IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v122y2021icp51-59.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does the mixed ownership reform work? Influence of board chair on performance of state-owned enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Guan, Jian
  • Gao, Zhimin
  • Tan, Justin
  • Sun, Weizheng
  • Shi, Fan

Abstract

By introducing diversity of ownership interests via “mixed-ownership reform”, China seeks to alleviate internal governance problems in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), enhancing their efficiency and competitiveness. Private strategic partners invest for a large minority stake, with government typically retaining a majority share and influence. Resulting questions related to strategic leadership and corporate governance, addressed in this paper from the perspective of principal-agent theory, include: To what extent do the board chairs of SOEs affect their financial performance? How is this relationship impacted by the institutional changes induced by mixed-ownership reform? Do these effects vary between SOEs operating in competitive and monopolistic industries? Analyzing data on Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed SOEs from 2008 to 2017 using the multilevel linear model (MLM) method, we determine that board chairs have a noticeable effect on financial performance, varying by type of SOE, and that mixed-ownership reform reduces their impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Guan, Jian & Gao, Zhimin & Tan, Justin & Sun, Weizheng & Shi, Fan, 2021. "Does the mixed ownership reform work? Influence of board chair on performance of state-owned enterprises," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 51-59.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:122:y:2021:i:c:p:51-59
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.08.038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320305543
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.08.038?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. Markus A. Fitza, 2017. "How much do CEOs really matter? Reaffirming that the CEO effect is mostly due to chance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 802-811, March.
    2. James D. Westphal & David H. Zhu, 2019. "Under the radar: How firms manage competitive uncertainty by appointing friends of other chief executive officers to their boards," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 79-107, January.
    3. Justin Tan & David Tan, 2005. "Environment–strategy co‐evolution and co‐alignment: a staged model of Chinese SOEs under transition," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 141-157, February.
    4. Timothy J. Quigley & Scott D. Graffin, 2017. "Reaffirming the CEO effect is significant and much larger than chance: A comment on Fitza (2014)," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 793-801, March.
    5. Philipp Meyer‐Doyle & Sunkee Lee & Constance E. Helfat, 2019. "Disentangling the microfoundations of acquisition behavior and performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(11), pages 1733-1756, November.
    6. Markus Fitza & Laszlo Tihanyi, 2017. "How Much Does Ownership Form Matter?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(13), pages 2726-2743, December.
    7. Craig Crossland & Donald C. Hambrick, 2007. "How national systems differ in their constraints on corporate executives: a study of CEO effects in three countries," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(8), pages 767-789, August.
    8. Mike W. Peng & Justin Tan & Tony W. Tong, 2004. "Ownership Types and Strategic Groups in an Emerging Economy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7), pages 1105-1129, November.
    9. Jing Li & Jun Xia & Edward J. Zajac, 2018. "On the duality of political and economic stakeholder influence on firm innovation performance: Theory and evidence from Chinese firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 193-216, January.
    10. John A. Pearce & Shaker A. Zahra, 1992. "Board Composition From A Strategic Contingency Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 411-438, July.
    11. Justin Tan & Mike W. Peng, 2003. "Organizational slack and firm performance during economic transitions: two studies from an emerging economy," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(13), pages 1249-1263, December.
    12. Michael C. Withers & Markus A. Fitza, 2017. "Do board chairs matter? The influence of board chairs on firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 1343-1355, June.
    13. Chen, Yi-Min, 2010. "The continuing debate on firm performance: A multilevel approach to the IT sectors of Taiwan and South Korea," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(5), pages 471-478, May.
    14. David Tan & Justin Tan, 2017. "Far from the Tree? Do Private Entrepreneurs Agglomerate Around Public Sector Incumbents During Economic Transition?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(1), pages 113-132, February.
    15. Jerry Goodstein & Kanak Gautam & Warren Boeker, 1994. "The effects of board size and diversity on strategic change," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 241-250, March.
    16. Cline, Brandon N. & Yore, Adam S., 2016. "Silverback CEOs: Age, experience, and firm value," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 169-188.
    17. Paniagua, Jordi & Rivelles, Rafael & Sapena, Juan, 2018. "Corporate governance and financial performance: The role of ownership and board structure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 229-234.
    18. Zacharias, Nicolas & Six, B. & Schiereck, D. & Stock, R. M., 2015. "CEO Influences on Firms' Strategic Actions: A Comparison of CEO-, Firm-, and Industry-Level Effects," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 76085, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    19. ANITA M. McGAHAN & MICHAEL E. PORTER, 1997. "How Much Does Industry Matter, Really?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(S1), pages 15-30, July.
    20. Chenjian Zhang & Justin Tan & David Tan, 2016. "Fit by adaptation or fit by founding? A comparative study of existing and new entrepreneurial cohorts in China," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 911-931, May.
    21. Justin Tan, 2002. "Impact of Ownership Type on Environment–Strategy Linkage and Performance: Evidence from a Transitional Economy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 333-354, May.
