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Although the literature advocates that the state plays a significant role in affecting firms' behaviour in emerging economies, whether state participation promotes or impedes firms' innovation decisions requires further scholarly attention. In this study, we develop a framework in which we examine how and under what conditions state participation affects firms' green innovation. Results from publicly listed firms in China show an inverted U‐shaped relationship between state participation and green innovation, so that state participation in the form of minority ownership is most effective for firms seeking to conduct green innovation. This curvilinear relationship is negatively moderated by firm age and firm size, such that the inverted U‐shape flattens when a firm is older and larger. The relationship is positively moderated by subnational institutional development such that the inverted U‐shape steepens when institutional development is higher. These findings provide useful implications for resource dependence theory in explaining whether state participation serves as a facilitator of or a burden on firms' green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms adopt different green supply chain management (GSCM) practices at varying levels. Drawing on institutional field theory, this study aims to explore the heterogeneity in GSCM practice adoption considering different firm characteristics, including firm size, industry, and ownership. Secondary data from 394 firms operating in China show that four organizational groupings—brown, light brown, light green, and green—firms exist. Multinomial logistic regression results show that larger firms and firms in the electronics industry are more likely to be greener, indicating that firm size and industry play a strong role in discriminating GSCM practice adoption. Interestingly, no differences between domestic and foreign‐owned firms exist, implying that the gaps in institutional perspectives between Chinese domestic and non‐domestic ownership may be disappearing. This study provides practical implications for strategic benchmarking of GSCM practices. The results also have broader implications for firm operations within China and Chinese firms competing elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing value of patents for innovation and the permeability of digital technologies have triggered patent digital platforms (PDPs) as a new business model of patent intermediaries. While current literature mainly focuses upon PDPs within a developed country, China shows unique features with a relatively unmatured patent market. This paper aims to explore conditional configurations that lead to the operational success of PDPs throughout China. The results indicate two configurational paths: "firm size driven" and "digital infrastructure and knowledge assets driven." Furthermore, environmental factors are peripheral conditions yet important. Our findings have enriched the understanding of patent intermediaries in digital age and sheds light on PDP theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the literature on the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) by applying meta‐regression analysis (MRA) to 7800 results of 512 empirical studies. Our findings reveal a small positive link between CSP and CFP as well as the presence of publication bias that favors statistically significant CSP–CFP regression coefficients. We also evaluate the impact of the underlying research design on the heterogeneity in published effects using Bayesian and frequentist model‐averaging (FMA). We consider 42 contextual characteristics and our results show that reported CSP–CFP effects are smaller in cases where a binary index is used to measure CSP or when CSP is used as the dependent variable. In contrast, firms in industrial sectors or operating in China rather than the United States exhibit stronger effects. Finally, the CSP–CFP effect is driven by the choice of the econometric estimator and the inclusion of firm size as control variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study aims to understand the impact of open government data (OGD) policy on firm performance and the moderating role of firm characteristics. The difference‐in‐difference model is used to analyze 10‐year panel data from 477 Chinese listed firms. The findings indicate that (a) OGD policy positively affects firm performance; (b) firm size positively moderates the relationship between OGD policy and firm performance; (c) R&D intensity nonlinearly moderates the relationship between OGD policy and firm performance; and (d) OGD policy significantly affects state‐owned firms. This paper provides suggestions for improving OGD policy and OGD market construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of highway construction on the size distribution of manufacturing firms using Chinese firm and highway network data. I construct instrumental variables using historical and counterfactual road approaches to identify the causal effects of highway construction. I find that highway construction can increase firm size dispersion and market concentration. Areas near highways have a higher number of firms, more outsourcing activities, and more large firms; while areas further from highways have a higher share of new entry firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how numerous contingencies work together to influence the organizational structure of privately held businesses in China. This study is using a cross‐section primary data set from 83 private firms listed in China. The data are gathered by face‐to‐face interviews with entrepreneurs, and six hypotheses tests are performed regarding the contingencies of organizational form. Furthermore, the empirical findings indicate that environment, strategy, size, and technology play a significant role in explaining organizational form. Finally, financial factors are important aspects of the business environment, notably in dealing with cash flow problems and in forming profit expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed the perceived socio‐economic impact of the Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), using an original survey with 132 experts and interviews with 91 community residents across five cities and towns. We found that local and international stakeholders prioritize socio‐economic impacts over other impact domains, while there remain local tensions between economic growth and environmental conservation. SGR significantly helped tourism and moderately enhanced employment, with winners and losers divided by business sizes, sectors and locations. To maximize positive impact, China's infrastructure‐led model may benefit from integrating physical infrastructure with supporting services and facilities to promote more equitable growth worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of government bailouts have been extensively examined in the literature. This paper is one of the first to empirically examine the bailout funds established in China in 2018, which aimed to mitigate firms' liquidity squeeze risk caused by share pledges. Utilising a hand‐collected