中国存在“玻璃悬崖”现象吗?--基于经营危机与女性高管职位晋升的实证研究

Does the“Glass Cliff”phenomenon exist in China?An empirical research based on business crisis and female executives′promotion

基于女性高管蓬勃兴起的现实情境,本文以上市公司高管履新数据为样本,系统考察了中国情境下的“玻璃悬崖”现象。研究发现,当公司陷入经营危机,女性跻身高管团队的可能性和比例显著提升,但“临危受命”的女性高管的任职期限明显短于男性。这表明我国商业领域存在“玻璃悬崖”现象。而且,经济政策不确定性、女性高管社会资本以及产权性质调节了经营危机与女性高管职位晋升的既定关系,即在经济政策不确定性高的地区、女性高管社会资本大的企业以及国有企业,“玻璃悬崖”现象更为明显。拓展性研究表明,我国女性擅长危机管理以及重视职位晋升是引发“玻璃悬崖”现象的重要内因。另外,“玻璃悬崖”现象在“她经济”板块中并不存在。本文不仅丰富了女性领导力和高管变更的研究内容,且为业界如何推进女性职业发展和实施危机管理带来了新的思考。

Currently,cases of female executives serving as“fire marshals”continue to emerge.For example,The British parliament,which has been frozen in the Brexit crisis,elected Theresa May as prime minister.Also,Dong Mingzhu was appointed as the core executive of Gree Electric Appliances,under the predicament of frequent job-hopping of excellent staff and deteriorating business performance.However,female executives who receive orders in the face of a crisis usually face a higher risk of earlier exit.The phenomenon that women are more likely to rise to organizational leadership positions in times of crisis is called the“glass cliff”.In fact,since it was first identified,the“glass cliff”has attracted considerable interest outside academia.However,in past relevant studies exploring the“glass cliff”focused on western developed countries or economies,little empirical work has been done to investigate the phenomenon in an emerging market like China.It is well known that,since the reform and opening-up,China′s strong political mobilization has provided women more access to political,business,and social activities.Although more and more women manage to break through the glass ceiling in China,the present research doesn′t necessarily explain how and when women are more likely to be chosen for leadership.Hence,the objective of this paper is to further explore the following issues.Does the phenomenon of“glass cliff”exist in local enterprises in China?If so,under the influence of traditional ideas such as“men are superior to women”and“official standard”in China,what are the intrinsic mechanisms and influence factors behind this phenomenon?We select the executive employment data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share non-financial listed companies from 2009 to 2017 as the research sample and take the financial distress and performance decline,which are most directly related to the company′s performance,as the measurement index of the business crisis.Then,we use the Logit and OLS regression model to investigate the“glass cliff”phenomenon.We find strong evidence that more Chinese women are appointed to leadership positions in the context of business crises.Moreover,by taking the mean value of industry financial distress and whether the enterprise implements the policy of“replacing business tax with VAT”as instrumental variables,we use the TLS regression model to re-estimate the above relationship,and the conclusions remain unchanged.Our empirical results also indicate when female executives stay in their positions on average shorter than male executives in times of business crisis.Overall,these findings confirm the existence of the“glass cliff”phenomenon in China′s commercial field.In addition,we identify important boundary conditions for the selection of women for top-management positions in times of crisis.That is,the“glass cliff”phenomenon has become more pronounced in areas with a high degree of economic policy uncertainty,enterprises with high female executive social capital,and state-owned enterprises.The extensive research suggests that the effective management of the crisis and the emphasis on promotion by female executives are the internal mechanisms causing the phenomenon of“glass cliff”.Based on the event study method,we find that the“glass cliff”phenomenon does not exist in the“Womenomics”sector.This paper has great theoretical and practical implications.One of the theoretical implications of our study is to examine the change in appointment of female executives when a firm is facing a business crisis from the characteristics and working willingness of Chinese female executives.This work not only provides empirical evidence for the“glass cliff”phenomenon in emerging markets,but also opens the black box of the Chinese“glass cliff”phenomenon.And that according to China′s specific institutional background,we discuss possibly the moderating effects of economic policy uncertainty,female executive social capital,and corporate property on the“glass cliff”phenomenon.The finding adds to our understanding of the“glass cliff”phenomenon in the Chinese context.Besides,we describe the whole process of the“glass cliff”in China and provide a supplement to the current research on women occupying leadership positions that mostly focus on“antecedents”and relatively ignore“results”.The present findings also bear important implications for practice.We argue that when facing a business crisis,the company may seek solutions to reverse the current negative trend.As a consequence,appointing non-traditional female leaders would be a strategic way to resolve the crisis.These bring some enlightenment to an enterprise for talent selection and crisis resolution.However,it is noteworthy that,in times of crisis,enterprises should ensure the necessary justice,provide sufficient support,and grant women sufficient trust so as to avoid female executives falling off the top of the“glass cliff”.