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One of the major aims of digital city development is to improve the cities' natural and social environment friendliness, which aligns with the target of the ESG strategy. However, it is still unclear how to measure the impact of digital city development on ESG performance. This paper examines how digital city policies affect the ESG performance of firms. We propose a methodology to quantify digital city policies based on the textual analysis (BOW method) and measure the level of digital city policy support in each prefecture-level city in China from 2011 to 2022. Further, we introduce instrumental variables (IV), PSM, and other methods to empirically investigate the impact effects and obtain the following main conclusions: First, the digital city policy positively impacts firms' ESG performance. After controlling for the fixed effects of the different dimensions, a 1% increase in the level of digital city policy support represented by the DCPI raises firms' ESG scores by about 2%. Second, the facilitating effect of digital city policies on the sub-dimensions of ESG is asymmetric. Digital city policies significantly affect the environmental protection and corporate governance dimensions of firms, while the effect on CSR is not significant. Third, the impact of digital city policies on ESG performance is heterogeneous across different regions of China and cities with different population sizes. This paper will enrich the understanding of digital city policies and the research on institutional factors affecting ESG, which will provide some insights to both business managers and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) emphasizes the coexistence between enterprises and stakeholders so as to achieve the coordinated development of economy, society and environment. Based on the concept of CSR and triple bottom line, this article innovatively puts forward the concept of triple performance balance, which refers to the coordinated development level of corporate economic, social and environmental performance, and tests the impact of CSR fulfillment on corporate balance development. In order to examine the comprehensive balance consequences of CSR, this paper takes Chinese listed companies as samples, and the method of coefficient of variation, ordinary least squares regression as well as grouping test are employed. The results shown that CSR is conductive to the balance development of corporate triple performance, and the attributes of state-owned enterprises and mature period enterprises are beneficial to exerting the positive role of CSR on balance performance. Finally, this research emphasizes the balanced view of corporate responsibility to realize the harmonious and sustainable development of enterprise and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since international trade is developing rapidly and the world is facing serious problem of energy shortages, this paper focuses on analyzing if export liberalization can help to improve the country's energy efficiency. In this paper, we establish the theoretical trade model at micro-level and study how export liberalization affects energy use performance of the firm. Then, we employ data of Chinese exporters to conduct empirical analysis. Our results suggest export liberalization can improve energy use performance of the firm, which shows that export liberalization has positive effects on firm's energy use performance. The results of mechanism test suggest that export liberalization can improve firms' productivity and increase firms' innovation ability, which can further help to increase firms' energy use efficiency. Altogether, this paper gives evidence on the effects of export liberalization on energy use performance, which reveals the importance of trade liberalization in solving the global energy problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a multidimensional fixed effects model and examines the impact of the digital economy on the performance of firms in traditional industries. We have identified a pattern similar to the "IT productivity paradox" observed in the United States during the 1980s. Using data from A-share listed Chinese firms from 2011–2019, we find that the digital economy significantly reduces the short-term performance of firms by intensifying market competition and increasing adjustment costs. On the contrary, the digital economy improves firms' long-term performance through accumulation of human capital and greater innovation capability. Competitive strategies strengthen the effect of the digital economy on the long-term performance of firms. Additionally, our research demonstrates that technology-intensive firms and small firms experience more pronounced negative effects in the short term but firms with high-tech titles suffer smaller shocks than other technology-intensive firms. These findings presents novel perspectives on the influence of the digital economy on firm performance, offering valuable insights for managers, investors, and policymakers involved in economic decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of innovation-driven and regional collaborative development strategies of China has injected new vitality into corporate trans-regional operation and collaborative innovation. Accordingly, listed companies expand the distance between parent and subsidiary in space geographically. This paper discusses the effect of geographic distance between parent and subsidiary companies on corporate innovation. The results show that parent – subsidiary company geographic distance has a significant positive effect on corporate innovation performance. The results still hold following a battery of endogeneity test and robustness check. We also find that government subsidies, information acquisition, and construction of internal capital markets are the mechanisms for the effect to work. In addition, the stimulative effect of parent – subsidiary geographic distance on corporate innovation performance is more pronounced for SOEs, under better intellectual property protection, and for eastern and central China. This paper not