ABSTRACT

This study examines the role of social capital in fostering beneficial managerial behaviour that serves the interests of shareholders. Specifically, this research focuses on the effects of social capital on managerial ownership and dividend payout policy. We document evidence demonstrating that firms with headquarters in high social capital regions are associated with higher managerial ownership and greater dividend payouts to shareholders. Our findings are consistent with the notion that social capital induces cooperative norms and alleviates agency frictions between managers and shareholders. Additional analysis indicates that managerial ownership increases after a firm moves its headquarters to a county with higher social capital, while dividend payouts do not exhibit a significant change after relocation. In further tests, we find that the association between social capital and managerial ownership weakens after SOX, but that the association between social capital and dividend payouts does not. Finally, we show that both civic norms and associational networks influence the level of managerial ownership and dividend payouts. Overall, our study adds to the literature by deepening the understanding of the impact of social capital in shaping good managerial behaviour at the individual and corporate levels.

摘要

本研究考察了社会资本在促进有益于股东利益的管理行为方面的作用。具体而言，本研究侧重于社会资本对管理层持股和股息支付政策的影响。我们记录的证据表明，总部位于高社会资本地区的公司与更高的管理层持股和更高的股东股息支付相关。我们的研究结果与社会资本引发合作规范并减轻经理人和股东之间的代理摩擦的观点是一致的。额外的分析表明，在公司将其总部迁至社会资本较高的县后，管理层持股增加，而股息支付在搬迁后没有表现出显着变化。在进一步的测试中，我们发现，在 SOX 之后，社会资本与管理层所有权之间的关联减弱，但社会资本与股息支付之间的关联却没有。最后，我们表明公民规范和协会网络都会影响管理层持股水平和股息支付。总的来说，我们的研究通过加深对社会资本在个人和企业层面塑造良好管理行为的影响的理解来丰富文献。