Ownership Challenges and the Next Round of Reform of Chinese State-Controlled Enterprises

Principal Investigator: Marshall Meyer, Professor Emeritus of Management and Sociology

Co-Principal Investigators: Ann Harrison, Professor of Management and Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy; Minyuan Zhao, Associate Professor of Management; Linda Zhao, Professor of Statistics

School: The Wharton School (Departments of Management and Statistics)

Penn Partners: Wharton Global Initiatives

Chinese Partners: Shanghai Jiaotong University (Antai School); Peking University (Cisco Leadership Program, Guanghua School); Gavekal Dragonometrics; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (School of Business)

Project Abstract

Through this project, the team will conduct a research program on ownership reforms in China. The program will focus on (1) the next round of reform—if and when it comes—of Chinese state enterprises, (2) the changing policy environment for foreign invested enterprises, and (3) the changing Chinese innovation environment and its implications for domestic and foreign enterprises. To pursue this program, the team will construct a dataset using information from the roughly 750,000 firms appearing in China’s Annual Industrial Census (AIS) from 1998 to 2013. The team will also conduct fieldwork in several central State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) designated as pilot “mixed ownership” reform enterprises.