Volume 37, Issue 2 pp. 595-615
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Government Intelligent Transformation and Mixed-Ownership Reform: Evidence From China

Bin Li

Bin Li

School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan, China

Search for more papers by this author
Ruiqing Cao

Ruiqing Cao

School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan, China

Search for more papers by this author
Chenchen Shi

Corresponding Author

Chenchen Shi

School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan, China

Correspondence: Chenchen Shi ([email protected])

Search for more papers by this author
Jing Zhao

Jing Zhao

School of Economics and Management, Changji University, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, China

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 27 November 2024
Citations: 1

ABSTRACT

Mixed-ownership reform (the Reform) is crucial for the construction of a modern market economy. Through a proprietary data set of 32 provinces in China, we find that government intelligent transformation (GIT) can attract private firms acquiring local state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and such link is stronger among target firms in central and western regions, and acquirers with lower competitive positions and higher levels of digital transformation. Additionally, we also find this effect exists both in local and nonlocal private firms. Further tests suggest that GIT can regulate government behaviors, reduce relational transactions, and enhance local policy environment quality and the level of local market legal governance, thereby promoting private firms to participate in the Reform. Moreover, in the provinces with higher levels of GIT, there is a greater likelihood that private firms will gain control rights over SOEs and obtain more resources following the Reform. Our findings may have policy implications for the world's largest emerging market.

Data Availability Statement

Research data are not shared.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.