Study On The Impact Of Anti-corruption Campaign On Firm Guanxi-Oriented Strategy And Innovation-Driven Strategy

The Communist Party of China,with Xi Jinping at its core,launched the biggest anti-corruption campaign since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2013.This campaign has a profound impact on firm's strategic behaviors which has aroused wide attention from scholars in the field of management.Researches,which explore the impact of anti-corruption campaign on innovation-driven strategies and guanxi-oriented strategies,are emerging.However,these studies have not fully considered the differences brought by regional,industrial and firm level characteristics to the above-mentioned impact,nor have they empirically tested the impact mechanism of anti-corruption campaign on guanxi-oriented strategy.This paper first summarizes the current research situation and shortcomings in related fields,then uses institutional theory and resource dependence theory to put forward research hypotheses and build theoretical models,and then uses panel data of 3624 listed companies in China from 2009 to 2017 to test the hypotheses using fixed effect model.The main empirical findings are as follows:(1)The anti-corruption campaign has a positive effect on innovation-driven strategy,especially in the areas with low level of marketization.(2)The anti-corruption campaign has a negative weakening effect on the guanxi-oriented strategy,which is stronger in the areas with higher marketization level and heavier tax burden.(3)The innovation-driven strategy of firms promotes the implementation of guanxi-oriented strategy.When the firm is small or in a competitive industry,the role is greater.(4)The innovation-driven strategy shows part of the intermediary role.Specifically speaking,the anti-corruption campaign directly suppresses the guanxi-oriented strategy,but it indirectly promotes guanxi-oriented strategy through the innovation-driven strategy.Compared with the existing research,this paper is different in the following three aspects.Firstly,in the study of the influence mechanism of anti-corruption campaign on guanxi-oriented strategy,this paper is an earlier study.Secondly,this paper discusses the impact of anti-corruption campaign on innovation-driven strategy and guanxi-oriented strategy of firms in different regions.The process of marketization is not consistent among regions in China,and the tax standards of local governments are also different.Firms in different regions may take different strategic decisions and investment behaviors when facing anti-corruption campaigns.Previous empirical studies on the impact of anti-corruption campaigns on innovation-driven strategy and guanxi-oriented strategy have mostly explored the moderating effect of the nature of firm ownership and industry differences on the above-mentioned impact,and never examined the moderating effect of area-level feature,therefore it cannot provide better guidance and suggestions for firms in different regions.Thirdly,this paper discusses the moderating effect of firm scale and industry competition intensity on the impact of innovation-driven strategy on guanxi-oriented strategy.Existing studies have evaluated the influence of firm scale and industry competition intensity on guanxi-oriented strategy,but have not clearly examined the moderating effect of firm scale and industry competition intensity on the influence of innovation-driven strategy.This paper is helpful to understand the influencing mechanism and effect of anti-corruption campaign on innovation-driven strategy and guanxi-oriented strategy of firms,and it has practical implication for the government to implement anti-corruption campaign and firms to adjust innovation-driven strategy and guanxi-oriented strategy.