Shareholdings of Board Members and Corporate Performance: A Panel Quantile Regression Analysis

This paper investigates the impact of board member shareholdings on corporate performance in China and Taiwan, and employs unbalanced panel data over the period 2005–2009. In view of the inconsistent empirical findings in the literature and the limitations of least squares regressions, this study adopts a quantile regression method including fixed effects (FE) models. An important finding is that a significant, positive relationship exists between the shareholdings of board members and accounting measures of performance, and this relationship only exists for the more profitable firms in China, while a uniformly significant and positive relationship exists across all quantiles between the shareholdings of board members and accounting measures of performance in Taiwan. These findings, which cannot be obtained using a FE model, suggest that board members can influence firm performance through holding shares in most Taiwan firms and profitable Chinese firms.     

文化多样性与企业绿色创新

中国具有5000 多年的历史沉淀，文化是影响企业行为的重要非正式制度因素之一。基于此，聚焦中国情境，从文化多样性视角，选取2007-2018 年沪深两市A 股上市公司，利用城市方言分化指数度量地域文化多样性，探究非正式制度对企业绿色创新的影响。通过检验发现，文化多样性通过抑制企业高管的短视行为、激发本地人力资本创造力促进绿色创新。在非重点监控的污染企业、短期机构投资者持股比例更高的企业以及民营企业中文化多样性对绿色创新的促进作用表现的更加明显。同时，进一步考察了可能的内生性问题及可能的遗漏变量等问题后，研究发现依然稳健。研究有助于探究文化多样性的本质在企业治理场景中的映射，为从非正式制度角度理解企业绿色发展差异性提供了实证证据。     

Ownership structure and firm performance: Evidence from the Chinese corporate reform

We employ a new classification of ownership identity to analyze the impact of ownership structure on enterprise performance in China. Using both fixed effects model and Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM), this study finds that marketized state-owned enterprises outperform firms controlled by the government, indicating that partial privatization of state-owned Chinese firms improves corporate governance. Non-controlling large shareholders of marketized state-owned enterprises and private enterprises are found to play active roles in corporate governance. Lastly, there is evidence that ownership concentration of a controlling shareholder decreases the incentives to expropriate minority shareholders.     

Does the high- and new-technology enterprise program promote innovative performance? Evidence from Chinese firms

This study evaluates the unique high- and new-technology enterprise (HNTE) program implemented in China. The program grants a reduced corporate income tax rate to certificated HNTEs. Based on a sample of Chinese listed firms during 2006–2016, we investigate the impact of HNTE certification on firms' R&D intensity and productivity using a combination of the propensity score matching approach and difference-in-differences estimator. The results confirm the overall effectiveness of the program in promoting innovative performance among Chinese listed firms in terms of both R&D intensity and productivity. Such effects are persistent over the valid certification period. However, the overall effects mask substantial heterogeneity across different types of certification users. Positive effects are mainly driven by repeatedly certificated firms, while no significant effects are found for firms acquiring their HNTE certificate for the first time. By distinguishing one-time and highly qualified certifications, we reveal the potential existence of fraudulent HNTEs. These results imply that the effectiveness of government programs in supporting innovation could be improved through a more thorough policy design and implementation.     

Local government consumption and firm performance: Evidence from the "TPCs" in China

Government consumption is an important factor affecting corporate performance. By exploiting a unique data set that reveals the Three Public Consumptions (TPCs) of China’s prefecture-level city governments, this paper investigates the impact of actual local government consumption on corporate performance and identifies the potential impact mechanism. We show that increases in local government consumption did lead to declines in firm productivity. TPC expenditures on official cars and official receptions had the most obvious impact on corporate performance. After considering endogenous measurement errors and substitution variables, the conclusion remained stable. Moreover, we show that the increase of local government TPC expenditures caused an increase in corporate tax burden, a decline in government efficiency, and excessive administrative intervention, which in turn caused a decline in firm performance. Our findings are particularly pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, in firms with tight financing constraints, and in regions with weak marketization and low budget transparency. This study expands the theory that government behavior affects corporate performance, and also provides policy implications regarding restraints on government consumption.     

