IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v46y2022ipas1544612321003111.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Donation, political connection and credit access: The case of Chinese small and medium enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Li, (Tony) Wei
  • Shi, Lina

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of donation activity on credit access for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Based on a nationwide survey of private enterprises, our analysis suggests that Chinese entrepreneurs who donated more to charity in the previous year are more likely to obtain a loan from physical financial entities such as commercial banks. However, we do not find a similar effect on credit access through an online lending platform. Our results also revealed that the effect of donations on access to physical financing is more significant among firms without political connections. We attribute this finding to the strategic donation behavior of SMEs with few political ties, since donating more to charities could mitigate the disadvantage of less social capital on loan applications. SMEs strategically donate to ensure future government support. Our findings are robust to two alternative empirical specifications, where we split the sample by firms’ equity and use industry average donation as instrument for firm's choice of donation amount.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, (Tony) Wei & Shi, Lina, 2022. "Donation, political connection and credit access: The case of Chinese small and medium enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:46:y:2022:i:pa:s1544612321003111
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2021.102269
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612321003111
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102269?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marianne Bertrand & Matilde Bombardini & Raymond Fisman & Francesco Trebbi, 2020. "Tax-Exempt Lobbying: Corporate Philanthropy as a Tool for Political Influence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(7), pages 2065-2102, July.
    2. Yang, Yan & Yao, Shujie & He, Hongbo & Ou, Jinghua, 2019. "On corporate philanthropy of private firms and trade credit financing in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    3. Eitan Goldman & Jörg Rocholl & Jongil So, 2009. "Do Politically Connected Boards Affect Firm Value?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(6), pages 2331-2360, June.
    4. Joseph D. Piotroski & T. J. Wong & Tianyu Zhang, 2015. "Political Incentives to Suppress Negative Information: Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 405-459, May.
    5. Minh, Thanh Nguyen & Kim, Van Pham Thi & Ngoc, Anh Mai, 2021. "Political connections, government support and SME tax payments: A note from fixed-effect quantile regression," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    6. Ming Jia & Zhe Zhang, 2018. "The Role of Corporate Donations in Chinese Political Markets," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(2), pages 519-545, December.
    7. Jianjun Zhang & Christopher Marquis & Kunyuan Qiao, 2016. "Do Political Connections Buffer Firms from or Bind Firms to the Government? A Study of Corporate Charitable Donations of Chinese Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(5), pages 1307-1324, October.
    8. Tsai, Li-Chuan & Zhang, Ruhui & Zhao, Cuifang, 2019. "Political connections, network centrality and firm innovation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 180-184.
    9. Lei, Yu-Hsiang, 2021. "Quid pro quo? Government-firm relationships in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    10. Hao, Zhuoqun & Liu, Yu & Zhang, Jinfan & Zhao, Xiaoxue, 2020. "Political connection, corporate philanthropy and efficiency: Evidence from China’s anti-corruption campaign," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 688-708.
    11. Ling, Leng & Zhou, Xiaorong & Liang, Quanxi & Song, Pingping & Zeng, Haijian, 2016. "Political connections, overinvestments and firm performance: Evidence from Chinese listed real estate firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 328-333.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Yulong & Qian, Youhua & Li, Shengnan, 2023. "State capital and cash holdings in natural private enterprises: New evidence and a new explanation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    2. Wellalage, Nirosha Hewa & Thrikawala, Sujani & Ghardallou, Wafa, 2022. "Political connections, family ownership and access to bank credit," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rocca, Maurizio La & Fasano, Francesco & Cappa, Francesco & Neha, Neha, 2022. "The relationship between political connections and firm performance: An empirical analysis in Europe," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    2. Li, Mingsheng & Liu, Desheng & Peng, Hongfeng & Zhang, Luxiu, 2022. "Political connection and its impact on equity market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    3. Tong, Zefeng & Qi, Yu & Wei, Yongchang & Lin, Jiaying & Zhuang, Jingyi, 2023. "Returning the favor: Official consumption and government–company reciprocity," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Wang, Zongrun & Fu, Haiqin & Ren, Xiaohang, 2023. "Political connections and corporate carbon emission: New evidence from Chinese industrial firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    5. Onal, Bunyamin, 2023. "Do politically connected directors play an information role under policy uncertainty?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    6. Yik-Pui Low, Steven & Foo, Yee-Boon & Gul, Ferdinand A, 2023. "Corporate lobbying: Resource-seeking or rent-seeking? Evidence from audit fees," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1).
    7. Xia, Tianjiao & Liu, Xiaohui, 2022. "The innovation paradox of TMT political capital in transition economy firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 775-790.
    8. Hao, Zhuoqun & Liu, Yu & Zhang, Jinfan & Zhao, Xiaoxue, 2020. "Political connection, corporate philanthropy and efficiency: Evidence from China’s anti-corruption campaign," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 688-708.
    9. Agoraki, Maria-Eleni K. & Gounopoulos, Dimitrios & Kouretas, Georgios P., 2022. "U.S. banks’ IPOs and political money contributions," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    10. Wang, Fangjun & Xu, Luying & Zhang, Junrui & Shu, Wei, 2018. "Political connections, internal control and firm value: Evidence from China's anti-corruption campaign," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 53-67.
    11. Lin Chuan & Stavros Sindakis & Panagiotis Theodorou, 2024. "Examining the Impact of Political Stability on Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 8179-8208, June.
    12. Zhang, Min & Liu, Yaosong & Xie, Lu & Ye, Tingting, 2017. "Does the cutoff of “red capital” raise a red flag? Political connections and stock price crash risk," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 89-109.
    13. Hui-Fun Yu & Tsui-Jung Lin & Hai-Yen Chang & Yu-Huai Wang, 2020. "The Impact of Political Connection and Information Asymmetry on Investment Efficiency: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-15, July.
    14. Dongmin Kong & Lu Shi, 2023. "Financial constraints and political catering disclosures of non‐state‐owned firms: Evidence from textual analysis," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 4533-4563, December.
    15. Ji, Mianmian & Lv, Wendai, 2022. "Demonstration zones reform and corporate philanthropy: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    16. repec:zbw:bofitp:2019_004 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Zhe Ouyang & Qian Sun & Yang Liu, 2024. "The impact of investor reaction to crisis events on corporate philanthropy: evidence from Chinese firms," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(1), pages 139-163, February.
    18. Tha’er Amjed Mahmoud Ababneh & Mehmet Aga, 2019. "The Impact of Sustainable Financial Data Governance, Political Connections, and Creative Accounting Practices on Organizational Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-16, October.
    19. Ganguly, Kousik & Mishra, Ajay Kumar & Parikh, Bhavik, 2023. "Do Political connections influence investment decisions? Evidence from India," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    20. Hanwen Chen & Siyi Liu & Xin Liu & Daoguang Yang, 2022. "Adversity Tries Friends: A Multilevel Analysis of Corporate Philanthropic Response to the Local Spread of COVID-19 in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 585-612, May.
    21. Zheng, Weiting & Ang, Siah Hwee & Singh, Kulwant, 2022. "The interface of market and nonmarket strategies: Political ties and strategic competitive actions," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(4).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:46:y:2022:i:pa:s1544612321003111. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.