国有企业实施员工持股计划能否提升内部控制质量?——基于“国企混改”背景

Employee Stock Ownership Plan and Internal Control Quality in the“Mixed Ownership Reform of State-owned Enterprises”

在深化国有企业混合所有制改革背景下,员工持股计划被重新纳入改革议程。本文以2014-2018年沪深A股国有控股上市公司为样本,实证检验了员工持股计划对国有控股上市公司内部控制质量的影响,并从员工持股计划制度设计特征、国有股份规模、委托代理冲突和企业效率角度探讨了其作用机理和经济后果。研究结果表明,员工持股计划对国有控股上市公司内部控制质量有显著的提升作用,且公司国有股份规模对两者关系具有正向调节效应。区分员工持股计划制度设计特征的进一步研究发现,无杠杆、锁定期长的员工持股计划对国有控股上市公司内部控制质量的提升效应更为显著,员工参与度、高管参与度以及非高管员工参与度均与国有控股上市公司内部控制质量有显著的正相关关系,说明员工持股计划需满足正向性、持续性和规模性三大操作层面的前提机制才能对内部控制质量产生正向影响。此外,对作用机制及经济后果的进一步研究表明,员工持股计划通过缓解企业委托代理冲突实现内部控制质量改善,并且员工持股计划对企业内部控制质量的改善具有效率提升作用。本文为“国企混改”中员工持股计划的治理效应提供了微观证据支持,对从员工持股计划维度推进“国企混改”具有参考价值。

In the context of deepening the State-owned Enterprise Mixed Reform,the employee stock ownership plan(ESOP)has been reintroduced into the reform agenda.This paper selects a sample of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share state-controlled listed companies from 2014 to 2018 to empirically test the impact of employee stock ownership plans on the internal control quality of state-controlled listed companies.It also discusses its mechanism and economic consequences from the characteristics of ESOP,the scale of state-owned shares,Principal-agent conflict and enterprise efficiency.The research results show that the employee stock ownership plan has a significant effect on improving the internal control quality.Moreover,the scale of state-owned shares has a positive regulatory effect on the relationship between the two,that is,the larger the scale of state-owned shares,the more significant the positive impact of ESOP on the quality of internal control.Further research on distinguishing the design characteristics of the employee stock ownership plan system found that an employee stock ownership plan with no leverage and a long lock-up period has a more significant effect on the improvement of the internal control quality of state-controlled listed companies.Participation has a significant positive correlation with the internal control quality of state-controlled listed companies.In addition,further research on the mechanism and economic consequences shows that ESOP improves the quality of internal control by alleviating the principal-agent conflict,and the ESOP can improve the efficiency of the improvement of the quality of internal control.This article provides micro evidence support for the governance effects of“State-owned Enterprise Mixed Reform”,and has reference value for the promotion of“State-owned Enterprise Mixed Reform”from the perspective of employee stock ownership plans.