社会信任与企业风险承担

Social Trust and Corporate Risk-Taking

社会信任在经济活动中发挥着重要作用,其促进经济增长的微观机理近年来引起了学者的广泛关注。本文聚焦微观企业,以我国 A 股上市公司为样本,研究了社会信任对企业风险承担的影响。研究表明,地区社会信任有助于提高该地区企业的风险承担水平。进一步研究发现,社会信任与企业风险承担的正相关关系在公司治理较弱、融资约束较强的企业中更显著。同时,社会信任对代理问题的缓解主要表现为降低管理层职业忧虑。此外,社会信任促进企业风险承担的具体渠道为提高企业创新投资和银行债务融资。本研究将丰富和拓展企业风险承担影响因素、社会信任对公司行为影响的相关文献,对全面认识社会信任在公司风险选择中扮演的角色,以及如何提升企业风险承担水平,促进经济健康增长也具有重要的启示意义。

Trust,as an important dimension of social capital,is the lubricant of a social system and plays a significant role in economic activities. A large number of studies find that social trust exerts an impact on economic growth. Given the importance of social trust for economic development,the relevant literature investigates the underlying mechanisms. In contrast to many prior researches which offer explanations at the macro level,this paper focuses on the micro firm level. Corporate risk taking is not only fundamental to firm performance and value, but also a key factor to promote social productivity and economic growth. Therefore,this paper studies the effect of social trust on corporate risk taking by using the data of Chinese A share listed firms. My findings are as follows.(1) The main empirical results show that social trust positively and significantly correlates with corporate risk taking,suggesting that firms headquartered in a region of high social trust have higher levels of corporate risk taking.(2) The positive effect of social trust on corporate risk taking is more prominent in firms with weak corporate governance. The results indicate that social trust,as a substitute for formal institutions,reduces the negative impact of weak corporate governance on corporate risk taking,so as to increase risky corporate decisions. Further analyses find that the positive correlation between social trust and risk taking is stronger in enterprises with serious managerial career concerns. The findings suggest that,with reference to agency theory,the corporate governance effect of social trust is mainly manifested in reducing managerial career concerns.(3) The positive effect of social trust on corporate risk taking is more prominent in firms with severe financial constraints,which demonstrates that social trust promotes enterprises to raise more funds for alleviating financial constraints faced by corporate risk taking,and thus improves risk taking.(4) Social trust promotes corporate risk taking through the channels of enhancing corporate innovation and bank financing. This paper makes four main contributions. First, agency problems and financial constraints are important factors affecting corporate risk taking. Previous studies find that improvements of corporate governance, such as managerial incentives,foreign ownership,and investor protection,help to enhance corporate risk taking. Meanwhile,access to financing, such as social network and shadow banking system,can play a positive role in promoting corporate risk taking as well. However,few studies focus on whether social trust can have an impact on corporate risk taking decisions. This paper finds that social trust improves corporate risk taking and so it enriches the literature on influential factors underlying corporate risk taking. Second,existing literature on the impact of social trust on corporate behavior mainly finds that social trust affects a company s principal agent problem,promotes the employment of high quality auditors,improves the quality of financial statements,reduces corporate cash holdings,increases the use of trade credit,and reduces firm stock price crash risks. This paper,however, finds that social trust can influence corporate risk taking and extends the literature on the economic consequences of trust. Third,our findings show that social trust,as an important informal institution,improves corporate governance and alleviates managerial career concerns,and can thus promote enterprise risk taking. Meanwhile,social trust is also conducive to reducing financial constraints,thereby improving risk taking. By exploring the possible channels,the study deepens the understanding about the mechanisms of social trust affecting corporate risk taking. Fourth,existing studies find that social trust contributes to economic growth. In recent years,researchers have begun to explore micro firm level factors underlying trust promoting economic growth. This paper focuses on risk taking,an important enterprise decision,and explores the relation between social trust and corporate risk taking,which adds to the literature on how the mechanism of social trust boosts economic growth at the micro firm level. Overall,the research provides insights into the role that social trust plays on enterprises risk choices,and has implications on enhancing corporate risk taking levels,which may help promote the healthy development of the economy.