only refines the research on corporate innovation at the spatial level for parent and subsidiary companies, but also provides a framework for corporations to implement regional collaborative development and to adhere to a belief in innovation. It can also assist the government in creating a unified national market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we take the "university enrollment expansion" policy implemented by the Chinese government in 1999 as a quasi-natural experiment and use the difference-in-differences method to identify the effect of human capital expansion on firm innovation. Findings suggest that human capital expansion significantly improves firm innovation performance. More innovation is realized by promoting firms' invention patent applications than their design and utility model patent applications. Further analysis highlights the varying impact of human capital expansion on the innovation performance of firms of different types, thus indicating significant heterogeneity. This study enriches the innovation literature on the drivers of firm innovation by identifying the role of human capital while providing new empirical evidence from the perspective of firm innovation to further understand the microeconomic effects of human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates: (i) the effect of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) engagement and ownership attributes on firm performance and (ii) whether different ownership attributes (institutional, foreign, and state ownership) moderate the association between ESG engagement and firm performance. Employing an extensive sample from 22 emerging countries worldwide, we provide cross-country evidence that ESG engagement and its three pillars, i.e. environmental, social, and governance pillars, enhance firm performance, proxied with ROA and Tobin's Q. Moreover, institutional and foreign ownership positively impact firm performance. We present novel evidence that the positive impact of superior ESG engagement on firm performance is lower for higher institutional ownership companies than lower institutional ownership companies, but greater for higher foreign ownership companies than lower foreign ownership companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of digital transformation on pay gap between executives and employees using a large panel of listed companies in China spanning 2013–2020. Baseline results show that digital transformation of enterprises can largely increase the pay gap. Mechanism tests show that the digital transformation of enterprises increases the income of executives and ordinary employees, and the income of executives is increasing faster than ordinary employees. Furthermore, employee's skill level is an important influence mechanism of the effect of digital transformation on within pay gap. Heterogeneity analysis finds that this effect is more pronounced in firms with fierce industry competition, traditional firms, large firms, and firms with lower shareholdings of executives. Lastly, we find that the pay gap induced by digital transformation enhances corporate performance. Overall, this study complements the determinants of compensation structure from a new perspective of digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation plays a vital role in economic development. This paper examined the effect of state ownership on firm innovation as well as the moderating roles of R&D capability and marketization by Chinese firm-level data from Chinese Industrial Enterprises (2008–2011) and listed companies (2007–2016). The theoretical and empirical study verified that state ownership positively influences firm innovation, and firm's R&D capability and the degree of marketization have significant positive moderate effect. The result was robust in a series of checks such as using lagged data, adopting alternative identification methods and variables, and using independent replication. The conclusion provided implications for the management of Chinese firms. The unique innovation pattern of Chinese firms also provided enlightening experience to other emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the economy, collaborative R&D has become an important tool for Chinese companies to improve their performance. This paper explores the relationship between inter-firm collaborative R&D and firm performance in terms of both financial performance and technological innovation performance. Using panel data of more than 1,300 Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2016 and using multiple regression analysis, we find that inter-firm collaborative R&D has a positive impact on technological innovation performance and potential market competitiveness, but a negative impact on profitability indicators. In addition, we further divided the companies into technology "leaders" and "followers," and the results showed that the benefits of collaborative R&D are greater for the followers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use a dataset of Chinese-listed firms to explore the potential value-enhancing or value-destroying role of multiple large shareholders in determining dynamics of capital structure decisions of firms. We estimate a modified partial adjustment model of leverage and find that firms with multiple large shareholders present a lower speed of leverage adjustment. The relatively more convincing explanation is that the high coordination costs among large shareholders can weaken the efficiency of monitoring managers who have incentives to deviate capital structure dynamics from the optimal strategy. In further analysis, we show that the negative impact of multiple large shareholders on speed of leverage adjustment is much weaker when managerial compensation is more tied to firm performance. Overall, this study provides new empirical evidence to underline the potential value-destroying role of multiple large shareholders and emphasizes the importance of firms improving their corporate governance mechanisms to mitigate the potential negative impact of ownership dispersion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study