There is much debate as to whether family firms are socially responsible; We believe the question can be informed by changes that occur in managerial priorities across the length of founders’ careers. Drawing on behavioral theories of intertemporal choice, we argue that temporal discounting causes CSR to vary systematically across three succession stages: successor identification, power sharing, and founder exit. CSR related to founder legacy increases when founders identify successors because its socioemotional benefits then become more near-term and salient; subsequently, however, it declines as successors gain influence during power sharing with the founder, and further after founder exit because for successors any CSR legacy benefits are temporally remote and thus more discounted. Evidence from 2,072 listed Chinese family firms supports this multistage transformation, especially among older and first-born founders, and among younger heirs, heirs with shorter tenures, and heirs without children. By viewing legacy concerns through an intertemporal choice lens, we show them to be time-contingent—shaping CSR differently across succession stages and thereby helping reconcile prior findings.

We replicate the study by Du and Luo (2016) and reconsider the effect of political connections on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in recent China. Du and Luo (2016) suggest that the traditional mode of political connections (i.e., government-firm connections) could create resource and legitimacy advantages for the connected firms in the local market and so prevent these connected firms from engaging in OFDI overseas. Whereas, the new mode of political connections (i.e., government-business connections) emerged in China recently, and has changed the processes of resource allocation and legitimacy granting to a more equal and transparent way, thereby reshaping the connected firms' advantages as well as their OFDI decisions. Specifically, the new government-business connections would diminish the resource and legitimacy advantages of the connected firms in home country while strengthen their resource and legitimacy advantages in host countries, thus driving OFDI. Based on the two mechanisms, this driving force is more salient in non-labor-intensive firms and non-state-owned enterprises. We replicate the study by Du and Luo (2016) with (1) sample from the same dataset while in more recent years (2016–2022), (2) a comparison between the impact of two modes of political connections and (3) an illustration for the resource and legitimacy mechanisms.

The effect of common ownership on executive incentives remains largely unexplored in family firms, where ownership is typically concentrated among controlling shareholders rather than institutional investors. Drawing on a sample of Chinese listed family firms, we find that controlling shareholder common ownership enhances compensation contract effectiveness by increasing executive pay-for-performance sensitivity. We further show that the governance effect is stronger in firms with higher information asymmetry and less controlling shareholder tunnelling; in firms with lower institutional ownership and media coverage; and in firms led by non-family CEOs, with fewer family members in management, and at the founder stage. These results suggest that common ownership by controlling shareholders is particularly effective when internal and/or external governance is weak and the controlling shareholders have monitoring incentives. Furthermore, controlling shareholder common ownership also reduces compensation stickiness, mitigates executive excess compensation, and increases the sensitivity of executive turnover to firm performance. In contrast, common ownership by non-controlling shareholders does not have a significant effect on executive compensation contracts in family firms. Overall, our findings suggest that common ownership by controlling shareholders can improve the effectiveness of executive compensation contracts.

随着越来越多家族企业进入代际传承阶段,家族二代继承人,特别是不少女性二代继承人的经营表现情况,引起了大家的普遍关注和热议.基于此,本文以中国家族控股上市公司为研究对象,从性别差异视角分析并检验了家族二代继承人的经营表现.结果发现,相比女性二代继承人继任的家族企业,男性二代继承人继任的家族企业具有显著更高的经营绩效,表明男性二代继承人的经营表现要好于女性二代继承人.使用倾向得分匹配模型、工具变量两阶段回归模型等对内生性问题进行检验后,上述研究结论仍然稳健成立.本文进一步的影响机制检验发现,先天方面,由于男性相比女性具有更强的冒险倾向,使得男性二代继承人经营的家族企业具有更高的风险承担水平,即具有显著更高的研发投资水平和负债水平,从而更有助于提升企业的经营表现;后天方面,由于中国"重男轻女""传男不传女"等传统文化的影响,男性二代继承人得到了更好的传承培养,即在企业历练的时间显著更长,更可能在本土而不是到海外积累经验和资源,从而有助于其更好地经营企业.此外,本文发现女性"贤妻良母"的社会角色是女性家族二代继承人相比男性继承人经营表现更差的另一个后天因素.本文的研究工作不仅丰富了相关文献,而且相关结论对于家族企业继承人的培养和传承实践具有重要的启示.

