Research On The Impact Of Performance Below Aspiration On Enterprise Risk-taking

At present,China is forming a new development pattern with domestic and international cycles as the main body and promoting each other with domestic and international double cycles.In this epoch,as the background,high-quality development has become an inevitable choice for Chinese enterprises.Only in this way could we really solve the problem of bottleneck in key & core areas and allow the emergence of more excellent enterprises with “innovation genes”.High-quality development and operation mode require Chinese enterprises to have more risk awareness and risk-taking ability,and to be able to manage high-risk strategic behavior scientifically and effectively in a highly uncertain external environment,and to control risk efficiently.There are many researches on risk decision of top management team in academic circles,and the existing research uses some theories to explain it,such as Enterprise Behavior Theory,Prospect Theory,Threat-rigidity Theory and so on,with its own applicability in each theory.What is the motivation of top management team to make high-risk decisions,there are obvious differences in explaining the decision-making of top management team in different theories.One of the main manifestations of the decision-making characteristics of the top management team is to use the performance expectation as the reference point to judge whether there are problems in the current enterprise performance through performance feedback,and then to determine whether the enterprise ought to take the corresponding reform measures.From the point of view of previous research,the factors that lead to high-risk decisions produced by the top management team are mainly the personal characteristics of the top management team,as well as the power of the CEO/ top management team and some other variables that are more closely related to the top management itself.However,it is necessary to observe whether the performance below aspiration will have an impact on the preference characteristics of top management team in decision-making,which is conducive to opening the logical black box above and revealing its internal mechanism further.On a basis of the listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share mainboard in China,this paper adopts research methods such as logical deduction method,multiple regression analysis method and three-step process method method to analyze the relationship between performance below aspiration and enterprise risk-taking.Ranging from 2003 to 2019,a total of 23215 company-year sample observations in the past 17 years have been obtained.On the basis of constructing benchmark model,mediating effect model and moderating effect model,several hypotheses are tested by multivariate regression,and the validity of the conclusions is further verified by robustness test.There are six parts in this doctoral thesis.The first chapter is the introduction.This part mainly introduces the research background and puts forward the research problems,presenting the significance of the research from the theoretical and practical point of view,and introducing the research contents and methods,research ideas and technical routes,as well as the innovation.The second part is literature review.This part mainly summarizes the relevant literature from the aspects of risk-taking,performance below aspiration,the relationship between performance below aspiration and risk-taking,differentiation strategy and its related research,and the impact of the heterogeneity of top management team on enterprise behavior.The third part is the theoretical analysis and research hypothesis.This part mainly expounds the related theories such as Enterprise Behavior Theory,Prospect Theory,Threat-rigidity Theory and Upper Echelons Theory,and then uses the theory above to analyze and put forward the research model and hypothesis.The fourth part is the research design.This part introduces the sample selection and data source,the measurement method of variables,and gives the econometric model.The fifth part is data analysis and hypothesis test.This part mainly introduces descriptive statistics,the regression results of the relationship between performance below aspiration and enterprise risk-taking,the mediating effect of differentiation strategy,as well as the heterogeneity of top management team and the moderating effect of institutional environment,and verifies the assumptions put forward before.At the same time,the robustness test is also carried out.The robustness of the research conclusions is tested mainly by replacing the dependent variables and independent variables.The sixth part is the conclusion and prospect.This part mainly introduces the research conclusions,management enlightenment and suggestions,and puts forward the research limitations and prospects for the future.The conclusions are as follows: First,the performance below aspiration has a significant impact on enterprise risk-taking.When the performance below aspiration is measured in different ways,the relationship between performance below aspiration and enterprise risk-taking is inconsistent.The study confirms that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the backward-looking performance below aspiration and the enterprises risk-taking,and the forward-looking performance below aspiration has a significantly positive impact on the enterprises risk-taking.Second,differentiation strategy plays a significant mediating effect between performance below aspiration and enterprise risk-taking.Differentiation strategy is a feasible strategic choice,which is more easily accepted and recognized by stakeholders,including shareholders.Third,the heterogeneity of top management team plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between performance below aspiration and enterprise risk-taking.Fourth,the institutional environment also plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between performance below aspiration and enterprise risk-taking.The innovations are as follows: First,starting from the multi-dimensional performance below aspiration,this paper reveals the heterogeneous impact of performance below aspiration on enterprise risk-taking in different dimensions,which provides a useful supplement to the existing research on performance below aspiration.It is found that there is a significant positive linear relationship between the forward-looking performance below aspiration and enterprise decision-making,totally different from the inverted U-shaped relationship between backward-looking performance below aspiration and the enterprises decision-making,which indicates that the action mechanism of the two is not the same,and the applicable theory is also very different.Second,the introduction of differentiation strategy,an important strategic option,displays that differentiation strategy has an obvious mediating effect between performance below aspiration and enterprise risk-taking.That is to say,when the performance below aspiration appears,the enterprise is likely to change its level of risk-taking through the implementation of differentiation strategy,which further opens the black box of the action mechanism between the performance below aspiration and the enterprise risk-taking,and provides a very important function route.Third,the heterogeneity of top management team and institutional environment play a significant role in moderating the relationship between performance below aspiration and enterprise risk-taking from the internal and external aspects of the organization,which helps to supplement the internal and external situational factors that affect the formation mechanism of enterprise decision-making.