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- All Subjects: Firm Performance
- All Subjects: family wealth
- Creators: Du, Fangfang
- Creators: Lee, Peggy
Description
By matching a CEO's place of residence in his or her formative years with U.S. Census survey data, I obtain an estimate of the CEO's family wealth and study the link between the CEO's endowed social status and firm performance. I find that, on average, CEOs born into poor families outperform those born into wealthy families, as measured by a variety of proxies for firm performance. There is no evidence of higher risk-taking by the CEOs from low social status backgrounds. Further, CEOs from less privileged families perform better in firms with high R&D spending but they underperform CEOs from wealthy families when firms operate in a more uncertain environment. Taken together, my results show that endowed family wealth of a CEO is useful in identifying his or her managerial ability.
ContributorsDu, Fangfang (Author) / Babenko, Ilona (Thesis advisor) / Bates, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Tserlukevich, Yuri (Committee member) / Wang, Jessie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Shareholder Activism is a mechanism by which investors who hold a significant but
non-majority percentage of a company’s stock, exercise their voting rights, participate in
corporate governance and influence operational decisions of target companies. The
purpose is improve corporate governance, increase firm performance and boost share
-holders’ returns. Existing studies of shareholder activism, based largely in mature
capital markets like the US, come to different conclusions regarding its impact on firm
performance.
In this paper, I collect data on shareholder activism events in the China A Share
market between 2006 and 2016. The sample includes 60 companies targeted by 42
activist investors over this period. I find that institutional investors, typically industrial
capital and private funds, playing an increasingly important role in corporate governance
of Chinese listed companies through activism. The disclosure of the holdings of activists
results in large gains in the target firm. I also find subsequent improvements in long
-term operational performance of target firms. Activist investors in China focus on
smaller targets and those characterized by higher agency costs and lower operating
performance. Activists appear to be largely concerned with improvements in business
strategy and M&A activity. Non-hostile behavior is more likely to be related to successful
activism in China. In addition to statistical evidence, I present case studies of the
“BaoWan dispute” and the activist investment of Butterfly Capital in two firms,
“Guonong” and “Xiuqiang”. The case studies highlight the mechanism employed by these
firms to influence performance.
I conclude with policy recommendations and direction for further research.
non-majority percentage of a company’s stock, exercise their voting rights, participate in
corporate governance and influence operational decisions of target companies. The
purpose is improve corporate governance, increase firm performance and boost share
-holders’ returns. Existing studies of shareholder activism, based largely in mature
capital markets like the US, come to different conclusions regarding its impact on firm
performance.
In this paper, I collect data on shareholder activism events in the China A Share
market between 2006 and 2016. The sample includes 60 companies targeted by 42
activist investors over this period. I find that institutional investors, typically industrial
capital and private funds, playing an increasingly important role in corporate governance
of Chinese listed companies through activism. The disclosure of the holdings of activists
results in large gains in the target firm. I also find subsequent improvements in long
-term operational performance of target firms. Activist investors in China focus on
smaller targets and those characterized by higher agency costs and lower operating
performance. Activists appear to be largely concerned with improvements in business
strategy and M&A activity. Non-hostile behavior is more likely to be related to successful
activism in China. In addition to statistical evidence, I present case studies of the
“BaoWan dispute” and the activist investment of Butterfly Capital in two firms,
“Guonong” and “Xiuqiang”. The case studies highlight the mechanism employed by these
firms to influence performance.
I conclude with policy recommendations and direction for further research.
ContributorsXie, Fenghua (Author) / Wahal, Sunil (Thesis advisor) / Yan, Hong (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Peggy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017