Digital dissertation consortium

China has been undergoing economic reform and institutional transition from a planned economy to a market economy in the past twenty years. An important product of this is the emergence of interlocking directorates, a director who sit on multiple directorate boards of corporations. The formation of interlock network reflects the ongoing changes at economic, social and corporate levels. Its functioning mechanisms are also embedded within China's unique institutional environments. Given this background, this dissertation seeks to examine the corporate network of directorship interlocks in China, specifically with regard to the following three research questions. First, what is the corporate interlock network structure? Second, why do firms form directorship interlocks? And third, how does directorship interlock influence firm performance?Cross-sectional data from 949 listed firms in 1999 and panel data from 284 listed firms spanning eight years (1994-2001) were employed to examine the interlock network structure and test the propositions. The results show that, first, directorship interlock network reflects the key structural features of Chinese economy. Second, the formation of interlocks reflects the inter-organizational demand and the demand of external interest group coalitions. Third, due to governance failure and institutional voids, interlock network acts as a social cohesion device and enables the emerging managerial class to exploit modern corporations to the detriment of shareholders' interests. This exploitation has dampened firm performance and economic growth. Such exploitation is constrained under concentrated ownership structure and under the ownership structure with high level of state ownership.The dissertation contributes to the current literature in the following ways. First, it reports the first examination of the structural aspect of Chinese economy. Second, borrowing the conventional wisdom in directorship interlock literature, the dissertation incorporates China's unique institutional environments in examining the antecedents and consequences of directorship interlock, transcending the narrow theoretical synthesis of current interlock studies. Third, it highlights the complex "agency problem" that has emerged during the process of China's economic development---"managerial class exploitation." Fourth, it highlights the important role of a concentrated ownership structure and state ownership in constraining and facilitating the "managerial class exploitation". The dissertation provides significant insights in the fields of transitional economy, corporate governance, and directorship interlock network.The dissertation makes four major propositions. First, the corporate network of interlocking directorates reflects key structural aspects of the Chinese economy. Second, directorship interlock may act as a strategy helping corporations to manage inter-organizational relationships and environmental uncertainty during the institutional transition. It may also act as a device for external interest groups to counterbalance the internal corporate power and exercise their control. Third, directorship interlock may perform two functions with opposing effect on firm performance. One is to act as an inter-organizational strategy to fill the institutional voids and enhance firm performance when the market fails. The other is to act as a social cohesion device to exploit institutional voids, facilitate managerial class exploitation, and dampen firm performance when governance fails. Fourth, ownership structure is an important factor in moderating directorship interlock network effects on firm performance during the institutional transition.Ren Bing."August 2005."Adviser: Kevin Au.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2653.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-280).Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.Abstract in English and Chinese.School code: 1307