From State to State: Quasi-privatization and Firm Performance

This paper uses a sample of Chinese listed companies whose controlling shareholders have changed from government agencies to state-owned enterprises＇ （SOEs）, to examine whether reducing government intervention while maintaining government＇s ultimate control could improve firm performance. The results show that the overall performance of these firms improves after the transfer of their controlling shareholders, due to improvements in both operating and non-operating performance. When we separate all samples into solely SOEs and other SOEs based on the controlling shareholder, we find that operating performance improved significantly in the solely SOE group, whereas non-operating performance improved significantly in the SOE group. In addition, we identify sources of performance improvement from two perspectives： corporate governance and related party transactions. The results imply that the Chinese Government should continue to decentralize control and, at the same time, continue to monitor firm operating efficiency.     

A review of corporate governance in China

The paper reviews the literature on internal and external corporate governance mechanisms in China. Chinese regulatory bodies have made considerable efforts to improve the corporate governance of listed firms. However, research has shown that most of the governance instruments that are effective in developed nations are less effective in China. We attribute the ineffectiveness to the large stake of the state in listed firms, strong political connections between listed firms and the government, and the lack of a truly independent judicial system. Some suggestions for making corporate governance more effective in China are provided.     

For goodwill or resources? The rationale behind firms' corporate philanthropy in an environment with high economic policy uncertainty

This paper investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the corporate philanthropy (CP) behaviors of firms using a dataset from Chinese A-share listed firms. We find that, on average, firms decrease their CP significantly when economic policy uncertainty increases, but the response is heterogeneous for firms with different ownership types. Compared with their counterparts, private firms are willing to contribute more donations in an environment with high economic policy uncertainty. Further analysis shows that private firms take on more other types of corporate social responsibility at the same time, and private firms' additional CP in a high EPU environment is rewarded with more subsidies, indicating that altruistic and political motives may play important roles in driving the CP behaviors of private firms. There is no evidence that private firms selling products directly to consumers are more likely to engage in additional CP. Our findings indicate that the main motivation behind Chinese private firms' additional CP under high economic policy uncertainty is seeking more government resources, instead of keeping consumers loyal by maintaining good reputations during hard periods.     

上市促进了企业创新吗?——来自创业板制造业企业的经验证据

本研究利用手工收集的2009-2013年在创业板市场申请上市的制造业企业样本以及企业创新专利变量,经过对成功上市企业与终止上市企业的样本匹配,运用双重差分模型考察了上市是否促进我国创业板制造业企业创新,研究结果表明,上市显著促进了企业专利创新。进一步地,我们探讨了上市促进企业创新的机制,结果发现,上市通过改善融资约束显著促进了企业创新,而上市没能通过影响代理问题作用于企业创新。该结果意味着直接金融发展有助于推动企业创新;资本市场的风险分担及融资机制能够降低企业融资约束、进而促进企业创新。这不仅为直接金融促进企业创新提供了新的证据,也为我国进一步发展与完善资本市场,进而促进经济转型、创新发展提供了新的政策启示。     

Globalizing activities and the rate of survival:: Panel data analysis on Japanese firms

This paper conducts a Cox-type survival analysis of Japanese corporate firms using census-coverage data collected by METI. A study of exiting firms confirmed several characteristics of Japanese firms in the 1990s. First, excessive internalization in the corporate structure and activities is harmful to corporate survival. Having too many establishments and affiliates weakens corporate performance. Efficient concentration on core competences increases the probability of survival. Second, global commitment helps Japanese firms be more competitive and more likely to survive. However, the channels of a firm's global commitment must be carefully selected. Small firms can benefit from exporting activities, though having foreign affiliates or conducting foreign outsourcing might aggravate their performance. Large firms, on the other hand, can conduct foreign direct investment and foreign outsourcing to possibly enhance the probability of their survival. Third, while corporate performance affects the choice of exits for affiliate firms, it does not affect the survival/exit of independent firms; suggesting the possible malfunctioning of the market mechanisms in the exits of independent firms. Fourth, we do not find any statistically significant evidence that firms with foreign shareholders are more likely to exit; there is little evidence of foot-loose behavior among foreign companies. J. Japanese Int. Economies 17 (4) (2003) 538–560.     