dataset of government bailout funds, this paper finds that stock prices increased when government introduced the bailout fund plan, especially for non‐state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) and firms with small size and share pledges. Long‐term performance of bailed out firms increased as well. Overall, our results provide new evidence that government bailouts have positive effects on financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on hand‐collected data on Chinese listed non‐state‐owned enterprises (hereafter, non‐SOEs), this paper investigates how political connection and family involvement affect firms' IPO underpricing. We find that political connection and family involvement, serving as common compensatory mechanisms for institutional deficiencies, can significantly alleviate the IPO underpricing of non‐SOEs. Moreover, evidence shows that in regions with a well‐developed institutional environment, political connection significantly reduces the degree of IPO underpricing. But for companies located in regions with a poorer institutional environment, family involvement helps to achieve lower underpricing. The effects also vary with firm size. Political connection significantly mitigates underpricing of large firms. But for small firms, only family involvement plays a significant role in lowering IPO underpricing. Finally, we find that instead of increasing the offering price, the effect works in another way. Non‐SOEs with political connection and family involvement are no longer growth firms, for which the influence of the regulatory bar set by the China Security Regulatory Committee (CSRC) decreases. These firms tend to experience poorer long‐term performance after the IPO. This may lead to a relatively lower price in the secondary market, resulting in a lower level of IPO underpricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Institutional changes create entrepreneurial opportunities and entrepreneurs strategically respond to institutional pressure. However, we lack an understanding of how institutional changes impact entrepreneurial strategies. By exploiting the regional disparities in China's economic transition, we examine how institutional changes alter the effects of entrepreneurial strategies. Using data from an alumni survey in China, we find that relationship‐based strategies are positively associated with firm size in the early stage of the institutional change, innovation‐based strategies appear more effective in the late stage, and "cocoon‐based" strategies are associated with larger firm size in the intermediate stage. We propose that entrepreneurs may temporarily leverage "cocoon institutions" to buffer uncertainty in the broader institutional environment. Overall, we contribute to research at the intersection of institutional change and entrepreneurial strategies. Managerial Summary Institutional environments influence the effectiveness of entrepreneurial strategies. How should entrepreneurs adopt different strategies at different stages of an institutional change? We tackle this question by examining China's transition from a planned economy to a market economy. Using data from an alumni survey in China, we find that relationship‐based strategies promote firm growth in the early stage, innovation‐based strategies appear more effective in the late stage, and locating in science parks benefits firm growth in the intermediate stage. Overall, our study implies that entrepreneurs should adopt different strategies to fit different types of institutional environments. Also, our study provides implications to policymakers that cocoon institutions, such as science parks, may be temporarily effective during the intermediate stage of an institutional change. Video abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study performed a comparative analysis of changes in the operating status of initial surviving disaster‐stricken businesses and non‐disaster‐stricken businesses in Lushan County, China, after a devastating earthquake on 20 April 2013. It used a logistic regression model to explore the key factors associated with 'post‐disaster continued business operation' in the long term. Field data were collected from 1,078 businesses and questionnaire data from 263 small businesses between 2013 and 2017. The results indicate that a higher proportion of initial surviving disaster‐stricken businesses than non‐disaster‐stricken businesses managed to remain operational in each observation period. The continued operation of disaster‐stricken businesses after the earthquake was positively associated with the owner's age, previous disaster experience, pre‐disaster financial conditions, closure duration, and borrowing money from family or friends. A negative association was found with the size of the business. The findings serve as a vital reference for strategies to promote post‐disaster continued business operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the determinants of high‐interest entrusted loans in China from the perspective of corporate risk‐taking. The results of a baseline model illustrate that the propensity to offer high‐interest entrusted loans increases with loose monetary policies, corporate cash holdings and firm age, and it decreases with firm size and growth opportunity. These findings support the claim that firms offer high‐interest entrusted loans mainly for short‐term profits. Other determining factors include CEO behavior traits, market imperfections and the intensity of corporate governance. Specifically, market imperfections create an opportunity for risk‐taking while CEO behavior and the intensity of corporate governance affect a firm's tendency to take risk and engage in high‐interest entrusted loans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using China as the research setting, this paper investigates the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and corporate precautionary cash holdings. Empirical results show a U-shaped relation between economic policy uncertainty and corporate precautionary cash holdings. Empirical analysis, in terms of ownership structure, firm size, corporate competitiveness and geographical location, further shows that (i) the effects for economic policy uncertainty in both state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises are significant, but the effect is stronger for state-owned enterprises; (ii) such significant effect is also found more strongly in small and medium-sized enterprises and highly competitive enterprises; and (iii) the effects for eastern, central and western China are all statistically significant, but the effect is strongest for eastern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a model grounded in the contingency theory (i.e., context-structure-performance) applicable to Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOE). Using data from a sample of 205 industrial SOEs, the study shows that SOE growth performance relative to the industry is positively predicted by formal control, inversely predicted by decentralization, and positively predicted by the interaction of the two. Customer product knowledge utilization, unrelated to growth performance relative