Endogenous Sources of Uncertainty: The Role of Firm Status in Shaping Financially Uncertain Investments
研究发现中等地位企业比高低地位企业更倾向于进行财务不确定投资，且企业业绩高于历史和社会基准会削弱这一关系，基于行业和地位群体的社会基准缓解了地位与投资间的倒U型关系。
This study examines the relationship between firm status and investment activities. Focusing specifically on financially uncertain investments, we argue that middle-status firms engage in more financially uncertain investments than low- and high-status firms. Moreover, the extent to which firms perform above historical and social benchmarks mitigates the relationship between status and financially uncertain investments. We find broad support for our arguments in a longitudinal sample of privately controlled listed Chinese firms traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. Specifically, we find that social benchmarks based on comparisons to firms in the same industry and status group mitigate the inverted U-shaped relationship between status and financially uncertain investments. Moreover, the effect of industry benchmarks, not status benchmarks, is stronger than the effect of historical benchmarks, that is, comparisons to own past performance.