Employee ownership in China: new evidence

PurposeWith specific big-data mining worked on 61,522 firm announcements, we discovered a diverse Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) model in China, called “Core-Staff-Based ESOPs.” Distinct from standard broad-based or executive-based ESOPs, these specific targeted-broad-based ESOPs require the q...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of participation and employee ownership (Online) Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 46 - 65
Main Author Pan, Huifen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Bingley Emerald Group Publishing Limited 14.06.2024
Subjects
Employee stock ownership plans
Employment
Environmental conditions
ESOP
Executives
Factories
Incentive plans
Participation
China
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Summary:PurposeWith specific big-data mining worked on 61,522 firm announcements, we discovered a diverse Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) model in China, called “Core-Staff-Based ESOPs.” Distinct from standard broad-based or executive-based ESOPs, these specific targeted-broad-based ESOPs require the qualification for participants, involving the participation of senior executives, directors at the middle level and any other employees that make particular contributions to firms. We take on the challenge to analyze ESOP mechanism, firm characteristics and performance in the view of organizational ecology and resource-based choice-making, and explore which factors have influenced the ESOP development in China.Design/methodology/approachWe utilize a combination of approaches including qualitative and quantitative methods, and construct the main database of 117,767 firm-quarter data.FindingsFirstly, based upon our institutional research, we find no coercive mechanisms that force all the Chinese listed firms to implement ESOPs since 2005. Secondly, our binary logistic regressions identify ESOP firms’ specific properties significantly distinct from non-ESOP firms, and draw profiles for these ESOP firms. Thirdly, our panel regression test results sustain the rational of ESOP mechanism, demonstrating that ESOPs enable Chinese firms to improve performance both in profits and their industry positions. Finally, with further quantitative tests, we find out this ESOP design’s limitations and the heterogenous effects due to China’s environments.Originality/valueThe discovery of Core-staff-based ESOPs contributes a diversity to the standard framework of ESOPs, enhances our understanding of China’s ESOP development, and provides new evidence for ESOP performance.
ISSN:2514-7641
2514-765X
DOI:10.1108/JPEO-01-2021-0001