with the title style of our journal and more concise to reflect the focus of my research
Secondly, I adjusted the abstract. I directly cut into the topic at the beginning of the abstract, and summarized the conclusion of the research in the second half of the abstract.
From the perspective of the historical background and current significance of the development of innovation and entrepreneurship, I made a major revision in the introduction to reflect the urgency of the research topic and the practical significance and value of the research. The practical significance lies in solving the financing problems in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in China and even in the world. Then solve the problem of low entrepreneurial rate and low success rate of college students in China and even the world, expounds the development status of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in China, the problems to be solved, as well as the focus of this paper, starting from the problem to study, and then put forward constructive opinions or suggestions according to the actual situation.
In terms of literature review, since the relationship I studied is the relationship between financing efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality, the first paragraph mainly discusses the literature theories related to financing from the perspective of financing, as well as the specific literature research situation, and divides financing efficiency into financing efficiency and financing availability and financing channel. In the second section, relevant literature research and theoretical results are discussed from the perspective of entrepreneurial vitality, which is divided into two aspects: college students' entrepreneurial willingness and entrepreneurial performance.
In terms of the establishment of research hypotheses, I mainly take a large number of references as the basis for the establishment of research hypotheses and important references for logical reasoning, and then establish research hypotheses.
Due to the insufficient analysis of the method and description of the original analysis, the application of this methodology and the advantages and disadvantages, this revision mainly discusses the original analysis from the perspective of the advantages and disadvantages of the past development and the applicability of specific operations.
In terms of data, I analyzed the endogeneity problem, and then replaced the data that were not suitable for the study of this paper and the data that did not pass the robustness test, conducted further meta-regression and meta-analysis, and obtained a new round of data.
Conclusion advice, when I was in advise fully combined with the conclusion of my research and the actual situation of the present innovation entrepreneurship development, in the future, I combined with the current international trend of the development of innovative undertaking and the social from all walks of life perception of entrepreneurial innovation, gives the related future also to the original analysis of the limitations of application in the field of innovative undertaking and advantages are analyzed.
Finally, in terms of references, I have made more adequate citations, and I have collected more high-quality journal literatures as important theoretical support and theoretical sources for my article research.
The revision mode of my article is the revision mode, and the details of the modification are clear at a glance. Thank you very much for your review.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 4 Report
A review of extant literature on financing efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality reveals its significance in the provision of entrepreneurial practice. The manuscript makes an average contribution to the field and needs to be upgraded. The paper needs to define better the research gap and address the same by contributing to the body of knowledge through original empirical research. The techniques are interesting, and it's always good to see new and different methodological approaches.
Considering the nascent field off inancing efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality of Chinese college students, the range of extant literature covered is apt and wide. I would welcome just a few more contemporary works from top tier journals, such as:
Board Gender Diversity And Cash Holdings: Empirical Evidence From The European Sport And Leisure Sector,
Cash Holdings, Corporate Performance And Viability Of Greek Sme: Implications For Stakeholder Relationship Management
Earnings Persistence Of European Football Clubs Under Uefa’s Ffp.”, International Journal Of Financial Studies,
METHODOLOGY:
The methodology is of great interest and practical value is to apply this methodology to fields with emerging and well-established fields of academics. As a researcher who has also contributed to the literature in systematic literature review, I can affirm that there are many instances including, where the researcher cannot find an adequate or appropriate literature review measure an important construct. Under these circumstances, it is critically important to make a meta analysis.
It would add to the depth of Methodological overview if the authors also clearly articulate the following:
(a) advantages/benefits of their chosen statistical analysis methodology, and a clear reason for their particular application;
(b) Further mention the different criteria used
(c) Some better distinction between methodology and results is not necessary, but would be welcome.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your suggestions and comments. Now I would like to talk about my modifications
First of all, I adjusted the title of this article to make it more consistent with the title style of our journal and more concise to reflect the focus of my research
Secondly, I adjusted the abstract. I directly cut into the topic at the beginning of the abstract, and summarized the conclusion of the research in the second half of the abstract.
From the perspective of the historical background and current significance of the development of innovation and entrepreneurship, I made a major revision in the introduction to reflect the urgency of the research topic and the practical significance and value of the research. The practical significance lies in solving the financing problems in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in China and even in the world. Then solve the problem of low entrepreneurial rate and low success rate of college students in China and even the world, expounds the development status of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in China, the problems to be solved, as well as the focus of this paper, starting from the problem to study, and then put forward constructive opinions or suggestions according to the actual situation.
