Wu Xihao, Zhou Qing
School of Management, Hainan University, Haikou, China.
The Research Institute of International People-to-People Exchange for Accounting, Haikou, China.
Front Psychol. 2022 May 3;13:853644. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.853644. eCollection 2022.
Registration system reform is a significant and important event in the marketization of the Chinese stock market. Using social network theory, we examine how this institutional change affects the function of the network in initial public offering (IPO) activities. As an exogenous event, registration system reform provides us a good condition to conduct Different-in-Different analysis. Using 1,364 eligible samples of IPO applications in Chinese stock market from 2016 to 2021, the results show that the enterprise's political connections (PCs) have a positive impact on IPO approval. However, registration system reform mitigates the role of PCs in IPO approval. In particular, attenuation of the efficiency of PCs under the registration system mainly exists in older firms that have long relationships with the government. The registration system can weaken the positive impact of PCs on IPO approval, even under high economic policy uncertainty where endorsements by the government are most effective. Furthermore, under the current Chinese double-track system, which includes both an approval system and a registration system, we find that enterprises with PCs are more likely to stay in the approval system to go public in the multiple application rounds, while enterprises that are not politically connected are more likely to switch the issuance system used from the approval system to the registration system. Lastly, we find that intermediate business connections, as an alternative network, can significantly improve the probability of their clients' IPO approval, and that registration system reform has strengthened the function of intermediate business connections in IPO approval.
注册制改革是中国股票市场市场化进程中的一件大事。运用社会网络理论，我们研究了这一制度变革如何影响首次公开募股（IPO）活动中的网络功能。作为一个外生事件，注册制改革为我们进行双重差分分析提供了良好条件。以2016年至2021年中国股票市场1364个符合条件的IPO申请样本为研究对象，结果表明企业的政治关联对IPO获批有正向影响。然而，注册制改革削弱了政治关联在IPO获批中的作用。具体而言，注册制下政治关联效率的减弱主要存在于与政府关系长久的老企业中。即使在经济政策不确定性较高、政府背书最为有效的情况下，注册制也能削弱政治关联对IPO获批的正向影响。此外，在中国当前包括核准制和注册制的双轨制下，我们发现有政治关联的企业更有可能留在核准制下，通过多轮申请实现上市，而无政治关联的企业则更有可能将发行制度从核准制转换为注册制。最后，我们发现居间业务关系作为一种替代网络，能够显著提高其客户IPO获批的概率，并且注册制改革增强了居间业务关系在IPO获批中的作用。
