Can state-owned equity participation promote private enterprises’ fulfilment of social responsibilities?——based on the perspective of rural revitalisation participation*

Purpose Can state-owned equity participation inhibit private enterprises’ greenwashing behavior? If so, what are the mechanisms involved? Is there any difference in the impact of state-owned equity participation on private enterprises’ greenwashing behavior in different contexts? The answers to the above questions not only fill the existing research gaps but also provide new research ideas for greenwashing governance in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed private enterprises from 2011 to 2022, we examine the impact of state-owned equity participation on private enterprises’ greenwashing behavior. Findings The results suggest that state-owned equity participation can significantly inhibit private enterprises’ greenwashing behavior. Mechanism analysis shows that state-owned equity participation suppresses private enterprises’ greenwashing behavior by alleviating financing constraints through the resource effect and reducing managerial myopia through the governance effect. Moderating effect analysis indicates that media attention can strengthen the inhibitory effect of state-owned equity participation on private enterprises’ greenwashing behavior. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the inhibitory effect of state-owned equity participation on private enterprises’ greenwashing behavior is more significant in areas with a low degree of marketization and non-heavy-polluting industries. Originality/value The findings enrich the governance factors of private enterprises’ greenwashing conduct from the standpoint of diverse shareholders, assist developing countries in formulating more specific policy goals and provide important insights into global environmental governance practices.

Whether state‐owned equity participation in private enterprises to implement mixed ownership reform can help the sustainable development of private enterprises has been a widespread topic in recent years. Using data from China's A‐share private listed enterprises from 2014 to 2020, this paper adopts the fixed effect model to examine the impact of state‐owned equity participation on the strategic risk taking of private enterprises. The study finds that state‐owned equity participation can improve private enterprises' strategic risk taking, while alleviating financing constraints and improving corporate governance are important mechanisms. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that when enterprises belong to high‐tech enterprises and the industry competition is relatively high, state‐owned equity participation has a more remarkable effect in promoting strategic risk taking of private enterprises. Further research also finds that state‐owned equity participation can improve enterprises' innovation capability, which is embodied in the increase of patent output. This research enriches the relevant achievements of the mixed ownership reform of private enterprises and has certain theoretical and practical guidance for private enterprises' strategic choice.

To promote the deepening of reform and the effective implementation of policies, the State Council launched the special supervision of the liquidation of local governments’ arrears in project funds in 2016, which supports the optimization of the government debt structure. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the special supervision action, in this study, we use the difference-in-difference (DID) method to investigate the effect and mechanism of the optimization of the government debt structure on the financing constraints of private enterprises. This research is particularly relevant for private enterprises, which face acute financing challenges and are critical for promoting inclusive economic growth, employment, and innovation—key pillars of sustainable development. The results are as follows. Firstly, the special supervision significantly reduces the financing constraints of private enterprises. Secondly, it has heterogeneous effects on the financing constraints of different types of enterprises, and the alleviating effect is particularly significant for enterprises that rely on the funding support of local governments. This highlights the importance of institutional reforms in fostering equitable access to financial resources for vulnerable enterprise groups such as private enterprises. Thirdly, the optimization of the government debt structure eases enterprises’ financing constraints by improving their capital turnover and trade credit. By enhancing liquidity and creditworthiness, these changes create a more resilient financial environment for private enterprises, supporting their long-term development and contribution to sustainable economic systems.

Digital transformation's impact on innovation in private enterprises: Evidence from China

Empowering rural women through political participation and educational reform is not only key to revitalizing rural communities, but also unlocking a powerful force for positive change that has been long overlooked. This study aims to investigate the impact of educational reforms and rural revitalization on rural women's political participation barriers in five villages of Guiyang city, China. The research used a quantitative method, and 303 responses were collected. The study found that all of the hypotheses were accepted, except the moderation hypothesis. The study found that educational reforms have a significant impact on rural women's political participation barriers. The findings also indicated that rural revitalization significantly affects rural women's political participation barriers and acts as a mediator and moderator in the relationship between educational reforms and rural women's political participation barriers. The study used a PLS-SEM method to analyze the data, and the independent variable "educational reform" was divided into three sub-variables: education, personal, and governmental. The dependent variable "rural women's political participation barriers" was also divided into three sub-variables: social-cultural barriers, institutional barriers, and barriers related to tools, capacities, and resources. The results of this study have significant implications for policymakers and researchers in the field of rural development and women's political participation. The study highlights the need for continued efforts to improve educational reforms and rural revitalization programs to promote rural women's political participation.

