Game Analysis on Energy Enterprises’ Digital Transformation—Strategic Simulation for Guiding Role, Leading Role and Following Role

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript presents a very well-founded argument in terms of the rationale behind the three proposed objectives, based on a well-structured literature review. Regarding the game model building, on which the manuscript's foundations are based, the construct evolutionary game models for multiple energy companies and the government model is well explained, giving sequence to 8 hypotheses based on the actors that explain the Game model building applied to the research, applied the relation between the Government, digital transformation and 2 Energy Enterprises.

Regarding the Model parameters and meanings, the authors explained and presented in a clear way the Meaning of Expression, for each of the Gaming Parameters Subjects, namely for Energy Enterprise 1; Energy Enterprise 2; Government.

The data and analysis carried out on Evolutionary game analysis, is very well calculated and easy to understand for each of the indicators analysed, as well as the analysis and discussion on Numerical simulation analysis.

Of particular interest is the sub-chapter on the Effect of changes in key parameters on system evolution, in which it is explained that the influence factors need to be combined with the scenario model to further explore the impact of changes in key parameters on the evolutionary direction of the digital transformation system of energy enterprises.

The manuscript present some very well directed conclusions, considering the deep analysis of data and information carried out, being very concrete in relation to the objectives proposed in the present investigation, presenting point by point their foundations and conclusions. They were careful to present in a concrete way some insights and recommendations that resulted from their results.

In line 6 "literaure review" .... transfor -mation of traditional industries..."

Very Good manuscript!

Author Response

Thank you for your encouraging comments. It is clear from your comments that you have read our manuscript very carefully and have provided specific and pertinent summaries and comments on each chapter. Your compliments are a great encouragement to our work.

We would like to thank the referee again for taking the time to review our manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper considers the digital transformation of energy enterprises with government participation and explores the influencing factors of digital transformation of energy enterprises and the mechanism and effect of policy incentives on the digital transformation of energy enterprises based on inter-firm competition and government participation. The contributions are using evolutionary game theory to explore the influencing factors of the digital transformation process of energy enterprises from a microscopic perspective, combining with simulations for verification, and enriching the relevant theories in the field of energy digitalization. In fact, the contribution is good for the industry sector. However, moderate English changes are required. There are many incorrect grammars in this article. The figures are too small to read the effects of the parameters. Based on these comments, I believe the paper can be published with a major revision.

There are many grammar problems in the article.

Author Response

1. Moderate English changes are required. There are many incorrect grammars in this article.

Authors’ Answer:

Thanks very much for your suggestion, which are very helpful for us to improve the manuscript, and our language should be improved. After carefully check, we found many grammar and sentence errors, and have modified the manuscript accordingly. Furthermore, we have invited several English teachers help correct grammar and sentences, and we hope the revised paper will be more clear and accurate on expressions. Specific revisions are made in section 3.1, lines 188, 190-196; section 4.1, lines 259-269; and section 4.2, lines 295-305.The revised part is displayed in red font.

2. The figures are too small to read the effects of the parameters.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you very much for your valuable comments. We have resized the images so that the reader can clearly see all the parameters, sized as in Fig 6(a) in lines 550-557 and Figure 7(a) in lines 559-564 in Section 5.2. In addition, we have set all the images in the manuscript to vector format to facilitate the work of the editor.

Reviewer 3 Report

Referee report on "Game analysis on energy enterprises’ digital transformation – Strategic simulation for guiding role, leading role and following role"

 

This paper’s major contribution is to construct a tripartite evolutionary game model among the government and energy enterprises, analyzes the evolutionary stable strategies of the game system, and simulates different initial intentions and key parameters of all roles. The paper is well motivated and writen. The logic is clear and easy to follow. I like the topic quite a bit, and found that the paper is timely and can be relevant also for public policy. My comments are very minor.

 1. First of all, in the Literature Review you could address a recent contribution by Qi et al. (2023). This article is relevant in your context as it deals with the digital transformation of Chinese economy.

