The Largest Shareholder's Equity Pledge?Corporate Governance And Enterprise R&D Investment

Since the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges adopted the business of stock pledged repurchase in 2013,the new financing method of equity pledge has developed rapidly in the capital market,and most of the equity pledges have come from the hands of major shareholders.Although the pledge of large shareholders 'equity is the behavior of large shareholders themselves,due to the special status of large shareholders in listed companies,their own behaviors will affect the listed companies to some extent.Therefore,the pledge of large shareholders' equity is worthy of attention and research.Equity pledge has the advantages of low threshold,low financing cost,and convenient operation.Equity pledge of major shareholders can effectively alleviate the problem of financing constraints.However,there is also a certain risk in the pledge of equity by major shareholders.After the major shareholder's equity is pledged,due to concerns that the stock price of the listed company will fall to the "warning line" or "close position",additional collateral will be required or loss of control of the listed company.The major shareholder will likely take some measures to avoid the above situation happened.The company's R & D activities are highly uncertain,have long benefit periods,require continuous financial support,and are hidden from information.Once R & D failures,the company will suffer huge losses and it is likely to cause the company's stock price to fall,which will greatly increase the risk of the transfer of control by large shareholders.Therefore,this paper attempts to study whether major shareholders will use their special status in listed companies to interfere with corporate decision-making and reduce R & D expenditures in order to avoid the risk of transfer of control rights.If this situation does exist,is there any way to mitigate this adverse effect.After combing domestic and foreign literature on the economic consequences of equity pledge,corporate governance and corporate R & D investment,this paper proposes research hypotheses based on the principal-agent theory,the signaling theory,and Schumpeter innovation theory.Taking all A-share listed companies from 2014 to 2018 as research objects,and using normative analysis and empirical research methods,the relationship between the equity pledge of major shareholders and corporate R & D investment was discussed.From the perspective of corporate governance,the board of directors' leadership structure,board shareholding ratio,and the consistency of the work place of independent directors and listed companies and management shareholding ratios are used as substitute variables for corporate governance,verifying the role of corporate governance in regulating the relationship between major shareholder equity pledges and corporate R & D investment.The empirical results show that the pledge of large shareholders' equity will inhibit the R & D investment of listed companies.Corporate governance has a moderating effect on the negative correlation between equity pledge of major shareholders and R & D investment.Among them,The combination of the chairman and the general manager can alleviate the negative relationship between the shareholder's equity pledge and the company's R & D investment;the increase of the board shareholding ratio can inhibit the relationship between the two;The consistency of independent directors and work places of listed companies does not significantly regulate the relationship between the two;the higher the management's shareholding ratio,the more it can suppress the negative relationship between the two.The research in this paper expands the economic consequences of equity pledge and enriches the factors affecting R & D investment.It is of great significance to improve the laws and regulations related to equity pledges,improve the corporate governance structure of enterprises,and promote the smooth development of corporate R & D activities.