After the comprehensive victory in poverty alleviation in 2021, the curtain of rural revitalization has been lifted, which is the shift of the focus of rural work. In the process of poverty alleviation, private enterprises played a pivotal role. After the Rural Revitalization Strategy was put forward, private enterprises actively participated. They not only assumed social responsibility but also developed themselves, which is of great significance.

Private enterprises play an increasingly important role in China. They can improve the total-factor productivity (TFP) and help transform and upgrade industrial structures. This study uses data for private listed manufacturing companies from 2009 to 2017 to examine the effects of different types of subsidies on TFP. We also analyze the heterogeneity and specific mechanism of subsidy effects. We find that R&D subsidies and production subsidies positively affect private enterprises’ TFP. Moreover, R&D subsidies and production subsidies lagged by one period can also significantly increase private enterprises’ TFP. In terms of industry, R&D subsidies have more obvious effects on technology-intensive industries, while production subsidies have more significant effects on labor-intensive and capital-intensive industries. In terms of scale, R&D subsidies’ effects on the TFP of medium-sized enterprises are the largest, while production subsidies have the greatest effect on small enterprises’ TFP. Government subsidies increase private enterprises’ TFP through two mechanisms: improving technological innovation capability and alleviating financing constraints. Our results suggest that governments should formulate different subsidy policies according to industry and enterprise scale.

Based on panel data of private A-share listed enterprises from 2011 to 2023, this paper empirically examines how digital finance—empowered by core computer technologies such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, and machine learning models—affects private enterprises' technological innovation and its mechanism of action. The study finds that the development of digital finance significantly improves private enterprises' technological innovation level; this conclusion remains robust after controlling for endogeneity and various interfering factors. Mechanism analysis shows that by alleviating financing constraints and optimizing the efficiency of financial resource allocation, digital finance provides more effective financial support for enterprises' R&D investment and innovation activities.

Along with the advent of the digital economy, digital inclusive finance has increasingly played an important role in alleviating the enterprises’ financing difficulties and contributing to healthy economic development. This paper examines the effect, mediating mechanism and heterogeneity of digital inclusive finance on the leverage of private enterprises by empirically analyzing the private enterprises on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2011-2017. It shows that digital inclusive finance can significantly reduce the leverage level of private enterprises. Also, it can be achieved mainly through alleviating enterprises’ financing constraints. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the dual effect of digital inclusive finance in alleviating financing constraints and reducing leverage level is more significant for large private enterprises and middle-western regions. In addition, the impact of digital inclusive finance on reducing short-term leverage is more significant compared to long-term leverage. Therefore, this paper enriches the research related to the impact of digital inclusive finance on enterprises at the micro level, and provides empirical evidence for promoting the development of digital inclusive finance and optimizing the financial supply system.

