Shareholder heterogeneity, financing constraints, and organizational resilience: Mixed-ownership reform in Chinese private enterprises.

Private enterprise development encounters numerous challenges. China encourages state-owned enterprises to acquire equity stakes in private enterprises, thereby facilitating development of private enterprises through reverse mixed-ownership reform. To test the effectiveness of this approach, we focus on the impact of state-owned equity on the organizational resilience of private enterprises. Using empirical research methods and data from A-share listed Chinese companies from 2009 to 2022, we find that reverse mixed-ownership reform is significantly and positively correlated with the organizational resilience of private enterprises. Further analysis reveals that involvement of shareholders from state-owned enterprises can bolster the organizational resilience of private enterprises by mitigating their financing constraints. This paper extends the research on the mechanism by which a heterogeneous ownership structure can impact the organizational resilience of private enterprises and offers insights for private enterprises on how to bolster their organizational resilience through mixed-ownership reform.

State-owned capital and quality of green innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed private firms.

Green innovation is pivotal for global sustainability, with state-owned capital playing a significant role, especially in the Chinese corporate landscape. This study, spanning 2008 to 2020 and leveraging a comprehensive dataset of listed companies, explores the intricate relationship between state-owned capital and the quality of green innovation in Chinese private enterprises. Motivated by the imperative to address crucial issues in green innovation quality in China, this research utilizes empirical data to uncover the mechanisms through which state-owned capital fosters green innovation. The study reveals how state-owned capital optimizes internal governance structures and reinforces environmental consciousness within private firms. Findings underscore the crucial role of state-owned capital in enhancing the quality of green innovation in private enterprises, operating through two primary mechanisms. Firstly, state-owned capital cultivates a heightened inclination towards green innovation within these firms. Secondly, it facilitates the adoption of enhanced internal governance practices, catalyzing the development of high-quality green innovation projects. A battery of mechanism tests provides robust evidence that state-owned capital enhances environmental awareness, restrains self-serving behaviors among major shareholders, mitigates financing constraints, and amplifies the motivation and capability of private enterprises for green innovation. This multifaceted approach ultimately fosters high-quality green innovation within companies. The study reveals the subtle interplay between state capital and private sector green innovation, highlighting its relevance to policymaking and practical considerations. It provides valuable insights into the ongoing pursuit of sustainability and the integration of green practices into the corporate world.

Comply or evade: factors influencing private enterprises' basic old-age insurance responsibilities.

Introduction: Private enterprises are playing an increasingly important role in production and employment in China. However, due to less regulation and a stronger profit motivation than state-owned enterprises with more standardized management, a considerable portion of these private enterprises fall short of fulfilling their basic responsibilities for government-mandated old-age insurance. Methods: This study establishes a comprehensive research framework aimed at delving into the precise factors contributing to the lax adherence of private enterprises to their basic old-age insurance obligations. This framework takes into account a range of factors, including enterprise profitability, the external environmental context (specifically the level of regional development), and internal organizational dynamics (such as the presence of labor unions and workers' congresses). To validate this framework, empirical data from a substantial sample of 3,123 private enterprises, which were part of the 10th Chinese Private Enterprise Survey (CPES), were utilized. This study employs the stepwise multiple regression analysis and conducts robustness tests to ensure the model's effectiveness. Results: Enterprise profitability, regional development levels, and the existence of labor unions all wield a positive influence on basic old-age insurance coverage that private enterprises extend to their workforce. Moreover, an intriguing aspect emerges: the developmental stage of the region, as well as the presence of labor unions exercise a negative moderating effect on the relationship between enterprise profitability and the coverage rate of basic old-age insurance. In essence, this implies that the basic old-age insurance coverage rate for private enterprises operating in well-developed regions and those with established labor unions is relatively insulated from fluctuations in profitability. Discussion: To increase the participation rate of private enterprises' basic old-age insurance, it is important to improve the overall development environment for private enterprises, enhance internal organizational mechanisms, and strengthen regulatory oversight of enterprises in various regions.

Evolution Dynamics Model of Private Enterprises under Simultaneous and Sequential Innovation Decisions.

The innovation of private enterprises plays a crucial role. This study focuses on the impacts of market information asymmetry, the technology spillover effect, and the order of innovation research and development (R&D) decisions on the evolution of private enterprises' innovation. This study constructs a dynamic model to analyze how the innovation decision-making order of private enterprises influences their profits and intertemporal innovation decision making. First, we derive the equilibrium point under sequential decisions and the stability of the system at the equilibrium point. Second, we investigate the impact of sequential and simultaneous innovation decisions on the evolution of the dynamic system and its economic implications. Finally, we study the evolutionary dynamics of the attractor with the rate of innovation adjustment and point to the existence of multiple equilibria. The results suggest that the speed of the innovation R&D cost change should be moderate, and the asynchronous updating of the innovation R&D strategy can prevent the system evolution from turning into chaos. These conclusions guide innovation policies.

