摘要
本文通过构造儒家文化强度的距离模型和区域模型,使用2003—2018年间我国沪深A股上市公司的违规数据,研究了儒家文化对公司违规行为的影响。本文发现,儒家文化对公司违规行为有显著抑制作用,这种影响在控制了可能的内生性问题后依然显著。对违规行为具体分类研究,发现儒家文化对信息披露、股东自利、治理不规范这三类违规行为有显著抑制作用。通过中介效应检验发现,声誉机制和代理机制是儒家文化影响公司违规行为的两个潜在渠道,受儒家文化影响较强的公司更看重对公司声誉的维护,同时儒家价值观有利于降低代理成本,减少代理人的违规动机。另外,本文还发现,对于国有控股公司和行业竞争相对不激烈的公司来说,儒家文化对违规行为的抑制效应更强。本文拓展了关于非正式制度对公司行为作用的认识,同时,对政策制定者和企业管理者有一定实践启示。
This paper examines whether and to what extent Confucian culture takes effect on the behavior of corporate fraud.The core elements of Confucianism have become the implicit code of conduct followed by Chinese people in their daily life.The heterogeneity of corporate behaviors cannot be explained thoroughly and comprehensively by the theories of formal institutions.Therefore this paper attempts to analyze the internal motivation of corporate fraud in-depth from the perspective of informal institutions.With reference of history of Confucianism,the measurement of the influence of Confucian culture on firms is first constructed,including a regional model and a distance model,which is the basis of the empirical research of the whole article.The empirical research is mainly composed of three parts.First,using the data of publicly listed firms on Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2003 to 2018 and the Logit model estimation approach,this paper finds that there is a significant negative correlation between Confucian measurement and the probability of corporate fraud occurrence,which indicates that the influence of Confucian culture can help firms to reduce the possibility of corporate committing violation behaviors.The more the corporate is affected by the Confucianism,the less likely it commits fraud.This result is robust after addressing the endogeneity issues on the Confucian variables by using the two-stage least square estimation with the instrumental variables.Second,empirical results show that reputation mechanism and agency cost mechanism are two possible channels,both of which have partial mediating effects on corporate fraud.Corporations under the influence of Confucian culture pay more attention to the maintenance of corporate reputation.And Confucian culture can help reduce agency costs as well as agents’violation motivations.Third,this paper also finds that Confucian culture has a stronger negative effect on corporate fraud behaviors if the corporate is state-owned,or in a relatively uncompetitive industry.Compared with the existing literature,this paper makes contributions to improve the measurement of Confucian culture influence on companies,and enrich the literature about Confucian culture and corporate behaviors.In addition,this paper proposes two channels about how the Confucianism affects corporate fraud,to better understand the important role of informal institutions in corporate behaviors.Furthermore,this paper also provides an empirical basis for a deeper understanding of the economic consequences of Confucianism and the role in modern society.This can help to carry forward excellent cultural values with the emphasis of"culture self-confidence".The conclusions of this paper can provide some inspiration for policy-making.The government and relevant regulatory authorities should pay more attention to soft factors such as culture.Specifically,China has a vast territory,and there are cultural differences between different regions,which should be taken into account.For example,when selecting pilot areas for the new policy,in addition to considering the local economic environment,we should also consider the characteristics of the cultural environment and whether it is conducive to the implementation of the new policy.Further,when the new policy is promoted from the pilot area to other areas,the policy should also be adapted to local conditions,allowing certain differences in regional policies,so as to better adapt to the local cultural environment.This study also provides important practical implications for firms.Cultural management emphasizes the cultivation of organizational culture,guiding and stimulating employees’conscious behaviors,so as to comprehensively improve the management efficiency.Specifically,enterprises can incorporate part of the connotation of Confucian culture into the corporate culture,such as guiding employees to pay attention to company’s reputation,cultivating employees’concept of righteousness and benefit,so as to help enterprises develop healthily and orderly.Chinese enterprises should develop corporate management culture based on the characteristics of Chinese social culture and market environment,strive to understand Chinese experience with Chinese classics and analyze China’s road with Chinese principles.
作者
李文佳
朱玉杰
LI Wen-jia;ZHU Yu-jie(School of Economics and Finance,Tsinghua University,Beijing,100084,China;School of Economics and Finance,Ningxia University,Yinchuan,Ningxia,750021,China)
出处
《经济管理》
CSSCI
北大核心
2021年第9期137-153,共17页
Business and Management Journal ( BMJ )
关键词
儒家文化
公司违规
公司治理
confucian culture
corporate fraud
corporate governance