2. Also, to better connect the paper to the general economic context, to the end second paragraph in the Literature Review, where you speak about the general economic effect of digital transformation, I would suggest adding the following (page 3):

“In the general economic context, digital transformation can further increase the demand for human capital, which is a key factor for modern economic growth (Galor and Moav, 2004; Galor, 2005; Azarnert, 2016; 2020).

3. Finally, the first paragraph in Section 5.3. is in Bold. Please return it to the normal style.

 References

Galor, O., Moav, O. (2004) From physical to human capital accumulation: Inequality and the process of development. Review of Economic Studies 71, 1001–1026.

Galor, O. (2005) From stagnation to growth: Unified growth theory. In Aghion, P., Durlauf, S.N. (eds.) Handbook of Economic Growth Vol. I Part A, 171–293.

Azarnert, L.V. (2016) Transportation costs and the Great Divergence. Macroeconomic Dynamics 20, 214–228

Azarnert, L.V. (2020) Health capital provision and human capital accumulation. Oxford Economic Papers 72, 633–650

Qi, P.; Sun, D.; Xu, C.; Li, Q.; Wang, Q. Can Data Elements Promote the High-Quality Development of China’s Economy? Sustainability 2023, 15,

Moderate editing

Author Response

1. In the Literature Review you could address a recent contribution by Qi et al. (2023). This article is relevant in your context as it deals with the digital transformation of Chinese economy.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you for your suggestion, it’s very pleased for us to discuss the recent contribution of Qi et al. (2023) in a literature review. This is an excellent article that is relevant to our study, so we discuss the contribution of Qi et al. (2023) to the digital transformation of the Chinese economy in Chapters 2, in lines 83-87. The addition is displayed in red font.

The details are as follows:

“With the construction of a new generation of digital infrastructure and the development of digital technology, data has become a key factor of production in the digital economy, being collected, stored and used for production on a large scale, contributing increasingly to economic growth and the improvement of people's quality of life [6].”

2. Also, to better connect the paper to the general economic context, to the end second paragraph in the Literature Review, where you speak about the general economic effect of digital transformation, I would suggest adding the following (page 3): “In the general economic context, digital transformation can further increase the demand for human capital, which is a key factor for modern economic growth (Galor and Moav, 2004; Galor, 2005; Azarnert, 2016; 2020).”

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you very much for your suggestion, the paragraph on the link between digital transformation, human capital and modern economic growth is perfect and convincing, it will help us to improve the manuscript and we are happy to take your suggestion and add the above to the end of the second paragraph of the literature review and mark it in red (specific revision in chapter 2, lines 116-118).

3. The first paragraph in Section 5.3. is in Bold. Please return it to the normal style..

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you very much for your reminder, on behalf of all the writers, I sincerely apologise for the errors caused by our carelessness. we have revised the first paragraph in section 5.3 of the manuscript to conform to the journal's standard format and have double-checked the rest of the content to prevent the same formatting issues. Once again, we sincerely thank you for your advice, which has helped us improve the quality of our paper a lot.

Reviewer 4 Report

Please find the attached  file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Abstract:

1. Abstract is well-structured and attracts the readers. However, some structural changes can make it more attractive. The author should start the abstract with the objective of the study. All the objectives of the current study should be given. Then the importance or background or value of the study should be given. The methodology should be given in detail. After methodology, the results should be discussed and, in the end, 2-3 implications can enhance the attractiveness of the research.

Authors’ Answer:

Thanks very much for your comments, which are very helpful for us to improve the manuscript. We have made some structural changes to the content of the abstract section of the paper to meet the purpose of a more appropriate highlight. The revised part is displayed in red font (In lines 7-9 and 25-27) and The specific restructuring is as follows:

Firstly, we added the research objectives of the article at the beginning of the abstract section as follows: " The aim of this study is to explore the dynamics and impediments in exploring the digital transformation process of energy enterprises, considering industry competition and government involvement. "

Then we state the background of the study; after that, we describe the methodology in detail and summarise the findings. Finally, we add the implications of the study to enhance the attractiveness of the study as follows: " Accordingly, this study can provide reference support for energy enterprises to develop digital transformation strategies and for governments to formulate reasonable and effective policies."

