A significant scholarly accomplishment has been achieved by Liaoning University (LNU), where Professor Yu Miaojie and Professor Tariq H. Malik have successfully published their collaborative research paper entitled “Nipping Alcohol or Sipping Coffee: Two Tales of Beverages and Their Industrial Growth in the National Cultural Setting” in the highly regarded journal Review of International Economics (RIE).
Paper Introduction:
Amidst ongoing transformations in global consumption patterns, coffee is increasingly establishing itself as a stimulant beverage associated with productivity enhancement, whereas alcohol consumption is exhibiting a downward trend, influenced by growing public health awareness and evolving cultural norms. This research empirically examines the hypothesis that coffee consumption substitutes for alcohol consumption and investigates the moderating role of national culture in this relationship, employing a competitive logic between beverages to analyze substitution effects while treating cultural values as contextual variables for moderation mechanisms. Based on a robust multinational dataset encompassing 112 countries with alcohol consumption as the dependent variable and coffee consumption as the predictor, the research conducts multi-level analyses focusing on four cultural dimensions: power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. The findings reveal that cultural moderators significantly alter the relationship between coffee and alcohol consumption, as evidenced by statistically significant interaction terms across diverse models, nested hierarchies, and reverse causality controls. Despite variations in coefficient sizes and directions, the moderating effects remain robust, demonstrating that the global decline in alcohol consumption is not merely a universal substitution phenomenon but is shaped by culturally embedded norms. These results position national culture as a key institutional layer influencing industrial trajectories and consumer substitution dynamics, thereby offering novel insights for international economics, public health policies, and cross‐cultural market strategies.
Journal Introduction:
Review of International Economics is an international economics journal published bimonthly by Wiley-Blackwell. The journal specializes in the fields of international trade and finance, while also covering a wide range of themes including economic development, trade and environment, and political economy. It features innovative and thought-provoking research in international economics, with a strong emphasis on bridging theoretical frameworks and real-world economic issues. The journal welcomes contributions across three major research paradigms: theoretical modeling, empirical analysis, and policy-oriented studies. A distinctive feature of Review of International Economics is its focus on the explanatory power of academic research in addressing practical economic challenges. According to 2025 data, the journal maintains an international co-authorship rate of 38.75%, reflecting its global scholarly collaboration and extensive coverage of major economies worldwide.
Author Profiles:
Professor Yu Miaojie, Deputy Party Secretary and President of Liaoning University, is a renowned economist with numerous accolades, including Fellowship in the International Economic Association, a winner of the National Talent Program, and a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. He also holds prestigious roles such as being a delegate to the 14th National People’s Congress, a special supervisor for the National Commission of Supervision, and an Associate Editor for the top-tier journal Economic Journal. As a highly cited scholar in the top 1% globally for economics and business, Professor Yu is notably the first Chinese academic to be awarded the Royal Economic Society Prize.
Professor Tariq H. Malik, who earned his Ph.D. in Management from the University of London, serves as the Director of the International Center for Organization and Innovation Studies (ICOIS) at Business School of LNU. His research focuses on innovation and technology policy within organizational studies, with publications in leading journals like Research Policy and International Business Review. He has held visiting scholar positions at the University of London and King’s College London and contributes as a peer reviewer for several high-impact journals, including Academy of Management Journal and R&D Management.
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