二代涉入、制度情境与中国家族企业创新投入——基于社会情感财富理论的研究

Second Generation Involvement, Institutional Context and Innovation Investment of Chinese Family Businesses: Based on the Theory of Socioemotional Wealth

基于社会情感财富理论,本文以2012-2016年中国A股上市家族企业为样本,采用倾向得分匹配法,对一定制度情境下二代涉入对家族企业创新投入的影响进行实证研究。研究结果表明:二代涉入会抑制家族企业的创新投入,发生二代涉入的家族企业会更重视约束型社会情感财富,而该类社会情感财富会导致家族企业对创新投入持保守态度;制度环境对二代涉入与家族企业创新投入之间的关系具有正向调节效应,从而会缓和二代涉入对家族企业创新投入的抑制作用;政治关联对二代涉入与家族企业创新投入之间的关系具有负向调节效应,从而会加剧二代涉入对家族企业创新投入的抑制作用。据此,本文建议:发生二代涉入的家族企业不能为了加强对企业的控制而排斥引入外部优良人才或外部投资者,创始人应该注重二代成员对家族企业归属感等的培养,提升二代成员对延伸型社会情感财富的保护意愿;政府和家族企业必须共同努力推进市场化改革,藉此完善家族企业赖以生存的制度环境;家族企业应当尽量避免政治寻租等行为对创新的抑制作用。

Innovation has extremely important strategic value for the sustainable development of enterprises as well as the maintenance of competitive advantages.However,innovation investment of family businesses as the main part of China s private economy is generally insufficient.At present,family businesses in China have reached the critical stage of the intergenerational inheritance.More and more second generations are beginning to participate in the management of family businesses.This complex dynamic phase may not only bring turbulence to the enterprise,but also affect the strategic decision of the enterprise.Therefore,studying the relationship between the second generation involvement and innovation investment of family businesses may be of great significance for explaining the problem of insufficient innovation.As an emerging theory in the research field of family businesses,Socioemotional Wealth(SEW)has attracted a widespread attention because of its characteristics of emphasizing family non-economic goals since it was put forward in 2007.With the deepening of research,SEW theory has gradually been improved and become the dominant framework in family business research.As a result,based on the theory of SEW,this paper uses the data sample of listed family enterprises in China from 2012 to 2016 to study the impact of the second generation involvement on innovation investment.In addition,due to the problem of sample selection bias,this paper uses Propensity Score Matching(PSM)method for empirical research.The empirical results of this paper show that the second generation involvement inhibits innovation investment of family businesses.Although the second generation involvement has enhanced the family business concern for the extended SEW,the impact of the restricted SEW has become more prominent.Different from the extended SEW that will increase the investment of innovation,the restricted SEW will lead the company to maintain a conservative attitude towards innovation investment.Because institutional context affects the preferences and behaviors of family businesses,we have further studied the moderating role of institutional environment and political connections on the relationship between the second generation involvement and innovation investment.We find that institutional environment mitigates the inhibitory effect of the second generation involvement on innovation investment by affecting the extent of the different types of SEW in family businesses.However,political connections that generally considered to be formal institutional alternative mechanism may exacerbate the negative effect of the restricted SEW on innovation investment,or weaken the innovation power brought by the extended SEW.Based on the conclusions,this paper proposes some policy recommendations.Firstly,the family in the inheritance period should not reject external talents or external good investors in order to strengthen the control of the enterprise.When considering the successors,family businesses should pay more attention to factors such as ability,knowledge and experience,rather than kinship such as blood.And even if the founder s descendants are the best choice after considering various factors,the founder should strengthen the sense of belonging to the company of descendants.Secondly,family businesses should not regard political connections as a good alternative mechanism for institutional environment.The government and enterprises should work together to promote market-oriented reforms,establish a relatively complete institutional environment.The main contributions of this paper are as follows:firstly,according to the previous literature about the classification principle of SEW,we deeply analyze the relationship between the second generation involvement and innovation investment of family businesses,enrich the literature about the changes of innovation investment in the process of intergenerational inheritance of family businesses,and also provide further insights and evidence for the current contradictory conclusions.Secondly,for the first time,we incorporate institutional contexts into the research framework of the impact of the second generation involvement on innovation investment,which can provide institutional explanations for existing conflict conclusions to some extent.Finally,we use the PSM method to effectively identify the net effect of the second generation involvement on innovation investment of family businesses.