Ownership Structure,Marketization And The Choice Of Employee Stock Ownership Plan

Employee stock ownership plan(ESOP)is a kind of long-term incentive plan that enables employees to hold shares of the company,to participate in corporate governance and to obtain profit distribution through non-public offering of shares,parallel purchase.Employee stock ownership plan originated from the United States in the 50 s of last century,it was developed on the basis of Luis Kelso's "two factor theory".Employee stock ownership plans associate employee benefits with the overall interests of the enterprise,mobilize the enthusiasm of employees which is helpful to retain the core employee of enterprises and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.Employee stock ownership plan started from the 80 s of last century in our country,however,due to various irregularities in the implementation process,our country terminated the issue of internal staff shares in 1998.Until 2014,China Securities Regulatory Commission issued guidance on the implementation of employee stock ownership plans of listed companies,the employee stock ownership plan has been restarted.This provides the latest data support for the study of the ownership structure,marketization and the choice of employee stock ownership plan.This paper selects 598 A-share listed companies which release the announcement of employee stock ownership plan from July 1,2014 to December 31,2016 as the sample of study and empirically analyzes the ownership structure,marketization and the choice of employee stock ownership plan.The results show that: first of all,the ownership structure of listed companies will affect the implementation of employee stock ownership plan.Among them,firms with lower ownership concentration are more inclined to implement the employee stock ownership plan.Non-state firms are more inclined to implement the employee stock ownership plan.Secondly,as the external environment variables,the level of marketization will affect whether the listed companies implement the employee stock ownership plan.firms with higher level of marketization are more inclined to implement the employee stock ownership plan.This shows that the internal and external factors will affect the implementation of employee stock ownership plan.Finally,this paper makes a group regression of ownership structure and employee stock option plan according to the level of marketization,the results show that the low level of marketization will strengthen the relationship between ownership diversification and the choice of employee stock ownership plan and the high level of marketization will strengthen the relationship between non-state-owned enterprises and the choice of employee stock ownership plan.On the basis of empirical analysis,this paper puts forward two suggestions for enterprises and government from the conclusion of the study.From the perspective of enterprises,enterprises should establish an appropriate concentration of ownership,and ensure that managers and employees can be effectively supervised without the occurrence of major shareholders harm the interests of minority shareholders.Then,state-owned enterprises should be encouraged to actively develop employee stock ownership plan which is an effective means of the reform of the mixed ownership system in order to enhance the vitality of state-owned enterprises.From the perspective of government,the government should establish a fair competitive market environment,strive to improve the regional market level,strengthen the supervision of illegal activities and create a favorable external environment for the development of enterprises.