社会地位会影响企业融资约束吗?——来自A股民营上市公司的经验证据

本文从企业的社会性对经济性行为影响的视角研究社会地位对民营企业融资约束的影响。以2009—2018年沪深A股民营上市公司为研究样本,研究发现社会地位越高的企业面临的融资约束程度越小。将企业所在地区的市场化程度以及企业高管的金融背景纳入考虑之后,研究发现相比于市场化程度较高的地区,在市场化程度较低地区,社会地位缓解企业融资约束的效果更为显著;相较于拥有金融关联的企业,没有金融关联的企业提升社会地位更有利于缓解融资约束。且进一步研究发现,在市场化程度较低地区,没有金融关联的企业社会地位缓解融资约束的效果最为显著。这些结论不仅拓展了企业“社会属性”对其“经济性”行为的影响研究,而且能够为民营企业缓解融资约束提供有益借鉴,尤其是处在市场化程度不高地区,且不存在金融关联的民营企业。

Can Social Status Affect Corporate Financing Constraints? Evidence from A-share Private Listed Companies

As an economic organization embedded in the social unit,enterprises have sociality,and at the same time they have different status which is traditionally defined as a relative position in a socially constructed hierarchy.Therefore,from the perspective of the impact of companies' sociality on their economic behavior,this paper examines the specific relationship between the social status and financing constraints based on the Shanghai&Shenzhen A-share private listed companies in 2009-2018.The results show that:1)social status can play an important role in alleviating private enterprises' financing constraints.The reasons are that:firstly,from the perspective of information transmission,social status which contains enterprises' variousinformation about potential quality and product quality can reduce the degree of information asymmetry between companies and financial institutions and the related departments,such as bank,securities company,fund company and so on;secondly,according to the role theory,companies with higher social status have stronger bargaining power with the financial institutions and the relevant departments,and stronger ability to achieve expectations of fulfilling the contract,which may affect the decision-making of the financial institutions and the relevant departments;in addition,from the perspective of alleviating agency problems,organizations with higher social status often attract more attention from outside,such as government,media,securities analysts and so on,which help to alleviate agency problems by making enterprises with higher social status subject to more strict external supervision,and strengthen confidence of financial institutions and relevant departments.2)Further examining formal and informal institutions which include the degree of marketization of the region where the company is located and whether it has executives who have financial background,this paper found that compared with regions with more degree of marketization,the social status have more significant effective in alleviating financing constraints in regions with lower degree of marketization;compared with the private companies with financial associations,the social status have more significant effective in alleviating financing constraints in private companies without financial associations,especially in the regions with lower degree of marketization.This may mean that there is a substitution effect in mitigating the effects of financing constraints between the social status and financial associations.The possible theoretical implications of this paper are as follows:(1)from the perspective of social attributes of companies,it expands the research on financing constraints of private companies,and empirically verifies the existence of the influence of companies' position in the social system on financing constraints;(2)applying the role theory of sociology to the analysis of economic problems of companies,which is conducive to the close integration of interdisciplinary theories and practical problems;(3)it expands the research on enterprise financing constraints from the perspective of informal institution,and empirically tests the differences of the relationship between social status and financing constraints between companies with financial associations and those without financial associations,which provide a new perspective for the follow-up research.In addition,the results also provide useful empirical evidence for private companies to alleviate financing constraints:when private enterprises seek external financing,in order to avoid the phenomenon that financial institutions and relevant departments“look after others”as much as possible,they should truly to achieve their healthy and“high-quality”development by strivingto practice“internal strength”,and further improve their social status in the social system,instead of blindly pursuing“relationships”which make up of someone or a few people with financial institutions and related departments,especially private enterprises with no financial associations and in the regions with lower degree of marketization.