It is an important strategic measure for China’s economic transformation and upgrading to give full play to the value of different property rights capital, activate the vitality of enterprises and realize high-quality development. At present, introducing non-state capital into state-owned enterprises, and state-owned capital sharing in non-state enterprises are two main ideas for developing mixed ownership economy. The mixed ownership reform of enterprises is mainly manifested as “governance effect” and “resource effect”. Does the mixed ownership reform of Chinese enterprises play a governance effect, a resource effect, or both? For the study of the above problems, this paper takes Chinese A-share listed companies in 2010 and 2016 as research samples, and manually collects the detailed information of the top ten shareholders. Based on the unique dual ownership structure in China and the characteristics of mixed ownership reform of enterprises with different property properties, the index system of mixed ownership reform of enterprises with different property properties is constructed, and the relationship between mixed ownership reform and investment efficiency of enterprises with different property properties is studied.The empirical study finds that the mixed ownership reform significantly improves the investment efficiency of enterprises. For state-owned enterprises, the introduction of non-state capital reduces the over-investment of enterprises. For private enterprises, the participation of state-owned capital alleviates the lack of enterprise investment. The study of transmission mechanism finds that the mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises reduces the agency cost between shareholders and managers, showing the “governance effect” of mixed ownership reform. However, the mixed ownership reform of private enterprises reduces the financing constraints of enterprises and shows the “resource effect” of mixed ownership reform. Further research shows that the improvement effect of mixed ownership reform on investment efficiency of state-owned enterprises is more obvious in the samples with lower quality of internal control. The effect of mixed ownership reform on the investment efficiency of private enterprises is more obvious in regions with strong government intervention, which further confirms the “governance effect” of mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises and the “resource effect” of mixed ownership reform of private enterprises. This study not only enriches the relevant research on the economic consequences of mixed ownership reform in Chinese enterprises, but also provides some policy inspiration for the government to promote the reform of mixed ownership and develop mixed ownership economy.

As an important part of China’s national economic development, the private economy has played a relatively important role in promoting high-quality economic development, promoting scientific and technological innovation, and increasing employment opportunities. However, while the private economy is developing steadily and well, it also faces many pain points that need to be solved urgently. The identity problem is an important problem that has been troubling some private entrepreneurs for a long time. The so-called “private enterprise identity” mainly refers to the state-owned private enterprises whose initial property rights are owned by the state or the collective, and then privatized by private entrepreneurs through various ways such as equity acquisition. Compared with the self-employed private enterprises established by private entrepreneurs from the ground up, due to the high political cost and the pressure of public opinion, there are certain obstacles to their self-identity. This paper focuses on the specific impact of private enterprise identity on their micro-financialization decisions. Intuitively, due to the high political cost and public opinion pressure of state-owned private enterprises, the future operation risks of enterprises are exacerbated to some extent. In order to appropriately transfer risks, these private entrepreneurs have the motivation to strengthen financial asset allocation and thus increase the financialization degree of state-owned private enterprises. At the same time, due to certain obstacles to their own identity, state-owned private enterprises are more inclined to increase investment in the financial sector to deal with adverse situations such as the decline in the performance of their main business, which will also aggravate their financialization degree. Based on the above considerations, this paper takes the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share private companies whose actual controllers are natural persons or families during the period of 2007-2018 as the research sample, manually collects the initial property rights acquisition methods of private enterprises, and divides them into state-owned transformation private enterprises with serious identity problems and self-employed private enterprises without identity problems. It investigates the specific impact of private enterprise identity issues on their financial decision-making. The study finds that compared with self-employed private enterprises, state-owned transformation private enterprises with identity issues are more inclined to engage in financial behavior, which is reflected in a larger proportion of financial asset allocation and a higher proportion of financial investment income. Cross-sectional analysis shows that the positive impact of private enterprise identity issues on financial decision-making is more significant in the samples with poorer performance in the main business, greater operating risks, and lower degree of regional marketization. Further research finds that the financial behavior caused by private enterprise identity is mainly real estate investment, and also promotes the excessive financialization of enterprises. The research conclusion not only enriches the related literature on the influencing factors of corporate financialization and the economic consequences of private enterprise identity recognition, but also has certain reference significance for better exerting private entrepreneurship in the new era to promote the vigorous development of private economy. It also provides effective policy inspiration to properly manage and deal with the historical problems left over by some private enterprises in the process of property right transformation during the 14th Five-Year Plan period and the new normal stage of economy.