Drawing on both perspectives of governance effect and resource effect, this paper examines the impact of ESG performance on the long-term orientation of family firms by using the index data of Huazheng ESG rating. The results show that the better the ESG performance of family companies, the stronger their long-term orientation, and the family management involvement and marketization environment can weaken the positive effect of ESG performance.After distinguishing the specific dimensions of ESG, it is found that, compared with corporate governance performance, environmental protection performance and social responsibility performance have a more obvious effect on family firms’ long-term orientation.Further mechanism analyses show that ESG performance enhances family firms’ long-term orientation motivation through reducing agency problems and improves the family firm’s long-term orientation ability through alleviating financing constraints.

共同股东指同时拥有多家公司股权并对公司治理决策具有重要影响的股东.随着专业投资机构的发展和分散化投资策略的盛行,共同股东已成为世界范围内的普遍现象.本文系统梳理了共同股东治理效应相关研究的发展脉络与最新进展.首先,本文从理论上溯源了共同股东参与治理的内在动机,剖析了其参与治理的具体机制.在此基础上,本文从公司治理的不同维度梳理了共同股东产生的具体治理效果.进一步结合中国资本市场的制度特征,本文探究了共同股东的结构差异以及其面临的治理问题差异,并分析这些差异如何影响共同股东的治理效应.最后,本文从共同股东的成因、具体治理行为、潜在趋同效应、外部制度因素等诸多视角提出未来可以拓展的研究方向.本文通过构建"治理动机→治理机制→治理效果←制度因素"的整合性分析框架,提炼了共同股东发挥治理效应的一般规律,并揭示了其在不同制度背景下的普适性与异质性,为后续相关研究提供参考.

高水平科技自立自强是新时代构建新发展格局的战略支撑,而培育"专精特新"企业是打破西方发达国家技术封锁、实现我国创新能力持续提升的必由之路.然而,培育和发展"专精特新"中小科技型企业面临着诸多困难和挑战,存在很多市场失灵失效的地方,需要积极发挥政府"有形之手"的重要引导作用.本文在系统梳理国家培育"专精特新"企业的政策演进过程的基础上,通过理论分析指出地方政府积极构建亲清新型政商关系,实现"有为政府"与"有效市场"的辩证统一是助力地区培育"专精特新"企业的重要制度保障,能够帮助中小科技型企业解决在技术、资金、数字化、人才等要素方面面临的现实难题.接着,本文选择隐形冠军"第一城"宁波市作为案例研究对象,分析总结宁波市在构建亲清政商关系助力培育"专精特新"企业过程中的成功经验与可取做法,同时指出培育工作中存在的问题.本文的研究工作既能够丰富亲清政商关系经济后果的研究文献,也可为国家培育"专精特新"企业的实践活动提供及时的决策支持和政策启示.

文章基于2012-2020年中国A股工业企业的并购数据,从绿色并购的视角研究了亲清政商关系的绿色治理效应.研究发现,亲清政商关系对企业绿色并购具有显著的促进作用,这种促进作用在寻租依赖程度较大的企业中和环境治理压力较大的地区更加明显,这凸显了亲清政商关系的绿色治理效应.机制检验表明,亲清政商关系的"亲而有度"和"清而有为"分别通过优化企业环保注意力配置和缓解企业融资约束,增强了企业开展绿色并购的动机和能力.此外,亲清政商关系对企业实施本地绿色并购的促进作用更强,而且与非绿色并购相比,绿色并购事件公告得到了更加积极的短期市场反应.经济后果分析表明,亲清政商关系驱动下的绿色并购能够显著提高企业的环境绩效、绿色创新绩效和财务绩效,具有长期的绿色并购协同效应.文章还发现,亲清政商关系有助于抑制企业绿色并购的脱耦行为.文章从绿色并购视角厘清了新时代构建亲清政商关系的绿色治理效应,为我国"十四五"时期持续提高亲清政商关系水平、加快实现企业绿色转型和经济高质量发展提供了有益参考.