takes the chairman as the starting point to study whether the chairman-CEO duality can affect the performance, with a sample of 3568 the board of directors of the listed company leadership characteristics and performance during 2008–2018 in NEEQ market. The results found that the chairman as CEO is conducive to improving the business performance. Through the sample study of enterprise size division, it is found that in small enterprises, the chairman as CEO has a more significant positive impact on business performance than in large enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the rise of state capitalism, the paper investigates the relationship between ownership identity and the performance of firms in terms of profitability and solvency. Using cross-sectional data covering over 25,000 firms worldwide and by employing various empirical methods, we find robust evidence that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) tend to be less profitable than private-owned enterprises. However, they appear to use debt for their financial need and are, thus, better leveraged. SOEs are also more labor-intensive and have higher labor costs. In addition, an improvement in institutional quality could benefit both SOEs and POEs. Thus, evidence from this study could be interpreted to mean that privatization could improve the performance of public firms; however, this process should come with several prior-privatization approaches. A study over a more extended period is needed before these results can be considered conclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since being restructured, Chinese rural commercial banks (RCBs) have had two goals: supporting the agricultural sector and sustainable development. This paper aims to analyze the effect of noninterest business development on the performance of RCBs. Our sample consists of 107 RCBs in eight provinces in eastern China. The results of the study demonstrated a U-shaped relationship between non-interest income and the performance of RCBs. The main reason is that at different stages of business development, noninterest business other than fees and commissions has achieved economies of scale. Further analysis found the existence of threshold effects on the performance of RCBs from the development noninterest business. When the cost ratio of non-interest business is higher than 0.2213, non-interest business development has a significant effect on the performance of RCBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on 1,130 listed Chinese firms' charitable donation data during the COVID-19, this paper used the Event Study to examine market reactions to the epidemic and utilized OLS and Heckman two-stage models to investigate the impact of charitable donations on corporate market performance. Results show that greater corporate charitable material and medical donations result in more favorable short-term market reaction but weaker in the long term. Moreover, the low-leveraged, non-pharmaceutical, and non-SOEs can obtain better short-term performance through philanthropic donations. Findings suggest that the negative market sentiment from the COVID-19 cannot be offset by the short-term positive effects of corporate donations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on 2009–2016 ChiNext data, this paper studies the relation between a company's R&D expenditure capitalization and its business performance and the external market response to this decision. We find that, the more a company's R&D expenditure is capitalized, the better its performance will be. In addition, the regression on the short-term market reaction shows that the increment of the development expenditure cannot lead to a direct market response. The regression results on the long-term market performance indicate that the market accepts the lagging of the R&D achievements and anticipates more intangible assets could be converted from these achievements. Overall, our results provide evidence that only the R&D expenditures that really form the intangible assets reflect the value of the capitalization and facilitate the sustainable innovation of ChiNext-listed companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial technology (FinTech) is transforming traditional financial services and has a significant impact on business performance. This study investigates how FinTech affects the performance of businesses in China. It constructs a FinTech Index based on data from the Baidu Search Index and aligns this index with the financial data of publicly listed Chinese companies over the period from 2011 to 2021. We find that the development of FinTech positively affects corporate performance improvement through external and internal environment mechanisms. The findings reveal that FinTech significantly contributes to business performance by enhancing information transparency, alleviating financing constraints, and improving the efficiency of corporate investment environments. Additionally, we find that the impact of FinTech development on corporate performance exhibits heterogeneity. The beneficial effects of FinTech on corporate performance are particularly noticeable in in eastern regions, groups with lower levels of centralization, and areas with weaker regulatory oversight. The empirical results can be used to help emerging market firms improve their performance and assist investors in identifying worthwhile investment prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the research gap in parent-child intergenerational succession, this study adopts a stakeholder perspective and utilizes data from listed family firms in China spanning from 2010 to 2021 to explore the influence of parent-child cogovernance on corporate ESG performance. The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between parent-child cogovernance and corporate ESG performance, with this effect becoming more pronounced as parent-child cogovernance deepens. Furthermore, our analysis identifies "paternalistic care" and "reducing agency costs" as crucial mechanisms through which parent-child cogovernance enhances ESG performance. Importantly, the impact of parent-child