Access to state-controlled resources can be a major source of firm-level competitive advantage. However, we know little regarding which firms are most likely positioned to capture the state and access resources beyond what their rule-complying merits command. This is partially due to the challenge in identifying irregular state funding that violates official resource-allocation rules. We study a leading innovation grant program in China, and we leverage unique access to the focal grant agency’s administrative data to trace its grant allocation process. We observe occurrences of rule-violating funding and show that firms vary in capability to influence the agency’s funding decision, depending on geographic proximity, as well as other institutional variables. The observed irregular awards are most likely associated with crony capitalism rather than bureaucratic heroism.

Using a difference-in-differences (DID) approach, this research assesses the effect of a firm’s credit rating issued by domestic rating agencies on stock price crash risk (SPCR). The results show that SPCR for treated firms decreases by 11% after firm ratings, suggesting that they can aggravate information content at the firm level. The effect is consistently more evident when stock price synchronization is higher and is stronger in firms with low media coverage, in firms with low audit quality, in state-controlled firms, and in firms with low investor protection. In addition, during a bear market year, the quality of firm ratings is higher. Overall, our findings support that investors could gain more information via firm ratings issued by credit rating agencies. Through our research, policymakers and investors can pay more attention to firm ratings that help play the information intermediary role of credit rating agencies.

Using a large sample of over 5,000 start-ups across various industries and 524 media outlets in China between 2000 and 2016, we examine the effects of media coverage of start-ups on VC investment decisions and performance. To the best of our knowledge, for the first time in the finance literature, we have discovered that media coverage of start-ups significantly affects VC investment decisions and exit performance. Specifically, such coverage, especially positive coverage, significantly increases the probability and amount of VC investments in start-ups. It also significantly improves the exit performance of VC investments. The significant effects of media coverage of start-ups on VC investments are driven by market-oriented instead of state-controlled media. We further find that VC investments in a focal start-up are significantly influenced by the average media coverage of other start-ups in the same industry or the same city. Our results are robust to a battery of robustness tests. Our research contributes to the behavioral finance literature by showing that an increasingly prominent type of institutional investors, venture capitalists, just like individual investors, are also subject to limited attention. Our research also extends the research by You, Zhang and Zhang (2018) by revealing the heterogeneous effects of market-oriented and state-controlled media on VC investments. Last but not the least, we are the first to discover that peer start-ups’ media coverage matters for VC investments in the focal firms, thereby pushing the frontier of research on the roles of media in finance.

The Chinese market is characterized by state-controlled and closely held firms as well as significant differences in economic development and legal structures at the provincial level and corporate regulations that require firms seeking external financing to show a history of dividend payment. Using a sample of listed Chinese firms, we investigate the firm’s choice of cash or stock dividends and market reactions to the announcement of these dividend choices. We find that profitable, low leverage, high cash holding, stronger shareholder protection firms, and those firms with state ownership prior to listing and undertaking subsequent equity offerings are more likely to pay dividends and cash dividends, in particular. In addition, we find that growing firms with high levels of retained earnings and investing more in fixed assets pay stock dividends. Firms appear to cater to investor demands in setting dividend policy; hence firms with a large proportion of non-tradable shares are more likely to pay cash dividends. Consistent with the use of stock dividends to attract the attention of analysts, we find that the announcement of a stock dividend initiation is associated with significant positive market reactions and increased analyst following.

The relationship between capital structure and product market competition is recently a new research field and hot topic in the study of capital structure. Focuses on Chinese state-controlled and private listed companies, this paper concludes that private listed companies have greater competition advantages than the state-controlled listed companies through empirical study of the relationship between capital structure and product market competition. The policy implication of this conclusion is that favorable capital structure helps to improve the corporate governance structure and strengthen the product market competition advantage of the listed companies. To improve the quality of Chinese listed companies, Chinese government is strongly recommended to take powerful measures to promote the process of privatization and economic performance of the economic entities.