We examine whether reputable independent directors improve firm performance and governance quality in emerging markets, using data from China. Firms with such directors, measured as the number of directorships in other listed firms, have higher profitability, operating efficiency and productivity. They suffer from fewer agency problems, pay more cash dividends and have lower likelihoods of receiving modified audit opinions and participating in financial disclosure-related irregularities than their counterparts. In China's unique institutional context, the reputation mechanism for independent directors applies to firms in regions with weak marketization environments, non-state-owned enterprises and firms without political connections; it also applies when external governance is weak. Overall, reputable independent directors appear to occupy valuable advising and monitoring roles and compensate for weak institutions and governance in China.

This study investigates whether and how media coverage influences corporate innovation in China as an emerging economy. In sharp contrast to evidence from developed markets (e.g., U.S.), this study demonstrates that media coverage is positively associated with corporate innovation in China. The results hold following a series of endogeneity and robustness tests. We also demonstrate that media coverage largely has a positive influence through improving the information environment and external governance and alleviating financial constraints for innovative firms. Furthermore, the effects of media coverage are more pronounced for firms located in less developed regions of China. Finally, we find that the effects of media coverage are driven by nonofficial rather than official media coverage, and positive (negative) coverage facilitates (impedes) corporate innovation. Overall, this study contributes to the literature by confirming that media coverage may spur rather than burn corporate innovation in emerging markets.

基于中国人民大学国家发展与战略研究院编制的中国城市政商关系评价报告数据,本文实证考察了亲清政商关系对企业非生产性支出的影响.结果发现,地区政商关系亲清化显著降低了企业的非生产性支出,该影响在非国有企业和中小型企业中显著更强.进一步研究发现,"亲近"维度的政商关系发挥了主要作用,并且亲清政商关系对降低企业非生产性支出的作用在东部地区表现得更强.此外,本文还发现,亲清政商关系一方面降低了企业的策略性慈善捐赠,另一方面帮助企业获得更高的融资额和更多的政府补助.

This study investigates the effect of common ownership on the convergence of corporate governance characteristics in Chinese A-share listed firms using a pair model. Our analysis indicates that firms with common ownership exhibit greater convergence in their governance characteristics. We then identify that the convergence effect is stronger when firms have better internal information environments or weaker external ones， suggesting that common shareholders are better able to obtain and share internal governance information. Additionally， we find that higher common ownership levels and increased industry competition lead to more significant convergence， highlighting the importance of collaborative motivations of common owners. Furthermore， our mediating analysis shows that sharing board members， members of the board of supervisors， and executives mediates the relationship between common ownership and governance characteristic convergence. Finally， we conduct a series of cross-sectional analyses based on common owner and firm characteristics. Our research contributes to the literature by shedding light on the inter-firm governance effect of common ownership.

在国家创新驱动发展的战略背景下,全国各地区正在积极布局发展战略性新兴产业,从而对地区的人才队伍和人才结构提出更高的要求.然而,我国的人才结构面临着结构层次偏低、性别比例失衡、区域聚集化显著、产业配置不合理等多个方面的问题,严重阻碍了国家和各地区有效落实创新驱动发展战略.基于此,本文在系统梳理我国人才政策演进过程的基础上,逻辑推演出政商关系亲清化助力地区人才结构优化升级的理论机理,即以法治支持、简政放权、企业党建、反腐倡廉等常见手段构建的亲清政商关系,有利于从政治生态、经济生态、创新生态、文化生态四个维度打造生态宜居宜业城市,提供贯穿人才"引、育、留、用"的全链条服务体系,从而实现城市的人才结构优化升级.然后以深圳市为典型案例,分析其构建亲清政商关系助力地区人才结构优化升级的成功经验和具体举措,同时指出工作中有待进一步优化和提高之处.本文的研究不仅丰富了亲清政商关系经济后果以及地区人才结构优化领域的相关文献,而且能够为国家优化人才队伍建设、攫取发展新动能提供有价值的决策参考.