cogovernance is particularly notable in firms characterized by lower first-generation control, limited political connections, and weaker external governance. The robustness of our results is confirmed through various methodological approaches including two-stage least squares estimation (2SLS), Heckman two-stage estimation, propensity score matching (PSM), and staggered difference-in-difference (DID) analysis. This study contributes significantly to the literature on intergenerational succession and corporate ESG performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ownership concentration and ownership identity are important corporate governance mechanisms. This paper seeks to understand how ownership concentration and identity affect firm performance in an important emerging economy-China. It hypothesizes that differences in firm performance are a result of various ownership structures and ownership identity. Using data of Chinese listed companies from 2007–2017, it tests those hypotheses and finds that ownership concentration has a positive effect in firm performance and corporate ownership leads to higher firm performance than financial ownership. The study shows that firms in China benefit more from foreign ownership than firms with only domestic ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reasonable compensation contract arrangements have long been an essential means of promoting the hard work of executives and enhancing corporate performance. While internal pay disparity and its incentive effects have garnered widespread attention, few studies have examined the impact of executive external pay disparity on enterprise innovation. Using panel data from Chinese mixed-ownership listed companies spanning from 2013 to 2020, this study explores how executive external pay disparity affects enterprise innovation. Our findings demonstrate that enterprise innovation is positively influenced by the disparity in executive external pay. This facilitating role is further strengthened in enterprises with a high level of board governance. Additionally, the benefits of executive external pay disparity for innovation are particularly evident in general commercial mixed-ownership enterprises. Mechanism tests reveal that executive external pay disparity plays a pivotal role in enhancing enterprise innovation by increasing corporate risk-taking, ultimately leading to improved enterprise value. This study not only enriches our understanding of the influencing factors behind enterprise innovation from a new perspective but also holds significant implications for deepening the reform of mixed ownership and promoting enterprise innovation through the optimization of compensation contract arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the influence of executives' compensation stickiness (ECS) on environmental investments in Chinese heavily polluting enterprises from 2009 to 2021. We find that ECS increases environmental investments by enhancing executives' environmental attention. This positive impact is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and is more pronounced in companies with weaker local environmental supervision, lower local environmental investments, and less media supervision. Moreover, ECS enhances accounting information quality following environmental investments and also promotes the improvement of environmental performance and corporate value after such investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating the behavioral theory of the firm and social capital theory, this study examines how performance shortfalls and executive social relations jointly affect firms' trade-offs between the shared-control entry mode and full-control entry mode. This study argues that, for new overseas entries, performance shortfalls cause firms to prefer the shared-control entry mode. This is attributed to the fact that performance shortfalls increase firms' resource constraints and reduce their information search scope. This, in turn, leads decision-makers to prefer the shared-control entry mode, because that mode requires fewer resources, less information collection, and lower processing capabilities. In addition, guided by social capital theory, this study also finds that the positive effect of performance shortfalls on the shared-control entry mode is weakened when executives have social relations, either overseas or in banks. Further analysis shows that, compared with less-developed economies, firms facing a performance shortfall are more inclined to adopt the shared-control mode to enter developed economies. By clarifying the joint effect of performance shortfalls and executive social relations on firms' overseas equity entry modes, this study deepens the understanding of firms' choices of overseas equity entry modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether efficiency monitoring has a positive influence on corporate performance by using the fixed effect model with panel data of listed firms in Taiwan from 2005 to 2010. The results show that having a shared interest group, formed by the controlling shareholders of a company and its board directors, leads to a failing monitoring function of the board of directors. Moreover, greater divergence between the number of board seats controlled and voting rights leads to a higher likelihood of corporate performance appearing to be an inverted curve. If this divergence exceeds a certain threshold, the interests of external shareholders may be harmed by large shareholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a two-stage modeling framework to evaluate the efficiency of firm performance based on sustainability (environmental, social, and governance (ESG)), operational and financial measures. Diverging from previous studies, this study conceptualizes firm performance as two serially linked stages, with operational performance as the first stage and market performance as the second stage. Acknowledging that ESG activities may reflect firm value and that these activities depend on a firm's operational performance, ESG scores are modeled simultaneously as an output of the operational