薛坤坤　武立东　王凯

摘 要：董事会非正式层级是董事会中由于个人社会资本不同而形成的一种隐性的、非正式的层级结构。本文利用2008～2018年中国上市公司的数据，实证检验了董事会非正式层级对企业创新的影响，并进一步分析这种影响是否因外部环境不确定性和股权性质的不同而存在差异。研究发现，董事会非正式层级能够促进企业创新，并且在外部环境不确定性程度高以及非国有企业的样本中，董事会非正式层级对企业创新的影响更加显著。进一步机制分析中对信息分享和董事会监督两种机制进行检验，结果发现，董事会非正式层级通过提升董事会信息分享和董事会监督从而提升企业创新。研究丰富了企业创新的相关研究，并揭示了董事会成员之间的非正式关系影响企业创新的内在机理。

关键词：董事会非正式层级;企业创新;环境不确定性;股权性质

中图分类号：F272.3文献标识码：A文章编号：1003-5192（2021）03-0025-07doi：10.11847/fj.40.3.25

How Does the Board Informal Hierarchy Affect Firm Innovation？

——Experience Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

XUE Kun-kun1，2， WU Li-dong3， WANG Kai4

（1.Business School， Zhengzhou University， Zhengzhou 450001， China; 2.Postdoctoral Research Station of Public Administration， Zhengzhou University， Zhengzhou 450001， China; 3. Business School， Nankai University， Tianjin 300071， China; 4. College of Business Administration， Capital University of Economics and Business， Beijing 100070， China）

Abstract：The board informal hierarchy refers to a tacit and informal hierarchical structure formed within the board of directors due to the differences between individual social capital of directors. Based on the data of Chinese listed company from 2008～2018， we empirically examine the impact of the board informal hierarchy on firm innovation， and further analyze whether this impact differs due to the uncertainty of the external environmental and the nature of equity. We find that the board informal hierarchy can promote firm innovation， and the impact of board informal hierarchy on firm innovation is even stronger in the sample of higher external environment uncertainty and non-state-owned companies. In further mechanism analysis， the two mechanisms of information sharing and board supervision are tested， and we find that the board informal hierarchy promote firm innovation by improving board information sharing and board supervision. This paper enriches the research about firm innovation and reveals the internal mechanism by which the informal relationship among board members affects firm innovation.Key words：board informal hierarchy; firm innovation; external environmental uncertainty; equity nature

1 引言

創新是国家经济增长的驱动力和长期竞争优势的决定性因素，而公司治理是企业创新的制度基础[1]。良好的公司治理水平可以克服经营者的短视行为，帮助企业建立创新的长效投入机制。董事会治理作为重要的公司治理机制能够对企业创新决策产生重要影响，已有研究主要从董事会正式结构的视角分析了其人员构成、团队特征以及个体特征对企业创新的影响。人员构成方面，Sanders和Carpenter[2]发现CEO二元性会导致过度的权力集中而限制信息分享，从而降低企业创新。……