In terms of literature review, since the relationship I studied is the relationship between financing efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality, the first paragraph mainly discusses the literature theories related to financing from the perspective of financing, as well as the specific literature research situation, and divides financing efficiency into financing efficiency and financing availability and financing channel. In the second section, relevant literature research and theoretical results are discussed from the perspective of entrepreneurial vitality, which is divided into two aspects: college students' entrepreneurial willingness and entrepreneurial performance.
In terms of the establishment of research hypotheses, I mainly take a large number of references as the basis for the establishment of research hypotheses and important references for logical reasoning, and then establish research hypotheses.
Due to the insufficient analysis of the method and description of the original analysis, the application of this methodology and the advantages and disadvantages, this revision mainly discusses the original analysis from the perspective of the advantages and disadvantages of the past development and the applicability of specific operations.
In terms of data, I analyzed the endogeneity problem, and then replaced the data that were not suitable for the study of this paper and the data that did not pass the robustness test, conducted further meta-regression and meta-analysis, and obtained a new round of data.
Conclusion advice, when I was in advise fully combined with the conclusion of my research and the actual situation of the present innovation entrepreneurship development, in the future, I combined with the current international trend of the development of innovative undertaking and the social from all walks of life perception of entrepreneurial innovation, gives the related future also to the original analysis of the limitations of application in the field of innovative undertaking and advantages are analyzed.
Finally, in terms of references, I have made more adequate citations, and I have collected more high-quality journal literatures as important theoretical support and theoretical sources for my article research.
The revision mode of my article is the revision mode, and the details of the modification are clear at a glance. Thank you very much for your review.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 5 Report
Dear Authors,
Thank you for the opportunity to read your manuscript, which is focused on a topic, that is, in my opinion interest, very interesting and current.
Introduction
The authors have worded the title of this article quite appropriately and promisingly.
However, this section lacks the basic information that the authors should provide the reader in a scholarly article. The authors should mainly answer the following questions in the introduction:
a. For whom is this article important? Present the research question or questions.
b. Why is it interesting and important in theory and practice?
c. What important unresolved problem, controversy, or paradox does this study raise and why should it be addressed?
d. What will we learn? How does the study fundamentally or even partially change, challenge, or expand scholars' knowledge?
The study should go some way to improving and contributing to scholarly contributions in the field.
Methodology
The methodology section is very weak. I do not consider it sufficient.
Literature review and Discussion section are completely missing in this paper.
Before writing the paper, please study the recommendations for writing scientific articles in detail. Mainly what the "discussion" section should contain and what is its sense. In the current article version, hasn't discussion section, and the study results are absent. In the discussion, you should discuss the results of your study with the results of other already published studies. List the weaknesses of your study, its possible further direction, etc.
On methodology section, it would be better to cite many more up to date publications in the field of your study. A huge number of papers exist aimed at the entrepreneurship and its impact on enterprises, unemployment etc. Thus, it is possible to compare the results of the current study with already published studies. The current version of the paper does not have a good and strong support from the literature.
References are very weak. In addition, the references are not correctly formatted.
The problem of missing Literature review and Discussion is also visible in the References. This is a very weak aspect of the paper.
I am sorry, but the article is, in my opinion, not suitable for publication in its current form.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Thank you very much for your suggestions and comments. Now I would like to talk about my modifications
First of all, I adjusted the title of this article to make it more consistent with the title style of our journal and more concise to reflect the focus of my research
Secondly, I adjusted the abstract. I directly cut into the topic at the beginning of the abstract, and summarized the conclusion of the research in the second half of the abstract.
From the perspective of the historical background and current significance of the development of innovation and entrepreneurship, I made a major revision in the introduction to reflect the urgency of the research topic and the practical significance and value of the research. The practical significance lies in solving the financing problems in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in China and even in the world. Then solve the problem of low entrepreneurial rate and low success rate of college students in China and even the world, expounds the development status of innovation and entrepreneurship of college students in China, the problems to be solved, as well as the focus of this paper, starting from the problem to study, and then put forward constructive opinions or suggestions according to the actual situation.
In terms of literature review, since the relationship I studied is the relationship between financing efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality, the first paragraph mainly discusses the literature theories related to financing from the perspective of financing, as well as the specific literature research situation, and divides financing efficiency into financing efficiency and financing availability and financing channel. In the second section, relevant literature research and theoretical results are discussed from the perspective of entrepreneurial vitality, which is divided into two aspects: college students' entrepreneurial willingness and entrepreneurial performance.