The Chinese market is characterized by state-controlled and closely held firms as well as significant differences in economic development and legal structures at the provincial level and corporate regulations that require firms seeking external financing to show a history of dividend payment. Using a sample of listed Chinese firms, we investigate the likelihood of paying dividends, different forms of dividends and market reactions to various dividend announcements. We find that profitable, low leverage, high cash holding, stronger shareholder protection firms, and those firms with state ownership prior to listing and undertaking subsequent equity offerings are more likely to pay dividends and cash dividends, in particular. Firms appear to cater to investor demands in setting dividend policy; hence firms with a large proportion of non-tradable shares are more likely to pay cash dividends. Consistent with the use of stock dividends to attract the attention of analysts, we also find that growing firms with high levels of retained earnings and greater investment in fixed assets pay stock dividends and these firms’ dividend announcements are associated with significant positive market reactions and increased analyst following.

Recent researches suggest that private benefits of control of managers are a key predictor of acquisition performance and that there exists a negative correlation between measures of private benefits and acquirer announcement returns. However, empirical evidence has not confirmed such a negative relationship. The study in this paper shows that this relationship between private benefits of control of managers and acquisition performance may depend on the level of government shareholding. The study is based on an analysis of a sample of 246 M&A events from the listed companies of Chinese state-controlled enterprises, during the period 2001-2006 and it reveals that, under a low level of government shareholding, private benefits of control are positively correlated with the performance of acquiring firm; but private benefits of control are negatively correlated with the performance of acquiring firm under high government shareholding. Results also indicate that the private benefits of control of managers are important determinants of the acquiring firm performance. These findings sharpen the current understanding of the relationship between private benefits of control of managers and acquiring firm performance.

This study examines the effects of different dimensions of financing constraints (financial market development, governance environments, ownership control and other firm-specific characteristics) on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) for all takeover bids announced in nine East Asian economies from 1998 to 2005. The results of logistic regressions verify that the extent of stock market and governance developments encourages cross-border M&As in this region. The results also indicate that firm-specific financing constraints, except the ownership control variables, reduce the occurrence of cross-border M&As related to domestic M&As. Although family- and state-controlled firms have better access to external financing, they are reluctant to risk diluting their management control and thus prefers less cross-border M&As to domestic M&As. This study enhances the empirical studies of the financing constraint-investment relation based on the market imperfection theory in corporate finance theories. Information asymmetry is the main reason causing the market imperfection and leading to financing constraints to corporate investments. This study, by examining the relation over nine East Asian firms, thus provides an understanding of how such a relation fits in the firms in countries where information asymmetry is high.

The article chooses 453 non-financia l listed companies for the regression analysis to study the the ma in factors affecting China listed companies’ cash hold ings, using net increase in cash and cash equiva lents assets ratio(NCAR) as the change index of listed companies ’ cash hold ings, reflects both the change direction and degree of cash hold ings. According to the comprehensive analysis we find: the avera ge cash and equiva lents was increase from 2000 to 2007, and the avera ge NCAR was increasing since 2004; the avera ge NCAR of the non-sta te-controlled listed companies is higher tha n that of state-controlled ones, and the ma ximum and minimum of NCAR are all occurred in state-controlled listed companies; there exists a much significa nt correla tion between cash flow assets ratio and NCAR, the investment opportunities and the nature of domina nt stockholder have significa nt positive effects on NCAR ; and the enterprise size, profitability, the first majority shareholder sharehold ing ratio, executives sharehold ing ratio, concentration ration all have nonsignifica nt effects on NCAR.

This paper empirically investigates the determinants of financing decisions in Chinese listed firms, using 3,196 firm-year observations from the Shanghai Stock Exchange during the period 2001–2005. Thereby, we investigate the effects of differences in institutions across Chinese provinces and municipalities, and compare the financing choices of state-controlled and private-controlled enterprises. We find that a better legal environment negatively affects the debt ratio and the proportion of debt that consists of bank loans in SOEs as well as private enterprises. Conversely, regional banking development positively influences these two variables. If anything, these effects of the rule of law and regional banking development on leverage are stronger for private-controlled firms. SOEs have lower debt ratios in regions with better stock market access, while private firms rely less on bank loans in regions with more government intervention in business. Finally, we document that SOE bank loans have a longer maturity, while their overall debt ratio and debt mix are comparable to those of private firms.