Anti-Takeover Intensity、 Stability Of Top Management Team And Innovation Performance

In recent years,with the unparalleled activeness of the external control market and the rapid development of the capital market,the phenomenon of hostile takeovers among listed companies has reached an unprecedented climax.In order to consolidate their position in the capital market and reduce the possibility of becoming the target of hostile takeover,many enterprises have set up anti-takeover clauses in their articles of association to deal with the threat of hostile takeover at any time.The setting of anti-takeover clauses in the company’s articles of association can reduce the risk of the transfer of control rights effectively and have an impact on the management decision-making.Innovation,as the driving force for the company’s long-term development,plays such a decisive role in the production and operation of the company in the future.Will the anti-takeover intensity have an effect on the innovation performance? And how to influence it? Those topics are worth to study.In the research process,this paper uses the hypothesis of value creation,management’s short-sightedness theory and stewardship theory to analyze whether the anti-takeover intensity will affect and how to affect the innovation performance.Theoretical analysis believes that the more anti-takeover clauses are set,the more effective it is to protect the internal stability of the senior management team when the hostile take-over event happened.It leads to the consistent goal between management and enterprise,the management will consider the long-term interests of the enterprise when making decisions;this paper also consider the regulated variables which are factors that affect innovation performance,equity incentives and product market competition.Then,after conducting theoretical analysis and putting forward corresponding assumptions,this paper establishes a multiple regression model to test the impact between anti-takeover intensity and innovation performance by selecting a-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2009 to 2020 as the research object,and test how antitakeover intensity impact the innovation performance.Besides,whether equity incentive and market competition have an impact on the relationship between anti-takeover intensity and innovation performance also need to be analyzed.The empirical results show that:(1)The more anti-takeover clauses,the better the innovation performance;(2)The stability of the senior management team can be regarded as the mediation path between anti-takeover intensity and innovation performance,it means that anti-takeover intensity can improve the innovation performance by improving the stability of the senior management team;(3)Compared with companies that have not implemented equity incentives,the positive impact of anti-takeover intensity on innovation performance is more significant in companies that have implemented equity incentives;(4)Compared with enterprises with low product market competition,the anti-takeover intensity of enterprises with high product market competition has a greater positive impact on innovation performance.Finally,according to the research conclusions of this paper,and combined with the actual situation of the listed companies in our country,the following suggestions could be put forward: the state and the government can protect the interests of listed companies by setting up relevant laws and regulations about anti-takeover,and the enterprises can improve innovation performance by setting reasonable anti-takeover clauses,improving the innovation awareness of management and implementing equity incentives.Based on the actual background of takeover and anti-takeover,this paper studies the influence between anti-takeover intensity and innovation performance,and investigates how does the influence come about.Meanwhile,equity incentive and product market competition are introduced as moderating variables to study the relationship between antitakeover intensity and innovation performance from different perspectives.In conclusion,this study not only enriches the relevant literature on the economic consequences of antitakeover clause setting and the influencing factors of innovation performance,but also provides a new idea about how to improve innovation performance for listed companies.