近年来,实业企业特别是广大民营家族企业的金融投资水平快速攀升引致的"脱实向虚"问题,引起了社会各界的广泛关注.利用中国A股家族控股上市公司数据,本文实证检验了二代接班对家族企业金融投资水平的影响关系,结果发现:(1)相比没有二代接班的家族企业,有二代接班的家族企业具有显著更高的金融投资水平;(2)相对而言,有实业背景的二代接班人更不倾向于进行金融投资活动.进一步本文发现,二代接班对金融投资水平的正向影响集中于二代接班的准备和上位阶段,同时家族创始人子女数量的增多会增强二代接班人对金融投资的偏好.而家族企业的金融投资特别是长期金融投资挤出了企业的实业投资,最终损害了企业未来的主业业绩.

Using data on directors' voting behaviour in board meetings in China, we examine whether high cash compensation compromises outside directors' independence in markets with weak investor protection. The results show that highly paid outside directors are more likely to vote against proposals sponsored by executives, particularly in firms with weaker monitoring of executives. Highly paid outside directors are also positively associated with cash dividends and future firm performance. Overall, the evidence suggests that high cash compensation reflects the market value of reputable outside directors and reputation concerns motivate outside directors to maintain their independence and challenge executives in board meetings.

Do environment pollution and resultant costs of the environmental regulation help to promote corporate green innovation? This is an important issue of common concern from all sections of society. Using A-share industrial listed firms from 2014–2018, this study examines whether and how air pollution affects corporate green innovation. Our results show that air pollution significantly increases the level of corporate green innovation in near future. On average,1% increase in air pollution in a focal city will lead to 0.75% increase in green innovation in focal firms, displaying statistic and economic significance. Further mechanism analyses reveal that local government regulation and public supervision are partial intermediary factors of the associtation between air pollution and corporate green innovation. Moreover, the positive association is found to be more pronounced in firms having higher media coverage and lower financing constraints.In addition, we find that green innovation will significantly improve corporate market value.Overall, this study can enrich the literature on the microeconomic consequences of air pollution and the determinants of corporate green innovation, and also provide theoretical support and empirical evidence for the government making policies for pollution prevention.

危机中孕育新机,变局中开创新局,加快建设全国统一大市场是新时代我国构建新发展格局的基础支撑和内在要求.首先,从抵御外部不稳定因素和实现自主创新两个视角展开,阐明加快建设全国统一大市场是我国积极应对百年未有之大变局的划时代举措.其次,从地方保护主义制度根源和加快建设全国统一大市场的政策演进两个方面对我国相关的制度渊源进行系统梳理.再次,从经济影响视角,分析指出加快建设全国统一大市场是与我国经济社会发展相适应的动态演进过程,对于实现我国经济高质量发展和提升企业竞争力具有深远影响.最后,聚焦新能源汽车产业,通过案例研究的方法具体分析地方保护主义对新能源汽车产业健康发展的危害,进而展望全国统一大市场建设对于释放新能源汽车产业的市场潜力以及实现可持续发展的重大机遇.

This study examines the effect of high-speed rails on analyst earnings forecasts in Chinese context. The results based on a difference-in-difference design show that the introduction of high-speed rail improves analyst earnings forecast accuracy. The positive association is stronger for firms located in regions with less developed institutional environments, firms with fewer intangible assets, and firms located farther away from information centers. In addition, high-speed rails increase analysts' likelihood and frequency of site visits. Overall, we extend the literature on economic geography and financial analysts, and shed lights on how transportation infrastructure facilitates information exchange in capital markets.

尽管投资者保护制度不断完善,但是大股东损害中小股东权益而中小股东消极不作为的局面却未发生实质转变.在中国"散户型"投资者结构下,如何将中小股东人数众多的基本特征转化为其有效参与公司治理的优势,具有重要意义.本文利用2015～2018年深市上市公司中小股东出席年度股东大会的数据研究发现,中小股东参与人数越多,越有利于抑制大股东掏空,这一影响随着两权分离度的提高和外部制度环境的改善而增强.进一步分析表明,中小股东参与人数具有表决权之外的增量治理效应,具体通过增加议案否决概率和提高媒体关注度等路径实现.本文的研究结论补充了大股东掏空和中小股东积极主义的文献,并为完善中小投资者保护制度提供了理论支持和经验证据.