This study examines the influence of state‐owned equity participation on green innovation in private enterprises. Using the data of China's A‐share private listed companies between 2009 and 2021, the paper finds that state‐owned equity participation has a positive impact on corporate green innovation and this finding remains consistent and dependable after conducting a series of robustness tests. In addition, this paper also uncovers that the impact of state‐owned equity participation on corporate green innovation differed across regions, industries, and external corporate governance. The results show that the incentive impact of state‐owned equity participation on green innovation is more pronounced in private enterprises with higher levels of intellectual property protection in the region where they are located, belonging to high‐tech industries and with higher media attention. Further mechanism analysis reveals that state‐owned equity participation enhances corporate green innovation by improving the fulfilment of corporate environmental responsibility and alleviating corporate financing constraints. Overall, this study enriches the research of green innovation influencing factors from the perspective of minority state‐owned equity and can help to inspire governments to make full use of state‐owned equity to promote the green transformation of private enterprises, thus contributing to the sustainable development of the global economy.

The re-emergence of private enterprises is one of the most important factors in China's recent economic development. They will play a key role in maintaining China's high growth rate and honouring its commitments to the WTO. Despite this they face obstacles to growth, including borrowing restrictions, high taxes, ineffective legal protection and lack of technical and information support. The authors in this book discuss these obstacles and propose measures for improving private enterprise development. They consider how private enterprises can help China mitigate its macroeconomic problems, such as unemployment, income inequality, financial disintermediation and cyclical boom and bust. Finally they examine the lessons to be learnt from other countries in promoting privatization.

Contents: Introduction, Shuanglin Lin and Shunfeng Song Part I Private Enterprises and Economic Development: Higher efficiencies or resource reallocation?, Li Gan, Shunfeng Song and Chiu Tan Size of the state-owned sector and regional growth in China, Kerk L. Phillips and Shen Kunrong Resource allocation and economic growth in China, Shuanglin Lin. Part II Government and Private Enterprises: Government and private enterprises: Wenzhou experiences, Wenbo Wu Property rights developments and productivity gains in China: a law and economics perspective, Xiaowen Tian and Vai Io Lo Evolution of economic development: entrepreneurs, market, and the state, Jack W. Hou Private enterprise development and governmental functions, Jian He. Part III Financial Reforms, Openness, and Private Enterprise Development: Causes of the non-performing loan piling-up in the late 1990s: a research note, Ding Lu, Sandre M. Thangavelu and Qing Hu Public venture capital: understanding the US and Chinese experiences, Changwen Zhao, Shuming Bao and Chunfa Chen The challenges China's private enterprises face in the WTO, Shaomin Huang, Dongxia Wu and Grant D. Forsyth. Part IV Ownership Reforms and Privatization: The privatization of Russian state industry: some lessons for China, Marshall I. Goldman Politician control, agency problems and ownership reform: evidence from China, Lixin Colin Xu, Tian Zhu and Yi-min Lin Hospital ownership: what can China learn from the US experience?, Wei Yu. Part V Corporate Governance and Efficiency: Corporate governance and the development of private enterprise in China, Aimin Chen and Ping Li The productivity efficiency of the state-owned enterprises in China, Chun-Chien Kuo The prospect of private economy in China, Xiaowen Tian Index.

We use the multi-period difference-in-differences combined with the propensity score matching method (PSM-DID) to examine the dynamic impact of mixed-ownership reform on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and Private enterprises innovation. Our findings are as follows. Firstly, mixed-ownership reform consistently enhances the innovation level of SOEs and private enterprises, but this effect tends to decline in SOEs and increase in private enterprises, and it is found by comparison that the mixed-ownership reform benefits private enterprises’ innovation more than SOEs. Secondly, mixed-ownership reform raises SOEs and private enterprises’ innovation when equity incentives are low. However, as equity incentives increase, the reform decreases SOEs’ innovation while increasing private enterprises’ innovation. Thirdly, fiscal pressure weakens the positive impact of mixed-ownership reform on the innovation levels of both SOEs and private enterprises. The findings of this study can offer valuable insights for policymakers on increasing the innovation levels of businesses with different property rights through mixed ownership reform.