Is state-owned enterprise merging private enterprise "market choice" or "space crowding" ? -Based on the motives of equity transfer of mixed-ownership enterprises.

Many state-owned enterprises have mergers and acquisitions (M&A) with private enterprises, which has caused private enterprises to worry about their living space being squeezed. Based on 572 data records about equity transfers of Chinese listed companies extracted from CSMAR4.0 from 2013 to 2020, this paper categorized ownership structures into three categories: privatization of state-owned enterprises (Category 1), state-owned enterprises merging private enterprises (Category 2), and state-owned enterprises merging state-owned enterprises (Category 3). The categorical regression of ex-ante equity transfer motivation revealed that the motives for Category 1 conformed to the phenomenon of the "pretty girl gets married first" and "embezzlement view." Category In contrast, the motives for Category 2 conformed to the "fiscal revenue view." The categorical regression of ex-post equity transfer motivation showed that all three types significantly improved various efficiencies and represented an optimal allocation of resources. Moreover, it was revealed that the transfer of equity to state-owned enterprises by inefficient private firms in Category 2 also significantly improved enterprise efficiency. Thus, it can be considered as a rational behavior of market selection and never squeezed the space crowding. Further analysis showed that the efficiency improvement is due to the symbiotic development relationship rather than the antagonistic relationship between heterogeneous shareholders. Therefore, it is suggested to initiate market-oriented reform by actively developing ownership mixed-ownership economy and adhering to the "two unwavering" basic economic system.

A study on the spatio-temporal evolutionary characteristics of OFDI in Chinese private enterprises and its influencing factors.

In the context of China's increasing openness to the global market, outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has become an effective strategy for expanding overseas markets, and private enterprises have played a crucial role in driving China's economic development. This study utilizes data from the NK-GERC database of Nankai University to conduct a spatio-temporal analysis of the dynamic changes in OFDI by Chinese private enterprises from 2005 to 2020. The findings indicate that Chinese domestic private enterprises' OFDI exhibits a strong spatial pattern in the eastern regions and a weak one in the western regions. The main active investment regions include the Bohai Rim, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta. Regarding destination countries for OFDI, traditional developed European economies such as Germany and the USA remain popular choices, but countries along the "Belt and Road" have become hotspots for investment. Non-manufacturing industries account for a higher proportion of investments, with private enterprises showing a preference for investing in foreign enterprises in the service sector. From a sustainable development perspective, the study finds that environmental factors play a significant role in the development of Chinese private enterprises. Moreover, the negative impact mechanism of environmental pollution on private enterprises' OFDI varies according to the enterprises' geographical location and time period. The negative effect is more significant in coastal areas and eastern regions compared to central and western regions, with the most significant impact observed from 2011 to 2015, followed by 2005 to 2010, and the weakest impact seen from 2016 to 2019. As China's ecological environment continues to improve, the negative impact of environmental pollution on enterprises gradually decreases, contributing to the improvement of the sustainability of private enterprises.

Research on the influence mechanism of green finance on the quality of green innovation of private enterprises: evidence from China.

In the context of the "peak carbon dioxide emissions" and "carbon neutrality" strategic goals, how green finance can prompt private enterprises to achieve green upgrading has become an important issue to be solved. This paper empirically examines the effect mechanism of green credit policy on private enterprises' green innovation by using the difference-in-differences model based on the manually collected green patent data and matching financial data of Chinese listed private enterprises from 2009 to 2019. It is found that the implementation of green credit policy has a significant negative impact on the quality of green innovation of heavy-polluting private firms relative to non-heavy-polluting private firms, and this conclusion is still valid after replacing the explanatory variables, expanding the sample range, changing the model setting, and excluding the interference of other policies during the sample period. The results of the mechanism suggest that green credit policy negatively affects the quality of green innovation of heavy-polluting private firms by limiting their access to financing for loans and the capital market. Further study finds that commercial banks can reduce their non-performing loan ratio and increase their revenue growth rate by extending green credit funds to improve their business performance. It provides insights for better implementation of green credit policy and promotion of green economy development.

Does External Innovation Promote the Exports of Private Enterprises? A Market Stakeholder Perspective.