Impacts of ISO 14001 adoption on firm performance: Evidence from China

This paper investigates the impacts of ISO 14001 adoption on the performance of firms using a sample of Chinese firms. The results show that adopting ISO 14001 has insignificant impacts on the financial performance of Chinese firms. A further investigation shows that the adoption of ISO 14001 increases sales and costs of firms in similar magnitudes, thus causes insignificant net effects on the financial performance. Despite negligible financial gains, the adoption of ISO 14001 provides implicit non-financial benefits, such as promoting export and relieving coercive environmental inspections from the government.     

Do local firms employ political activities to respond to political uncertainty?

Using hand-collected data in China from 2001 to 2019, we examine how political uncertainty affects corporate political activities, including corporate corruption and corporate charitable donations, and whether the anti-corruption campaign moderates the relationship between political uncertainty and corporate political activities. First, we find that when city government officials change, local firms significantly increase corporate charitable donations while reducing corporate corruption. Second, the anti-corruption campaign strengthens the effects of political uncertainty on corporate political activities. Third, our results also show that political uncertainty has stronger effects 1) when new government officials come from external appointments, and 2) when former government officials experience abnormal turnover. In addition, the effects of political uncertainty on corporate charitable donations are stronger in non-state-owned enterprises and firms belonging to regulated industries. Finally, political uncertainty increases firms’ government subsidies through corporate political activities. It’s clear that political activities have mediating effects.     

‘Doing-good’ and ‘doing-well’ in Chinese publicly listed firms

Recently, the presumed benefits of corporate social responsibility have become an important issue, especially for China where institutional settings are quite different from other parts of the world. Using an internationally accepted benchmark (OECD's Principles of Corporate Governance, OECD, 2004), this study constructs a corporate social responsibility (CSR) index to measure the quality of the corporate social responsibility practices of the 100 major Chinese listed firms during 2004–2007. This enables us to evaluate the progress of the corporate social responsibility practices of Chinese firms. The results show that Chinese companies have been making progress in their corporate social responsibility practices. The findings also show that market rewards Chinese firms for improving their corporate governance practices which implies ‘doing-good’ leads to ‘doing-well’ in the equity market in China. We also find that overseas-listed and more profitable Chinese firms have better improvement in CSR practice. This study has policy implications in pushing for further CSR initiatives in other emerging markets.     

Quantifying the vulnerabilities of China’s corporate sector with contingent claims

This paper measures and analyzes the default risk and debt sustainability of China’s non-financial corporate sector both on an aggregate level and within a sector by employing the contingent claims approach (CCA). Our results suggest that the vulnerabilities of Chinese firms are heterogenous in terms of investment source, ownership group, corporate form, industry type, and geographic unit etc. First, foreign capital enterprises have a lower default risk than domestic capital enterprises. Within domestic capital enterprises, state-owned firms have the lowest default risk, whereas private and collective firms are most unsustainable despite that they have the highest returns on assets. Second, state-controlled firms, private stock limited firms, and Chinese foreign cooperative firms are least vulnerable in the state-owned corporate sub-sector, the private corporate sub-sector and the foreign corporate sub-sector, respectively. Third, all industries except the coal industry are sustainable by industry type. Fourth, the vulnerabilities of local state-owned sub-sectors are diverse across China’s administrative regions. Moreover, we provide robustness tests which support our findings. In Sum, our study shed key light on ensuring the soundness of China’s non-financial corporate sector and thereby maintaining the stability and sustainability of the Chinese economy.     

