Time: 2026 APR 29, 10:00-11:30

Venue: Room 318, E&F Hall, East Campus

Host: Zihao SU, Associate Professor, Business School, Soochow University

Title: Beyond Ownership: Shareholder Objectives and SOE Performance

Abstract: Exploiting a quasi-natural experiment in China in which the shareholders of SOEs place greater weight on financial objectives without privatizing SOEs, we examine whether the underperformance of SOE is driven by ownership or by shareholder objectives. Using a staggered difference-in-differences design, we find that pilot SOEs significantly increase ROA and TFP following the shock. These effects are stronger when the shift toward financial objectives is more pronounced. Further evidence shows that lower employee compensation, higher investment, and increased innovation explain the performance improvement. In addition, pilot SOEs increase their dividend payout ratios after the shock. Overall, our findings suggest that shareholder objectives are an important determinant of corporate performance.

Speaker: Kaijuan GAO,  Associate Professor, Business School of Hunan University

Speaker Bio: GAO Kaijuan is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Accounting at the Business School of Hunan University, and a Young Backbone Teacher of Hunan Provincial Universities. Her research focuses on finance, accounting and auditing issues within the Chinese institutional context. She has published research papers in top domestic and international journals, including Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance, Management World, Accounting Research, Journal of Financial Research, and Nankai Business Review. Her works have been cited by numerous prestigious journals worldwide, such as Journal of Financial Economics (JFE), Management Science (MS), Journal of Data Economics (JDE), Economic Research Journal, and Management World. She has presided over and participated in research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Ministry of Education, the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation, and the Industry-University-Research Collaborative Education Program of the Ministry of Education. In addition, she serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for the National Natural Science Foundation of China and a referee for many leading domestic and international academic journals.