Introduction:

1. Use double quotes (“”) with quotations only. You can use ‘’ as an alternative.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you, we are happy to take your suggestions on board. We have used (‘’) as an alternative to (“”) and the detailed changes are in lines 44-45 of the Introduction section and lines 99-100 of the Literature Review section.

2. In the introduction section, the author should give details about the gap(s) in the literature that this study will fill, the objectives of the study, and then provide a breakdown of the current manuscript. Currently, the abstract is not structured in this format.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you very much for your suggestion. We review the literature on digital transformation of energy companies in the third paragraph of the introductory chapter, and accordingly summarise the literature gaps and contributions that this study may fill. Detailed modifications are presented in lines 58-72 and 73-81, displayed in red font.

3. There is no detail of the importance of the study or the answer to “why to conduct this study?”.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you very much. We set out the reasons for the digital transformation of energy companies in the second paragraph of the introductory chapter and conclude with the need and value of this study. The modified section is in the Introductory chapter, lines 54-57, displayed in red font.

4. Novelty needs to be strengthened by using the latest studies.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you for your suggestion.We have replaced older literature, and literature [5]-[12] are all new documents.

5. Re-write the section to incorporate above mentioned comments.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you very much for your suggestion, we have rewritten the introduction in line with the above suggestions and the changes are displayed in red font..

Literature review:

1. Write a line between two consecutive headings.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you very much for your suggestion, please forgive us for not fully understanding the meaning of " write a line between two consecutive headings " and could you tell us in detail what we should do.

2. I suggest the authors analyse more papers that are recently published.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you for your suggestion. In order to increase the novelty of the article, we have replaced some older literature with more recent ones, e.g. literature [18], [21], [24-29], [32], [39-40] and [45-47].

3. Add model logic and models in methodology section.

Authors’ Answer:

Thanks to your suggestion, we have added a paragraph on model logic to the model construction section so that the reader can more easily understand the methodology of this study. The details are as follower:

“Digital transformation of energy enterprises is a complex system project, in the initial stage, the individual marginal benefits of digital transformation of energy enterprises will be smaller than the social marginal benefits, without government incentives, energy enterprises will be reluctant to carry out digital transformation of. At this point, if the government implements incentive policies to promote the digital transformation of energy enterprises, some enterprises will be the first to start their digital transformation strategies, and other enterprises will choose to compete or cooperate strategies by referring to the digital transformation effects of other enterprises.”

And all the addition and revision aer displayed in red font.

Conclusion:

1. This section should be named as findings and discussion or discussion.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you for your suggestion, we have named the "Conclusions" chapter " Findings and Discussion".

2-3. You started as per norms but soon after that you are detracted. After the importance of the study, provide detail of hypotheses or objectives one by one.After adding the detail of the study findings/ hypotheses or objectives, add literature supporting each of your findings.

Authors’ Answer for comments 2 and 3:

Thank you for your suggestions, we have revised the logic and content of the 'Findings' section. The changes are displayed in red font in section 6.1, lines 769-777 of the text. The details are as follows:

“This study also considers the impact of industry competition and government participation on the digital transformation of energy enterprises, establishes a three-party evolutionary game model of "energy enterprise 1 - energy enterprise 2 - government", analyses the evolutionary strategies of each party and the stability of the combined evolutionary strategies, and combines numerical simulations to analyse the impact of the initial willingness of the participants and key variables on the strategy evolution and stability results. The impact of changes in the initial willingness of the participants and key variables on the evolution and stability of the strategy is also analysed with numerical simulations.”

At the same time, we add some literatures to support the study findings, such as the literature [51-53].

4. Discuss implications in detail. Currently, this section is underdeveloped. Theoretical and practical implications should be provided in detail.

Authors’ Answer:

Thank you for your suggestions, we have added section 6.2, which contains three sections on theoretical implications, practical implications and future research directions. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed in detail in chapter 6.2, lines 832-870. In addition, the limitations of this study are identified in section 6.3, where future research can be carried out both from other stakeholders (e.g. public organisations, innovation agencies, etc.) and from real-life cases.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

According to my comments, the authors have revised the paper. So, it can be published in the journal of Sustainability.