performance stage and as an input for the market stage. Under this performance appraisal framework, two-stage data envelopment analysis models capturing overall and stage-level efficiency are constructed. The application of the proposed modeling framework is demonstrated using a sample of large Saudi listed firms as a case study of an emerging market. The main conclusion is that ESG legislation, regulations, and disclosure guidelines should be well defined in emerging markets to increase the overall efficiency of listed firms' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the service of independent directors on audit, compensation, nomination, and strategy committees as a driver of book- and marketbased performance using a sample of 77 Russian listed non-financial firms during the period 2009-2019. We address endogeneity using the Heckman correction procedure and instrumental variables. We find that committee independence not only positively affects firm performance but also moderates the relationship between committee structure and firm outcomes. Thus, the positive impact of government experience and female ownership on firm performance may be enhanced by the independence of certain committees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of shareholding stability of institutional investors on firm performance. We analyze 647 sample companies listed in the Taiwan Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2009 using the coefficient of variance of institutional holding proportion as the measure for ownership stability. The empirical results show that increasing stability of institutional holdings is related to better firm performance. The low-risk and younger firms with higher CEO incentive compensation, larger insider holdings, and higher growth usually have better performance. Furthermore, when the long-term institutional shareholdings, particularly of foreign institutions, are higher, the firm performance is better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the digital transformation of China's financial system and the synergistic growth of its economic environment, this research explores the impact of digital finance development on the environmental performance of enterprises. Through empirical analysis of data gathered from A-share heavy polluters from 2011 to 2020, our findings show that digital finance effectively improves the environmental performance of heavy polluters. The conclusions remain robust after controlling for endogeneity issues and running a series of robustness tests. The mechanism test reveals that the effects of financing and innovation are important channels through which digital finance influences industrial environmental performance. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis shows that the beneficial influence of digital finance on the environmental performance of firms is enhanced when firms are smaller, have non-state ownership, are located in East China, and have a lower level of financial development. These findings expand upon the factors that influence corporate environmental performance and provide empirical evidence that heavy-polluting companies should fully grasp the opportunities of digital finance development and improve their environmental performance in order to achieve higher-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research uses a quasi-natural experiment of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect trading system and takes 2011–2019 A-share listed companies as the sample to construct a DID model that empirically proves the improvement effect of capital market opening on corporate ESG performance through external monitoring mechanisms. This effect is also heterogeneous due to firm characteristics. This study presents the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect trading system as a breakthrough, reveals the mechanism of capital market opening on ESG, and provides new empirical evidence for the study of micro-firm behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using multifaceted financial development indicators and a dynamic panel threshold model, this study finds that different regimes of financial development have different effects on Chinese renewable energy firm performance through the interactive channel of country risks and subsidies. A high level of composite financial development strengthens the positive interaction effect between composite risk and subsidies on renewable energy firm performance, and a high level of banking sector development and stock market development, respectively, weakens and strengthens the negative interaction effect between composite risk and subsidies on renewable energy firm performance. Further, these threshold effects of financial development on renewable energy firm performance are also different when using economic, political, and financial risk indicators, and they also change with different ownership attributes. Thus, the Chinese government needs to improve the level of composite financial development and create a stable composite risk environment to achieve fully the potential of subsidies in promoting renewable energy firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the influence of political proximity and cash-holding behavior of Indian firms on firm value and operating performance. Using a robust data set of political donations and connections for listed Indian firms around three general elections in India from 2009 to 2019, we find that firms with political connections show higher performance than their nonconnected peers. We also observe that politically connected Indian firms with higher cash holdings achieve substantially better valuations over time. Our results are robust and consistent after controlling for various factors. The article coincides with the introduction of electoral bonds through an amendment in Finance Bill 2017, which formalized the corporate financing of political parties and will likely strengthen the corporate-political linkages via more substantial donations. Overall, the article introduces political proximity/connection as a new indirect factor influencing firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the role of China's exchange rate policy uncertainty in manufacturing corporate performance using the fixed effect model and quantile regression model. The findings indicate that an exchange rate policy fluctuation constrains better-performing corporates, but is adverse for those with inferior performance. Government subsidy appears to explain the positive impact, and the effect is enhanced or alleviated somehow by corporate governance, growth, and financial constraints. Exchange rate policy fluctuation also significantly pushes corporates to adjust and upgrade their business, which improves their performance accordingly. Additionally, positive shocks significantly stimulate corporate performance, while negative shocks including global financial crisis and COVID-19 epidemic hinder corporate development. Overall, the risk confrontation ability of Chinese manufacturing enterprises presents a positive upward trend. The China government should thus issue more positive exchange rate policies that could send positive signals to the market and increase the openness of its manufacturing industry. More corporate-friendly policies can be launched, such as adjusting the amount of subsidies for manufacturing enterprises in a timely manner and helping manufacturing enterprises, especially more mature ones, deal with exchange rate policy uncertainty risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 2012–2019 Chinese stock market data, this study examined the impact of corporate site visits (CSVs) on senior executive forced turnover. We found that the number of CSVs is negatively associated with the probability of senior executive forced turnover. For more investor participants and more questions asked during CSVs, senior executive forced turnovers are less likely to occur. Institutional investors have a more significant impact on senior executive forced turnover. This effect is dominated by the non-state-owned enterprises or companies with poor performance, high asset tangibility, and weak insider power. The results can guide policymakers who regulate investor relations and informal corporate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a large firm-level dataset we investigate what kind of firms from new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs) tend to invest abroad (testing of self-selection hypothesis), and what is the impact of outward FDI on their productivity (testing of learning-by-investing hypothesis). We find that the best firms tend to self-select into outward FDI. There is also a positive effect of outward FDI on productivity growth of investing firms from CEECs, the strongest being in the case of Estonia, Romania, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. The positive impact of becoming a first-time foreign investor is relatively long lasting, but comes into effect only in investments in Western European or other CEECs and in the case of manufacturing subsidiaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the effect of tax enforcement on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. By using the Third Phase of China's Golden Tax Project as an exogenous shock to conduct a difference–in–differences estimation, we find that tax enforcement has a sizable positive effect on CSR performance, which is mainly achieved through improving the performance of corporations in fulfilling their responsibilities to their employees, suppliers, customer and consumer rights, and the environment. Our findings are robust to different specifications and endogeneity problems. One possible mechanism driving our results is that tax enforcement reduces corporate tax evasion, which further promotes CSR performance. Our results are particularly significant for firms in highly competitive industries or firms with high levels of business risk. Furthermore, the improved CSR performance influenced by tax enforcement ultimately increases the total factor productivity, market value, and shareholder returns of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the influence of analyst coverage on corporate leverage adjustment (CLA) in China. We analyzed 26,673 firm-year observations from the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2000 to 2020 and found that analyst coverage had a negative impact on CLA, which was stronger in firms with poor performance. We posit that analyst forecast divergence and pressure-induced managerial myopia are possible mechanisms through which analyst coverage influences CLA. Our study contributes to the dynamic trade-off model literature by demonstrating that analyst coverage is also a determinant of CLA. Furthermore, our findings help regulators and investors to comprehensively understand the role of analysts in emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the short-term and long-term performance and volatility of publicly traded firms engaged in blockchain business. In particular, it examines how ownership structure impacts performance and volatility in such firms. We manually collected the data of Chinese A-listed companies participating in blockchain development during 2013–2018 as samples, and find that both short- and long-term performance and volatility significantly decrease among these firms after involvement in blockchain business. Ownership concentration has a positive correlation with stock returns, return on assets, and volatilities, whereas the state as a controlling shareholder strengthens these positive links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses the perspective of corporate strategy to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance in China. Following the theoretical business strategy framework and resource-based theory, we adopt the ordinary least squares method to conduct a multiple regression analysis of the relationship between CSR and CFP under different strategy types. We find that for prospectors, CSR is positively correlated with CFP. However, for defenders, it is negatively correlated. Our results remain robust after a series of robustness tests and controlling endogeneity. Our findings help to explain the inconsistent