Regional Culture,Top Manager's Characteristics And Firm's Financial Behavior

As a vital factor of informal institution,culture plays an important role in firm'sdecisions.As a result,we can further clarify the factors which can influence a firm's decisions by investigating how culture affects firm's behavior.Further,knowing how top manager's heterogeneity can help the firm to employ more appropriate managers.This dissertation investigates how culture differences between different provinces in China influence firm's decisions.Based on this,we further explore how top manager's heterogeneity in culture affect firm's decision making.The results help stakeholders to understand firm's decisions better.There are eight chapters in this dissertation,Chapter ? includes the research question,background,research significance,method and innovations.Chapter ? is literature review.Chapter ? is culture background,which describes the culture background in China and related theories.Chapter ? to Chapter ? is empirical research,among which,Chapter ? exams the impact of culture and top manager's heterogeneity on firm's trade credit.Chapter ? investigates how culture differences and top manager's heterogeneity in culture influence firm's cash holdings.Chapter?exams how culture and top manager's heterogeneity influence firm's innovation efficiency.Chapter ? discusses how culture differences and top manager's heterogeneity in culture affect firm's CSR.At last,Chapter ? concludes the dissertation on the whole in the meantime points out the limitation and possible future research questions.The main results of this dissertation are as follows:(1)Culture differences in various areas have a significant impact on trade credit in listed firms in China.Specifically,if the culture in an area is more prone to avoid uncertainty,the listed firms in that area are more likely to obtain more trade credit,namely accounts payable and notes payable.However,if the culture in an area is less likely to avoid uncertainty,the listed firms in that area are more likely to provide more trade credit.If the culture in a province is more assertive and aggressive,the listed firms in that province will provide more trade credit.Further,we investigate how CEO's heterogeneity in culture affects firm's decision on trade credit.We find that when CEO's culture orientation is as same as the culture of the area where the firm is located,area culture plays a significant role on firm's trade credit.However,whenIV CEO's culture orientation is different from the culture of the area where the firm islocated,area culture does not play a significant role on firm's trade credit any more.(2)Culture differences in various areas have a significant impact on cash holdings in listed firms in China.Specifically,the regional cultural dimensions of future orientation and institutional collectivism are both positively associated with firm's cash holdings.Further,we investigate how CEO's heterogeneity in culture affects firm's decision on cash holdings.We find that when CEO's culture orientation is as same as the culture of the area where the firm is located,area culture plays a significant role on firm's cash holdings.However,when CEO's culture orientation is different from the culture of the area where the firm is located,area culture does not play a significant role on firm's cash holdings any more.(3)Culture differences in various areas have a significant influence on innovation efficiency in listed firms in China.To be specific,he regional cultural dimensions of future orientation is positively associated with firm's innovation efficiency in China.We further exam how CEO's heterogeneity in culture affects firm's decision on CSR.As a result,we find that when CEO's culture orientation is as same as the culture of the area where the firm is located,area culture plays a significant role on firm's innovation efficiency.However,when CEO's culture orientation is different from the culture of the area where the firm is located,area culture does not play a significant role on firm's innovation efficiency any more.(4)Culture differences in various areas have a significant influence on cash CSR in listed firms in China.Specifically,the regional cultural dimensions of power distance and performance orientation are both negatively associated with firm's CSR.But,the regional cultural dimension of gender egalitarianism is positively associated with firm's CSR.Further,we exam how CEO's heterogeneity in culture affects firm's decision on CSR.We find that when CEO's culture orientation is as same as the culture of the area where the firm is located,area culture plays a significant role on firm's CSR.However,when CEO's culture orientation is different from the culture of the area where the firm is located,area culture does not play a significant role on firm's CSR any more.The innovations of this dissertation are specified as follows.(1)This research first exams how cultural differences in China affect firm's decision making and further investigates how top manager's character of cultural heterogeneity play a rolein firm's decision making process.(2)This dissertation sheds light on the research on the relationship between informal institutions and firm's behaviors.(3)This dissertation expands the researches on how top manager's heterogeneity influence firm's decisions.