Using the theoretical perspective of market stakeholders, we analyze the impact of external innovations from upstream enterprises, downstream enterprises, and competitors on the exports of private enterprises. By using data from the China Industrial Enterprises Database, we find that external innovations from upstream suppliers, downstream customers and horizontal competitors show positive impacts on the export propensity, intensity and scale for private enterprises. The results of a heterogeneity analysis indicate that the positive relationships between the external innovations of stakeholders and the exports of private enterprises are stable in different factor-intensive industries. In addition, while the exports of private enterprises are positively correlated with their external innovations in the eastern and central regions, this relationship is not significant in the western region. Further, the mechanism analysis confirms that enterprise innovation played an important mediating role for the external innovations of stakeholders to promote the exports of private enterprises. This study provides useful policy implications for enhancing the export competitiveness of private enterprises.

State Aid Causing Distinct Incentives? Quasi-Experimental Measurement of the Effects of Grants on Private Enterprises in North Macedonia.

The objective of this study is to measure the effects of state aid distributed to private enterprises in North Macedonia on the enterprises' efficiency. We examine the governmental Plan for Economic Growth (PEG) pursued through the Financial Support of Investment Law (FSIL) and the Fund for Innovation and Technological Development (FITD). We rely on a rigorous impact evaluation method, whereby comparison groups are sourced from the pool of rejected applicants for the two programs. We pursue conditional matching on firms' observables and then apply the difference-in-differences method to isolate the effect of the subsidy. FSIL State Aid showed largely ineffective, with producing hardly any difference in sales, investment, wages, or profits among recipients, except employment. These results demonstrate the absence of the incentive effect as it relates to FSIL state aid. On the other hand, the FITD State Aid showed to be considerably effective, as the recipients were found to have increased their sales revenue and their investment in technology and profits, corroborating the presence of the incentive effect as it relates to FITD state aid. Notwithstanding the legitimacy of the policy objective to equalize domestic and foreign firms in terms of their access to state aid, these findings document partial failure of the PEG to do so due to its structural problems.JEL classification: H25, C90.

Party branches, policy perception and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from Chinese private enterprises.

Introduction: Party branches embedded in private enterprises are a unique phenomenon in the Chinese economy, but few studies have focused on the economic consequences. We hope to explore the impact of party branches on small and medium-sized private enterprises' corporate social responsibility (CSR) in China in order to fill the gaps in current research. Methods: Data were used from the 11th Chinese Private Enterprise Survey (CPES) in 2014. The study uses the methodology of fixed effect model, mediation analysis and moderation analysis. Moreover, propensity score matching and Heckman two-step method deal with the endogeneity problem and check the robustness of the results. Results: We find that, first, the embedding of party branches will improve the CSR performance of private enterprises in various dimensions by enhancing the perception of private enterprises in policy; second, in various influence pathways, the party branches will enhance the perceptions of policy related to economic interests, which has a more significant impact on enhancing the performance of philanthropic CSR. Further research reveals that business owners' first-given and later-generated political connections support the party branches' perception of policies related to economic and social interests, respectively. Discussion: The findings suggest that political intervention by China's ruling party in private firms promotes CSR performance, but this is influenced by the political connections of the firm owners. In addition to providing empirical support for the study of corporate behavior in the Chinese context, this paper identifies the impact and development trajectory of the party branches of China's ruling party on CSR. However, this paper does not discuss the implicit costs required for party branches to promote CSR, and we hope that future research will make further explorations.

Psychosocial risks in small enterprises: the mediating role of perceived working conditions in the relationship between enterprise size and workers' anxious or depressive episodes.

Purpose. The relationship between enterprise size and psychosocial working conditions has received little attention so far but some findings suggest that conditions are more favorable in small enterprises. This could have a positive impact on workers' mental health. The objective of this study was to test the mediating effect of perceived working conditions in the relationship between enterprise size and anxious or depressive episodes. Methods. Data from the 2010 SUMER - Surveillance Médicale des Expositions aux Risques professionnels (French periodical cross-sectional survey) were analyzed; N = 31,420 for the present study. Anxious or depressive episodes were measured with the hospital anxiety and depression scale and the perceived working conditions were psychological demand, decision latitude and social support as assessed with Karasek's job content questionnaire. The indirect effect was tested according to the method proposed by Preacher and Hayes. Results. In a multivariate logistic regression, the risk of anxious or depressive episodes was found to be lower in micro enterprises (2-9 employees). Formal tests pointed to a significant indirect effect of enterprise size on mental health through perceived working conditions, with a larger effect for psychological demand. Conclusion. This study highlights perceived working conditions as an explanation of the effects of enterprise size.