| In recent years,some major shareholders of listed companies in the market have been speculatively reducing their holdings and cashing out problems,which have seriously damaged the interests of small and medium investors.The major shareholders,who are insiders of the company,can often choose the timing to reduce their holdings precisely by taking advantage of their information advantages,and obtain higher income from the reduction of holdings.Structural hole theory believes that individuals in key positions in social networks can obtain more information and resources.Therefore,major shareholders in key positions in social networks have stronger information advantages and can make more accurate predictions of company stock price fluctuations.In turn,it is possible to accurately grasp the opportunity to reduce holdings to obtain high holding reduction benefits.This paper first reviews the structural hole theory,principal-agent theory and information asymmetry theory,and sorts out the relevant literature on social networks,environmental uncertainty and major shareholders’ reduction.The current situation of holdings,considering the impact of the new regulations on holding reduction introduced in 2017,and taking the holding reduction events of major shareholders of A-share listed companies from 2014 to 2019 as a sample,the impact of the social network of major shareholders on the ability of major shareholders to reduce their holdings,the moderating effect of environment uncertainty and the impact of the reduction policy are empirically analyzed.The results show that the centrality of the social network of major shareholders positively affects their ability to choose opportunities to reduce their holdings.Environmental uncertainty affects the information advantage of major shareholders by affecting information asymmetry,and positively regulates the relationship between social network centrality and the ability to reduce holdings.Regarding the test of the effect of the new regulations on shareholding reduction,it was found that the new regulations on shareholding reduction implemented in 2017 significantly suppressed the profit level of major shareholders in reducing their holdings.However,strengthening information disclosure did not significantly inhibit major shareholders from taking advantage of social network information to choose an opportunity to reduce their holdings.The innovation of this paper is that firstly,according to the structural hole theory,the social network relationship is taken into consideration as the influencing factors of the major shareholders’ ability to reduce their holdings;As a moderating variable;finally,based on the policy background of the new regulation for reduction of holdings,the policy effect of the new regulation for reduction of holdings is discussed. |