In terms of the establishment of research hypotheses, I mainly take a large number of references as the basis for the establishment of research hypotheses and important references for logical reasoning, and then establish research hypotheses.
Due to the insufficient analysis of the method and description of the original analysis, the application of this methodology and the advantages and disadvantages, this revision mainly discusses the original analysis from the perspective of the advantages and disadvantages of the past development and the applicability of specific operations.
In terms of data, I analyzed the endogeneity problem, and then replaced the data that were not suitable for the study of this paper and the data that did not pass the robustness test, conducted further meta-regression and meta-analysis, and obtained a new round of data.
Conclusion advice, when I was in advise fully combined with the conclusion of my research and the actual situation of the present innovation entrepreneurship development, in the future, I combined with the current international trend of the development of innovative undertaking and the social from all walks of life perception of entrepreneurial innovation, gives the related future also to the original analysis of the limitations of application in the field of innovative undertaking and advantages are analyzed.
Finally, in terms of references, I have made more adequate citations, and I have collected more high-quality journal literatures as important theoretical support and theoretical sources for my article research.
The revision mode of my article is the revision mode, and the details of the modification are clear at a glance. Thank you very much for your review.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Authors should better explain their original contribution compared to Hua et al. (2022) and put this paper in their references.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your comments and the article you recommended to me. I have benefited a lot.
There is a certain consistency in the main structure, analysis method and theme between my paper and Hua Jieyu's paper recommended by you , both of which discuss issues related to college students' entrepreneurship. Since I am a master student majoring in finance, my thesis focuses on the influence of financing on college students' entrepreneurship. The impact of the richness of financing channels and the effectiveness of financing channels on entrepreneurial willingness and entrepreneurial performance are the core issues I analyze. Hua's article focuses on the impact of entrepreneurial activities held by universities on college students' entrepreneurial ability. He divides the activities related to entrepreneurship into three aspects: courses related to entrepreneurship, scientific and technological innovation bases, and academic exchanges related to entrepreneurship, and then discusses the specific impact of entrepreneurial activities on college students' entrepreneurial ability. His paper did not take capital or financing as the core variable affecting college students' entrepreneurship, so this is the difference in our research perspective.
Compared with Hua's article, my article has a clearer expression on the combination and unification of effect size, because among the selected literatures, some literatures use correlation coefficient R to describe the relationship between variables, some literatures choose beta as the variable to describe the relationship between variables, and some literatures use T value to describe the relationship between variables. Therefore, in order to conduct a better comprehensive analysis, in the process of comprehensive processing the data of the selected literature, I described in detail how I combined various effect sizes describing the correlation to obtain the effect size Z. Hua's article did not explain in detail how he obtained the comprehensive effect value Z in this module. Therefore, my paper has a certain degree of novelty in this respect.
In terms of analysis methods, I use R language statistical analysis tool, while Hua uses CMA software. There is no good or bad difference between the two analysis tools. However, most meta-analysts use CMA as their tool, and I use R language innovatively, thus broadening the path and channel of meta-analysis. It provides an important tool reference for subsequent scholars to carry out meta-analysis. In the process of testing publication bias, both my articles and Hua's adopted funnel plots to describe bias. But on the basis of using funnel plots, I analyzed the Egger and Begger values of the selected literature to further test the publication bias of the selected literature.
In short, Hua's paper and mine both use the meta-analysis method to study the entrepreneurship of college students, while my paper focuses on the study of financing, and he focuses on the study of entrepreneurial activities. In terms of originality, I used R language as the analysis tool, while Hua used CMA as the analysis tool. Moreover, my paper has more fully explained the process of merging effect sizes. On the test of publication bias, I used Egger and Begger test to detect publication bias on the basis of funnel plot.
Finally, I refer to some of Hua's views on the limitations of the paper, and add this article to my reference. Thank you so much.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 5 Report
Dear Author(s),
The submission “A meta-analysis of the relationship between financing efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality Chinese college students” which is revised version of Manuscript ID: 1847470, was properly improved. The revised manuscript was adjusted in accordance with the observations and suggestions conceived during the previous review round. There were also adequate justifications prepared. The manuscript consequently became much better.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your comments on my paper. I have benefited a lot.
According to your comments, I made a new round of thinking on the reference section, supplemented and adjusted some detailed contents of the article, especially the outlook module at the end of the article. Then, according to the specific situation of my paper, I found some more matching references and added them to my reference section to make the views of the article more convincing. Thank you very much for your comments and your recognition.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
