Does Folk Custom Affect Innovation Decisions Of Chairmen?

In recent years,the influence of folk belief and custom on personal and commercial consumption has been gradually discussed in the academic circle,but the influence on corporate behavior is rarely discussed.As an important part of the informal system,folk belief originates from the traditional farming civilization and is highly integrated with production and life,reflecting the cultural psychology of "seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages" of the people,and its worship permeates into habits,taboos,etiquette and customs.Among them,the custom of benmingnian is an important supernatural belief and folk culture in China.There is a folk saying that the benmingnian is bumpy and full of disasters.The practice of avoiding disasters in benmingnian continues as a custom.The custom of benmingnian affects one’s risk appetite,and individuals with such custom tend to have a lower risk taking level in the benmingnian.Innovation is a driving force for China’s economic development and a strategic underpinning for high-quality development and a modernized economy.The research shows that managers’ personal characteristics and risk preference have an important impact on firms’ innovation behavior.Based on the perspective of managers’ willingness to take risks in the context of Traditional Chinese culture,this thesis uses the annual data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2020 to test the impact of chairman’s custom about benmingnian on enterprise innovation through empirical analysis,and introduces chairman’s overconfidence,an important executive characteristic,as A moderating variable to analyze the influence of the psychological characteristics of chairman’s overconfidence on the relationship between them.Furthermore,considering the lag of income generated by innovation input,this thesis studies the influence of chairman’s custom about benmingnian on enterprise innovation in past and future periods.In addition,based on the internal and external governance mechanism,the heterogeneity of internal control environment and formal institutional environment is grouped,and the impact of the nature of property rights on the relationship between chairman’s custom and firm innovation is analyzed.It is found that when the chairman is in his benmingnian,the innovation level of the enterprise will decline.However,chairman’s overconfidence will reduce the negative impact of chairman’s custom about benmingnian on the level of enterprise innovation.Further research shows that chairman’s custom about benmingnian has a significant negative impact on Last year’s enterprise innovation.For enterprises in strict internal control environment,chairman’s custom about benmingnian has a stronger inhibiting effect on innovation,while for enterprises in good formal institutional environment,chairman’s custom about benmingnian has a weaker inhibiting effect on innovation.In state-owned enterprises,chairman’s custom about benmingnian has a stronger restraining effect on innovation level.This article focuses on managers’ psychological factors and help managers to recognize the psychological deviation influence on enterprise innovation behavior.This thesis provides theoretical support and policy suggestions for the influence of folk belief on enterprise decision-making by complementing the research vacancy of the influence mechanism of folk belief on enterprise behavior and the literature on the influence factors of enterprise innovation.