    22. Zacharias, Nicolas A. & Six, Bjoern & Schiereck, Dirk & Stock, Ruth Maria, 2015. "CEO influences on firms' strategic actions: A comparison of CEO-, firm-, and industry-level effects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2338-2346.
    23. Elenkov, Detelin S., 2002. "Effects of leadership on organizational performance in Russian companies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 467-480, June.
    24. Fan Xia & Gordon Walker, 2015. "How much does owner type matter for firm performance? Manufacturing firms in China 1998–2007," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 576-585, April.
    25. Markus A. Fitza, 2014. "The use of variance decomposition in the investigation of CEO effects: How large must the CEO effect be to rule out chance?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1839-1852, December.
    26. Mikko Manner, 2010. "The Impact of CEO Characteristics on Corporate Social Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 53-72, June.
    27. Ryan Krause & Weiwen Li & Xufei Ma & Garry D. Bruton, 2019. "The board chair effect across countries: An institutional view," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(10), pages 1570-1592, October.
    28. Tan, Justin, 2003. "Curvilinear Relationship Between Organizational Slack and Firm Performance:: Evidence from Chinese State Enterprises," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 740-749, December.
    29. Alison Mackey, 2008. "The effect of CEOs on firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(12), pages 1357-1367, December.
    30. Schmalensee, Richard, 1985. "Do Markets Differ Much?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 341-351, June.
    31. J. Justin Tan & Robert J. Litsschert, 1994. "Environment‐strategy relationship and its performance implications: An empirical study of the chinese electronics industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20, January.
    32. Daniela P. Blettner & Fernando R. Chaddad & Richard A. Bettis, 2012. "The CEO Performance Effect: Statistical Issues and a Complex Fit Perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(8), pages 986-999, August.
    33. Zacharias, Nicolas & Six, Björn & Schiereck, Dirk & Stock, Ruth, 2015. "CEO Influences on Firms’ Strategic Actions: A Comparison of CEO-, Firm-, and Industry-Level Effects," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 77350, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    34. Guangrui Guo, 2017. "Demystifying variance in performance: A longitudinal multilevel perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 1327-1342, June.
    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. Liu, Kai & Wang, Jiang & Liu, Liqun & Huang, Yingjun, 2023. "Mixed-ownership reform of SOEs and ESG performance: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1618-1641.
    2. Wang, Wei & Cheng, Sijia & Nahar, Shamsun & Alhaleh, Shadi Emad Areef & Wang, Hua, 2022. "Does mixed-ownership reform restrain stock price synchronicity? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 390-404.
    3. Chen Hu & Yanan Li & Penghao Ye, 2023. "The Halo Effect of Government: Does State-Owned Capital Promote the Green Innovation of Chinese Private Enterprises?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-21, May.
    4. Jizhou Wang & Jin’an He & Richard Cebula & Maggie Foley & Fangping Peng, 2024. "Mixed ownership reform, political connections, and overinvestment," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 83(2), pages 407-425, March.
    5. Li, Wencong & Yang, Xingquan & Yin, Xingqiang, 2022. "Non-state shareholders entering of state-owned enterprises and equity mispricing: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Yan, Lina & Ling, Xuan & Wang, Zhitao & Xu, Yinuo, 2023. "Can mixed-ownership reform boost the digital transformation of state-owned enterprises?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 647-663.
    7. Tung Duy Bui & Huan Huu Nguyen & Vu Minh Ngo, 2021. "Financial leverage and performance of SMEs in Vietnam: Evidence from the post-crisis period," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 229-239.
    8. Hui Xia & Shixian Ling & Zhangxin (Frank) Liu, 2023. "Heterogeneous Blockholders and Enterprise Innovation: Evidence From the Mixed-Ownership Reform in China," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    9. Wang, Wei & Wang, Hua & Wu, Ji (George), 2021. "Mixed ownership reform and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence of Chinese listed firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. Zhang, Shuang & Wang, Wenzhi & Zhou, Liying, 2024. "Nonstate capital participation and innovation in state-owned enterprises: Scale, structure and quality," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    11. Zhao, Yueyang & Mao, Jinzhou, 2023. "Mixed blessing: Mixed ownership reform and innovation behaviour of Chinese state-owned enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    12. Ming Chen & Jiao Wu, 2023. "State ownership may not be bad: Based on bibliometric research (2002–2021)," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 1285-1304, March.
    13. Qi Wang & Junqi Liu, 2023. "Demand-side and traditional environmental regulations in green construction: the moderating role of CNSC and SOE intensity," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6897-6938, July.
    14. Chen, Zhe & Cao, Yushan & Liao, Kaicheng, 2024. "How state-owned equity participation promotes the digital transformation of nonstate-owned enterprises: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    15. Liu, Xiaojie & Shen, Jim Huangnan & Deng, Kent, 2022. "Endowment Structure, property rights and reforms of large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China: Past, present and future," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 675-692.
