【摘要】 儒家文化倡导重家族、重血缘的家族主义价值观。本文研究家族企业创始人的家族主义文化观念对公司上市前"去家族化"公司治理改革和上市后公司绩效的影响。研究发现:首先,创始人的家族主义文化观念越强,家族企业在上市前越不可能实施"去家族化"治理改革,即家族成员从管理岗位离职的概率越低,家族对公司的控制权、现金流权以及两权分离度的下降幅度也越小。其次,公司所在地的劳动力市场越不发达,或家族成员教育背景越差时,创始人的家族主义文化观念对"去家族化"治理改革的阻碍作用越强。进一步研究还表明,是家族内部的言传身教,而非社会环境的熏陶塑造了企业创始人的家族主义文化观念,进而影响家族企业的"去家族化"改革。最后,本文发现公司上市前"去家族化"治理改革实施得越不彻底,上市后公司绩效和收入增长率就越低。综上,本文研究结果为儒家家族主义文化影响经济发展提供了来自微观企业层面的证据。更多还原

【Abstract】 The fundamental component of Confucian cultures is familism, which stresses that family ties are the most important of all social relationships. Fukuyama(1995) suggests that in countries where the cultural value of familism is stronger, people are raised to trust their close family networks and to distrust outsiders. Weber(1904) argues that a culture based on strong familism may place restraints on the development of economic activities, which require a more individualistic form of entrepreneurship and the absence of nepotism. However, China seems to provide a counterexample to Weber’s notion, given that it is among the most family-focused cultures in the world yet achieved rapid economic growth over the past 40 years. Does this mean China is somehow different, with unique features that allow familism to promote rather than impede economic development? This is the question that we address in this paper.We analyze the relationship between familism culture and economic development in the Chinese setting. Unlike previous research that provides cross-country evidence on the effect of familism culture on economic growth(Bertrand & Schoar, 2006; Alesina & Giuliano, 2014), our paper is among the first to provide firm-level evidence on the economic outcome of familism culture by showing how familism affects the development of family business. Specifically, we examine the following two questions. First, does company founders’ belief in familism hinder corporate governance reform in the pre-IPO stage? Here, corporate governance reform refers to the departure of family members from their management positions, reductions in controlling(family) shareholders’ control rights and cash-flow rights, and separation between control rights and cash-flow rights. Second, does corporate governance reform over the pre-IPO period translate into improvements in long-run post-IPO stock returns and sales growth?To test the above questions, we develop a measure of firm-level familism culture. As familism mainly manifests as trusting family members more than outsiders, we calculate province-level familism culture using World Value Survey(WVS) data on the extent to which people in a particular province trust family members vs. acquaintances. The familism belief of the founder of a family firm is defined as the familism culture of the province where he or she was born.Our empirical results show that founders with stronger familism beliefs are less likely to conduct governance reform in the pre-IPO stage. Specifically, in firms with stronger familism cultures, family members are less likely to depart from top management positions or reduce their control rights and cash-flow rights, and those rights are less likely to be separated. Our results are robust after controlling for time-varying province and industry fixed effects and after using the IV method to address endogeneity concerns. In addition, we find that these effects are stronger when firms’ headquarters are located in provinces with more underdeveloped labor markets and when controlling family members have weaker educational backgrounds. Further research also shows that familism culture affects governance reform through the family internal inheritance mechanism rather than through the social environmental mechanism. Finally, firms that implement fewer changes in management and governance yield lower post-IPO stock returns and slower sales growth. This paper has important theoretical and practical implications. First, it is among the first works to provide firm-level evidence on the economic outcome of familism culture. Thus, it contributes to the literatures on culture and finance and on corporate governance in emerging markets. Second, our findings have important implications for investors’ decisions. Founders’ belief in familism can be likened to a firm’s DNA, being imprinted through family education and difficult to change. Therefore, investors should consider such beliefs as a risk factor when selecting investment targets.更多还原