地区宗教传统与民营企业创始资金来源

Local Religious Tradition and the Sources of Start-up Capital of Private Firms

因为新创弱性和合法性不足,民营企业创立时的资金来源在很大程度上要依赖于资金提供者之间的相互信任或情感联结。相比于成熟企业,创业企业很难获取正式制度和资本市场的支持,从而非正式的制度、文化、传统在创业企业创立和成长过程中显得尤为重要。本文以"第九次私营企业调查"问卷数据为基础,考察宗教信仰与企业创始资金来源之间的关系。研究结果表明,地区宗教传统越浓厚,民营企业创始资金来源构成中来自创业者个人的出资比例越低,来自家族外部成员的出资比例越高;而有宗教信仰的创业者则会吸引来自家族成员的更多出资,同时其个人的出资比例会有所降低。因此,宗教传统在一定程度上影响着社会整体信任水平,创业者的宗教信仰影响着对创业者个人信任水平及其与家族的情感联结,这可以部分缓解创业企业获取创始资金时的信息和代理问题。

Due to innovation weakness and insufficient legitimacy, the origin and supply of start-up private firms＇ capital rely heavily on the trust and emotional connections among the capital providers. Compared with matured firms, start-up firms are more constrained by the incomplete formal institutions. Therefore informal institutions, culture, and traditions are especially important for the establishment and growth of start-up firms. Based on the data from ＂The Ninth Survey on Private Firms＂, this study systematically investigates the main factors that influence the sources of start-up capital of private firms, from a religious perspective. We find that the stronger the religious tradition, the lower the percentage of capital contributed by the entrepreneurs, and the higher the percentage of capital contributed by the providers outside the family. We also find that firms setup by religious entrepreneurs attract more capital from family members, therefore lowers capital contributed by entrepreneurs per se. To conclude, religious tradition and religious belief influence the extent of trust among society and among individuals, and influence the extent of emotional connections among family members. This in turn alleviates the information and agency problems for the obtaining of private start-ups＇ capital.