Zombie Firms and Debt Accumulation: A Theoretical Framework and Chinese Experience

In recent years, as China has grappled with rising debt and broad economic restructure, the prevalence of zombie firms has become a critical problem. This paper provides a theoretical framework illustrating the rationale behind the occurrence of zombie firms from the perspective of banks. We develop differential equations to model a bank's expectation and the ex ante estimate that underlies its decision to refinance an insolvent borrower. An optimistic expectation is essential in zombie lending and is intrinsic to the countercyclical pattern of zombie firms. Our model also predicts that debt can build up to an unsustainable level if recovery of profitability is sluggish or the initial debt burden is too high. Examining the Chinese experience of zombie firms over 2007–2017, this paper highlights two findings. First, the share of zombie firms among Shanghai and Shenzhen A‐share listed companies demonstrates a countercyclical pattern. Second, the positive correlation between zombie share and debt accumulation across manufacturing sectors sheds light on the link between zombie firms and the rising corporate debt in China. To deal with the “zombie” problem, the government should carefully weigh its policies to avoid further distortions because the occurrence of zombie firms may be inevitable and impossible to eliminate.     

Residual government ownership and corporate investment efficiency in privatised firms: evidence from a transition country

This paper delves into the link between residual government ownership and investment efficiency in privatised firms in a transitional economy. The study uses a data set covering firms listed on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange, Vietnam, over the period from 2007 to 2015. It is found that firms with higher residual government ownership are associated with lower levels of investment efficiency. The finding suggests that government ownership is less beneficial than private ownership in privatised firms. The paper has important implications for policymakers in supporting privatisation policy and in designing a framework to promote better corporate governance in privatised firms after privatisation.     

Corporate Venture Capital and Its Contribution to Intermediate Goods Firms in South Korea*

Set by government, corporate, financial and individual sources, venture capitalists in Korea have adapted themselves to the new and uncertain venture capital market through stand‐alone and syndicated investments. The present study raises questions about whether various financial sources contributed differentially to their portfolio firms during the market boom of 2000. Results show that no single capital source showed better performance, and only corporate venture capitalists contributed to intermediate goods firms. The latter finding might reflect the unique ability of corporate venture capitalists to use vertical value‐chain linkages for their investments.     

A comparison of shareholder identity and governance mechanisms in the monitoring of CEOs of listed companies in China

This paper compares the relative effectiveness of two measures by which the Chinese government attempted to improve the monitoring of listed companies: shifting the ownership of state shares from government agencies (GAs) to the corporate form of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and strengthening corporate governance through statutory regulations and guidelines. The results show that SOEs are better able than GAs to monitor top executives, as indicated by a higher sensitivity of top executive turnover to firm performance. However, corporate governance mechanisms have no significant impact on the sensitivity of top executive turnover to firm performance. This study suggests that incentives for controlling shareholders are more important than governance mechanisms in replacing executives due to poor performance in a transitional economy such as China's, where institutions that support governance mechanisms are still being developed.     

Do political connections affect corporate poverty alleviation decisions? Evidence from China

Programs to alleviate poverty by corporations are increasingly popular as a new form of corporate social responsibility. This study examines how the political connections of a firm's chairperson are associated with decisions to alleviate poverty based on a sample of listed Chinese firms from 2016 to 2018. We find that the chairperson's political connections increase the probability of participation and the amount of investment in programs to alleviate poverty. This positive relationship is mainly manifested in firms with high agency costs and low regional economic conditions. In addition, the chairperson's political connections are not related to the efficiency of the poverty alleviation program. Politically connected firms receive less government recognition with an increase in investment in poverty alleviation. Our findings are consistent with the notion that firms participate in poverty alleviation programs for reciprocal favor exchanges, but they fail to manage these programs efficiently.     

Economic policy uncertainty,tax quotas and corporate tax burden: Evidence from China

This paper studies how economic policy uncertainty affects corporate tax burden. We show that economic policy uncertainty is positively related to corporate tax burden, and the effect is stronger when the tax quotas are higher. Furthermore, we find that economic policy uncertainty strengthens tax collection by increasing government fiscal pressure, thereby increasing corporate tax burden. Besides, the effects of economic policy uncertainty on corporate tax burden are primarily significant in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), non-high-tech firms, firms from the eastern areas and service industry firms. The evidence illustrates that keeping the transparency and stability of economic policies helps to cut tax burden effectively.