Research On The Influence Mechanism And Effectiveness Of Mixed Ownership Reform On Innovation Activities Of State-owned Enterprises

All along,state-owned enterprises have provided the necessary support for the stable development of China’s economy.However,due to institutional shortcomings,SOEs are facing problems such as low operational efficiency and lack of innovative vitality.In order to preserve and increase the value of state-owned assets,departments at all levels are actively exploring policies to reform state-owned enterprises.Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee,China’s mixed ownership reform has been in the stage of accelerated promotion,and academics have also actively carried out research related to it.Most scholars have affirmed the positive significance of the mixed ownership reform.However,in terms of effects,most scholars focus on the impact of mixed ownership reform on the overall financial performance and corporate governance of enterprises,and there is a lack of research on corporate innovation(especially the impact mechanism).As an important driving force for economic development,innovation plays a significant role in the economic growth of enterprises.Therefore,with the case of Gree Electric’s mixed ownership reform,this paper investigates the impact of mixed ownership reform on the innovation activities of SOEs,analyzes its value creation mechanism,and provides practical experience for SOEs’ mixed ownership reform,while supplementing the relevant research perspectives and fields.Based on the principal-agent theory,stakeholder theory,resource-based theory,property rights theory and beyond property rights theory,this paper reviews the two-stage mixed ownership reform process of Gree Electric and analyzes the paths of mixed ownership reform affecting innovation,and finally summarizes the research framework of "two levels-five aspects-multiple paths".This paper concludes that the mixed ownership reform has firstly changed the equity structure of Gree Electric,reducing the concentration of equity and improving the checks and balances of equity,which is conducive to improving the scientific and effective decision-making of innovation.Secondly,the change of equity structure has impacted on the institutional level of the enterprise(governance structure and incentive mechanism).The heterogeneity of Gree Electric’s board of directors has significantly increased and formed a situation of mutual checks and balances,which is conducive to reducing the risk of innovation decision-making and promoting the effective integration and allocation of corporate innovation resources;the more market-oriented incentive mechanism helps stimulate the management’s willingness to innovate and the R&D staffs motivation to innovate.In addition,a more rational shareholding structure,a more regulated governance structure and better incentives following the mixed ownership reform have also had an impact on the business level(business strategy,degree of financialisation and degree of surplus management).The specialization and diversification strategies,which have been deeply implemented,have imposed higher "quality" and "quantity" requirements on the innovation output of the company,which can motivate the company to invest more in innovation;the introduction of strategic investors on two occasions has improved the return on investment in the real business and alleviated the crowding out of innovation investment by financial assets.The increase of heterogeneous shareholders’ voice limits the surplus management behavior,and the management shareholding also weakens the surplus management motivation,both of which help to increase R&D investment.This paper also analyzes the effect of the two-stage mixed ownership reform of Gree Electric on the innovation activities(innovation input,innovation output and innovation efficiency)of the company.The innovation inputs are divided into human and financial resources,and the innovation outputs are divided into technical and economic aspects,and finally,the data envelopment approach(DEA)is used to evaluate the innovation efficiency of the enterprise.The analysis shows that Gree Electric has significantly increased its human innovation input(but the problem of personnel turnover cannot be ignored),and the financial innovation input has suppressed the decline;the technological innovation output has improved significantly compared with that before the mixed ownership reform,and the economic innovation output performance of Gree Electric has also been improved to some extent;the comprehensive technical efficiency has continuously achieved DEA validity,which indicates that Gree Electric’s internal management,technology level and innovation input scale have been improved,and the efficiency of enterprise innovation resource allocation has been significantly improved.Finally,based on the analysis of the case of Gree Electric’s mixed ownership reform,two implications are obtained:First,state-owned enterprises should follow the principle of "one enterprise,one policy" and design the reform plan of mixed ownership.Second,state-owned enterprises should pay attention to the reform of the system and mechanism after "mixing",so as to improve the innovative performance of enterprises.