results obtained in the literature, extend our understanding of CSR and the consequences of corporate strategy, and provide a reference for international investors and emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We empirically investigate the effect of emissions trading scheme (ETS) on the corporate performance of Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2016, treating China's pilot ETS as a quasi-natural experiment. Our difference-in-differences analysis shows that the ETS is significantly correlated with corporate performance of high-energy-consuming firms. While the policy effect strengthens in the first few years and then weakens by 2016. This indicates that ETS cannot sustainably and steadily affect the corporate performance. Finally, we find that ETS has a stronger impact on the performance of high-energy-consuming firms in regions with high governmental intervention and an underdeveloped legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on dataset of Chinese listed manufacturing firms over the period 2008–2019, we examine the effect of the choice of industry entry as a mediating factor between political connections and firm performance volatility. The empirical results suggest that politically connected firms have more performance volatility, and political connections increase the likelihood of entering an emerging industry of national strategic importance or subject to entrance regulations. We further find that this choice leads to performance volatility at politically connected firms. Moreover, development of the institutional environment can reduce the effectiveness of political connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on exogenous policy in corporate governance reform, this study examines how the voluntary adoption of audit committees affects firm performance and risk. We use a self-selection model to investigate the effect of voluntary adoption of audit committees on Tobin's Q, return on assets, and idiosyncratic risk. Our results show that Taiwanese listed firms, especially those that are family controlled, have better performance and lower risk when they voluntarily adopt audit committees. Our results suggest that voluntary adoption of audit committees can reduce agency conflict and asymmetric information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adds another perspective on corporate diversification and asset investment diversification, including related and unrelated asset investment diversification, and examines the relationship between this diversification, business diversification, and performance. Because business diversification includes related business and unrelated business diversification, we developed a hypothesis that related business acts as a mediating factor between related asset investment diversification and performance. Similarly, unrelated business plays a mediating role in the relationship between asset diversification and performance. We applied a general linear structural model (GSEM) to panel data on 470 firms listed on the Vietnamese stock exchange from 2008 to 2015. The empirical evidence demonstrates that related assets increase their performance through the mediating effects of related business. By contrast, unrelated assets show an insignificant impact on performance, and unrelated business does not play a mediating role between asset diversification and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers whether "born global (BG)" status aids the financial performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using panel regression models tracking Chinese listed companies, it finds a positive relationship between use of the BG model and firm performance. Also, that location influences firms, particularly those from the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, which are more likely to choose BG as their international market entry mode. The study also finds that research and development investment is important for BGs, size is less so. These findings may aid economic recovery after COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines whether intra-family leadership succession in Chinese family firms influences the decision to allocate more financial assets, the factors that influence second-generation successors in making such decisions, and their impacts on firm performance. The study collected firm and CEO data in which second-generation CEOs' characteristics were captured, and the findings suggest second-generational involvement is a critical factor in the financialization of assets. Furthermore, the study finds that second-generation CEOs' characteristics, market competition, and financing constraints have significant effects on second-generation successors when making asset-allocating decisions, and this is particularly true for financing constraints due to capital reserve motivations. The study finds no significant relationship between the financialization of assets in second-generation family firms and the family firms' performance. This implies that firm innovation does not mean to neglect primary operating business. The results are robust after considering possible endogeneity issues and to various specifications of variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the financial data of listed Chinese companies, we study the impact of COVID-19 on corporate performance. We show that COVID-19 has a negative impact on firm performance. The negative impact of COVID-19 on firm performance is more pronounced when a firm's investment scale or sales revenue is smaller. We show, in an additional analysis, that the negative impact of COVID-19 on firm performance is more pronounced in serious-impact areas and industries. These findings are among the first empirical evidence of the association between pandemic and firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the concepts of sustainable corporate development and the triple bottom line, this study develops a corporate sustainability efficiency (CSE) index to evaluate sustainable corporate performance. Further, with the help of a meta-frontier analysis and a hybrid measure approach, the