亲清政商关系的绿色治理效应——来自绿色并购的证据

The Green Governance Effect of Cordial and Clean Government-Business Relationship:Evidence from Green M&A

文章基于2012—2020年中国A股工业企业的并购数据,从绿色并购的视角研究了亲清政商关系的绿色治理效应。研究发现,亲清政商关系对企业绿色并购具有显著的促进作用,这种促进作用在寻租依赖程度较大的企业中和环境治理压力较大的地区更加明显,这凸显了亲清政商关系的绿色治理效应。机制检验表明,亲清政商关系的“亲而有度”和“清而有为”分别通过优化企业环保注意力配置和缓解企业融资约束,增强了企业开展绿色并购的动机和能力。此外,亲清政商关系对企业实施本地绿色并购的促进作用更强,而且与非绿色并购相比,绿色并购事件公告得到了更加积极的短期市场反应。经济后果分析表明,亲清政商关系驱动下的绿色并购能够显著提高企业的环境绩效、绿色创新绩效和财务绩效,具有长期的绿色并购协同效应。文章还发现,亲清政商关系有助于抑制企业绿色并购的脱耦行为。文章从绿色并购视角厘清了新时代构建亲清政商关系的绿色治理效应,为我国“十四五”时期持续提高亲清政商关系水平、加快实现企业绿色转型和经济高质量发展提供了有益参考。

The increasing social attention towards environmental pollution and its governance has led numerous traditional industrial enterprises to pursue green transformation through green M&A.In the new stage of development,local governments are actively building a new type of cordial and clean governmentbusiness relationship to effectively address challenges associated with conventional government-business interactions.As a crucial institutional guarantee for promoting high-quality economic development in China,it is imperative to investigate whether and how the cordial and clean government-business relationship can exert a green governance effect,thereby empowering traditional industrial enterprises to engage in green M&A.Drawing on both the entrepreneurship allocation theory and the financing constraint theory,this paper examines the impact and mechanism of the cordial and clean government-business relationship on green M&A in Chinese A-share industrial enterprises from 2012 to 2020.The results show that this relationship has a significant positive effect on green M&A,particularly for enterprises with high rent-seeking dependence and those located in regions facing greater environmental governance pressure.Mechanism testing indicates that both the cordial and clean aspects of the government-business relationship enhance the motivation and ability of enterprises to engage in green M&A by improving their attention allocation towards environmental protection and alleviating financing constraints.Furthermore,the positive impact of this relationship on green M&A is more pronounced for local M&A than interregional ones.Compared to non-green M&A,announcements regarding green M&A events elicit more significant positive short-term market responses.Economic consequence analysis suggests that green M&A driven by this relationship can improve enterprises'environmental performance,green innovation performance,and financial performance,demonstrating a long-term synergistic effect.Finally,this paper finds that the cordial and clean government-business relationship helps to inhibit decoupling behavior in green M&A.This paper makes the following theoretical contributions and practical implications:(1)It supplements the research on the microeconomic effect of the cordial and clean government-business relationship from the perspective of green M&A,especially the green governance effect,enriching the literature on the impact of macro institutional environments on micro-enterprises.(2)It enriches the research on factors influencing green M&A from the perspective of the interaction between politics and business,deepening the logical chain of existing research.(3)It offers a comprehensive response to and extends the existing research on the underlying motivations driving corporate green M&A.(4)It provides valuable references for improving the cordial and clean government-business relationship and promoting corporate green transformation during the 14th Five-Year Plan period,contributing to high-quality economic development.