to the industry, is positively predicted by formal control and the interaction of formal control with decentralization. Foreign induced industry competitiveness, technological turbulence, size, and production technology routineness are treated as context variables and modeled accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationships among board gender diversity, firm performance, and firm size. Our paper provides new insights into the relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance by examining whether firm size alters the impact of board gender diversity on firm performance. We use a panel data from A‐share‐listed non‐financial firms in China to examine the relationship during the period of 2007–2012. Our finding demonstrates that the gender diversity on the board has a positive impact on firm performance if and only if the value of firm size is less than some critical value. In addition, we also find that firm size may undermine the positive impact of board gender diversity on firm performance. This paper contributes to the literature by offering a contingency approach to examine the relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance as well as shedding light on the relationship in the context of a developing economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and innovation suggest either a competing or a complementary relationship between CSR and spending on research and development (R&D) activities. In this study, we unravel this puzzle by theorizing an inverted U-shaped relationship between CSR in general and corporate philanthropy (CP) in particular, and R&D spending. Drawing mainly on stakeholder theory, we suggest that CP, by securing stakeholders' support differently at different levels of spending, would first increase and then reduce R&D spending. Evidence from Chinese publicly traded companies during 2006-2015 well supports our arguments. In addition, we find this inverse U-shaped non-linear relationship between CP and R&D spending to be strengthened by firm visibility and weakened by firm size. This study has important theoretical and practical implications. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Income inequality in China has been much documented and debated. However, one important aspect of income inequality - social insurance inequality - has been largely understudied. We use a large national panel of firm data to examine the possible influence of various firm characteristics on the inequalities in social insurance participation and generosity in the period 2004-07. Our findings reveal substantial ownership sector and regional gaps in social insurance provision by firms, with the private domestic sector and those in the central region lagging behind. Unionized firms, larger firms, and firms with greater market shares also tend to provide better social insurance to their employees. While being an exporting firm is linked with greater social insurance participation and generosity, being a purely exporting firm, however, is associated with reduced social insurance generosity. Lastly, highly educated workers receive substantially better social insurance coverage than their less educated peers. These social insurance inequalities are highly relevant as China pushes forward with establishing a unified social insurance system across urban-rural boundaries, ownership sectors and industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the size distribution of exporting and non-exporting firms in a panel of Chinese provinces. The power law exponents of exporting firms are significantly less than those of non-exporting firms. The average power law exponents fell from 0.74 in 1998 to 0.64 in 2007 for exporting firms, and from 1.03 in 1998 to 0.83 in 2007 for non-exporting firms. Further analysis showed that credit constraints have a significant negative effect on the exponents of the size distribution of exporting firms, suggesting that smaller firms are more credit-constrained than larger firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The audit report lag, defined as the period between a company's fiscal year-end and the audit report date, has been considered to be one of the few externally observable audit output variables allowing outsiders to evaluate audit efficiency. Prior research on the determinants of the audit report lag has investigated a common set of firm characteristics, including firm size, fiscal year-end, loss occurrence, presence of extraordinary items, client complexity, and audit opinion. However, there is scant research on the effect of changes in reporting regulations on the audit report lag. This paper examines empirically the effect on the audit report lag of a new set of Chinese accounting standards introduced in 2007 that were based on the fair value accounting system. We document empirical evidence of a significant increase in the audit report lag in China after the adoption of these new accounting standards. This increase, however, is more pronounced for clients audited by small audit firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allinson and Hayes (1996) in the reporting of a new measure, the Cognitive Style Index, made a plea for replication and extension of their work. Using a sample of over one thousand subjects the present study investigated the CSI's construct and concurrent validity. A maximum likelihood factor analysis obtained broadly similar results to those of Allinson and Hayes. No relationship was observed between the CSI and an alternative measure of style (the Cognitive Styles Analysis). It is argued that cognitive style is independent of gender but that style is related to job level (lower scores were associated with increased seniority). Some evidence was presented which suggests there may be differences in cognitive style between Hong Kong and UK small business owner managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of population, investment, urbanization, industrial structure, policy instrument, and enterprise size on energy intensity in Guangdong, China. A dynamic optimal theoretical framework is utilized and empirical results are reported using panel data from 2006 to 2015. The fixed effects models and spatial fixed effects models both show that population, investment, urbanization, and enterprise size decrease energy intensity, but industrial structure and policy instrument drive it up; population, investment, urbanization, and enterprise size increase the energy consumption and economic output, but industrial structure and policy instrument decrease them, China; the energy intensity has significant spatial spillover effect that should be considered in Guangdong, China. Recommendations for Resource Managers•Population, investment, urbanization, and enterprise size decrease energy intensity, but industrial structure and policy instrument drive it up.•Population, investment, urbanization, and enterprise size increase the energy consumption and economic output, but industrial structure and policy instrument decrease them, China.•The energy intensity has significant spatial spillover effect that should be considered in Guangdong, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]