    16. Wang, Jinbo & Ran, Maosheng & Huang, Qing & Li, Wanli, 2022. "Nationalization of private enterprises and default risk: Evidence from mixed-ownership reform in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 534-553.
    17. Wang, Hua & Wang, Wei & Alhaleh, Shadi Emad Areef, 2021. "Mixed ownership and financial investment: Evidence from Chinese state-owned enterprises," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 159-171.
    18. Tian, Zengrui & Zhu, Bingsheng & Lu, Yuzhong, 2023. "The governance of non-state shareholders and corporate ESG: Empirical evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 56(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. Tobias Keller & Martin Glaum & Andreas Bausch & Thorsten Bunz, 2023. "The “CEO in context” technique revisited: A replication and extension of Hambrick and Quigley (2014)," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 1111-1138, April.
    2. Bart S. Vanneste, 2017. "How Much Do Industry, Corporation, and Business Matter, Really? A Meta-Analysis," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(2), pages 121-139, June.
    3. Dmitry Sharapov & Paul Kattuman & Diego Rodriguez & F. Javier Velazquez, 2021. "Using the SHAPLEY value approach to variance decomposition in strategy research: Diversification, internationalization, and corporate group effects on affiliate profitability," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 608-623, March.
    4. Aurora Liu Genin & Justin Tan & Juan Song, 2021. "State governance and technological innovation in emerging economies: State-owned enterprise restructuration and institutional logic dissonance in China’s high-speed train sector," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(4), pages 621-645, June.
    5. Victor Esteban Jarosiewicz & David Gaddis Ross, 2023. "Revisiting managerial “style”: The replicability and falsifiability of manager fixed effects for firm policies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 858-886, March.
    6. Aurora Liu Genin & Justin Tan & Juan Song, 0. "State governance and technological innovation in emerging economies: State-owned enterprise restructuration and institutional logic dissonance in China’s high-speed train sector," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 0, pages 1-25.
    7. Siddharth Vedula & Markus Fitza, 2019. "Regional Recipes: A Configurational Analysis of the Regional Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for U.S. Venture Capital-Backed Startups," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(1), pages 4-24, March.
    8. Gianpaolo Abatecola & Matteo Cristofaro, 2019. "Ingredients of Sustainable CEO Behaviour: Theory and Practice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-15, April.
    9. Johannes Carow, 2024. "A critical assessment of the two-way fixed-effects model for firm-level dependent variables," Working Papers 2405, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    10. Olga A. Novoselova, 2022. "What matters for interorganizational connectedness? Locating the drivers of multiplex corporate networks," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 872-899, April.
    11. Yu Fengyan & Zhang Hongjuan & Justin Tan & Liang Qi, 2022. "Non‐Market Strategies and Credit Benefits: Unpacking Heterogeneous Political Connections in Response to Government Anti‐Corruption Initiatives," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 349-389, March.
    12. Aurora Liu Genin & Justin Tan & Juan Song, 2022. "Relational assets or liabilities? Competition, collaboration, and firm intellectual property breakthrough in the Chinese high-speed train sector," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(9), pages 1895-1923, December.
    13. Markus A. Fitza, 2014. "The use of variance decomposition in the investigation of CEO effects: How large must the CEO effect be to rule out chance?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1839-1852, December.
    14. Michael A. Hitt & David G. Sirmon & Yuan Li & Abby Ghobadian & Jean-Luc Arregle & Kai Xu, 2021. "Institutions, industries and entrepreneurial versus advantage-based strategies: how complex, nested environments affect strategic choice," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(1), pages 147-188, March.
    15. Michael C. Withers & Markus A. Fitza, 2017. "Do board chairs matter? The influence of board chairs on firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 1343-1355, June.
    16. Mun, Seongjae & Han, Seung Hun & Seo, Dongwook, 2020. "The impact of CEO educational background on corporate cash holdings and value of excess cash," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    17. Wei Jiang & Kui Wang & Kevin Zheng Zhou, 2023. "How Political Ties and Green Innovation Co-evolve in China: Alignment with Institutional Development and Environmental Pollution," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(4), pages 739-760, September.
    18. Philipp Meyer‐Doyle & Sunkee Lee & Constance E. Helfat, 2019. "Disentangling the microfoundations of acquisition behavior and performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(11), pages 1733-1756, November.
    19. Zacharias, Nicolas A. & Six, Bjoern & Schiereck, Dirk & Stock, Ruth Maria, 2015. "CEO influences on firms' strategic actions: A comparison of CEO-, firm-, and industry-level effects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2338-2346.
    20. Markus Fitza & Laszlo Tihanyi, 2017. "How Much Does Ownership Form Matter?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(13), pages 2726-2743, December.

    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:jbrese:v:122:y:2021:i:c:p:51-59. 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/jbusres .

    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.