study identifies the existence and determinants of efficiency gaps introduced by technology heterogeneity across the sectors. The findings, obtained from empirical tests based on panel data of 138 large Chinese firms in 2011–2015, indicate that firms' CSE was low during the twelfth five-year plan (2011–2015). The best performance was in manufacturing, followed by construction/mining, services, and finance, while technology heterogeneity caused significant efficiency gaps across industries. The study also identifies various managerial failures and a technology gap that contributed to the lack of efficiency gains before offering context-specific suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on overseas M&A cases during 2013–2017, this study investigated the factors influencing the performances of Chinese enterprises in overseas M&A within the context of the "Belt and Road Initiative" from the perspective of political connections. The following conclusions were reached: (1) the ownership of a target firm of an M&A in a member country of the "Belt and Road" club has no significant impact on the firm's performance in the short term but has a significant negative impact in the long run; (2) a higher proportion of state-owned shares is conducive to accomplishing overseas M&A; (3) having senior executives with strong political backgrounds would improve the firm's performance in overseas M&A in the short term but may damp in the long run. Chinese enterprises can take advantage of the "Belt and Road Initiative" and government resources to promote overseas M&A. They should carefully select their target firms and make efforts to strengthen integration in order to achieve good synergy between the acquiring and acquired firms. The government should improve the communication and coordination mechanisms between China and other member countries of the "Belt and Road Initiative", provide more supports to achieve win–win scenarios among countries, markets, and enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China's financial sector has gradually been alienated from the real sector, allowing financial innovation and regulatory arbitrage add their own value to finance. High interest rates in the financial industry have led to changes in the real sector, revealing a trend toward "financialization" and "quasi-financialization"; a typical example of this includes nonfinancial enterprises' shadow banking activities. In this article, we use annual data from 2004 to 2015 of A share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, to examine the influence of nonfinancial enterprises' shadow banking activities on business performance. The results show that, overall, enterprises' shadow banking activity improve operating performance. In addition, from the perspective of earning structure, nonfinancial enterprises' shadow banking business increases financial benefits, but has a significantly negative effect on operating income. Further tests show that enterprises engaged in shadow banking activities will impact operating income through the two intermediary variables of investment scale and investment efficiency. However, the negative effect of investment in crowding out operating income is greater than that of the efficiency-improving effect on operating income. This article provides policy guidance in terms of recognizing diverse aspects of shadow banking system that divorce the real economy from the financial economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the effect of boardroom diversity on Chinese listed firms' operating performance. Incorporating gender, age, tenure, and professional background of board member's attributes into a composite diversity index, the results show that boardroom diversity positively affects operating performance. However, when taking strategic change into consideration, the results indicate that the firms with larger strategic change tend to have a negative correlation between boardroom diversity and operating performance, whereas the correlation is positive if firms with smaller strategic. This study expects to fill the literature gap by extending the understanding of boardroom-diversity-performance relationship in the emerging context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the relationship between funding liquidity and PE firm performance. We further develop a locally political alignment indicator (PAI) and then investigate whether PAI has an impact on the relationship between funding liquidity and PE firm performance. A higher required reserve ratio implies lower funding liquidity in the context of China. We find that the required reserve ratio is negatively related to PE firm performance significantly. When the most important local leaders belong to the partisan of the supreme leader, the negative reaction of local firms' performance to a change in funding liquidity strengthens significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By combining the two perspectives of social networks and institutional theory, this article explores the influence of venture capital (VC) networks on investment performance against the background of China's institutional changes. This article uses the dynamic network analysis approach to conduct empirical research on 6498 investment events in China from 2008 to 2014. Although our results support previous studies regarding the higher investment performance of better-networked VCs, we further find that China's institutional changes have significant moderating effects on the above relationship. Specifically, in the early periods of change with high levels of voids in institutional environments, the reduction of institutional voids brought by institutional improvement decrease the likelihood of better-networked VCs achieving higher investment performance. However, when better institutions with fewer voids are built, the positive influence of VC networks will begin to increase as institutional voids are further reduced. The results are robust across different samples, econometric models, and measures of dependent variables and explanatory variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]