Corporate governance in China: Podcast interview with Boya Wang

At a workshop on Law and Finance in Rising Powers, held at the Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge, Boya Wang, Research Fellow at the Centre for Business Research, presented his research on corporate governance in China. In this podcast interview, he summarizes his findings on corporate governance and institutional factors of firm valuation during the financial crisis of cross provincial data of Chinese companies.

Wang said: “I have done some field work trips in China interviewing business people and that is where my business research hypothesis developed from. There is a divergence between the central and local government, their roles, and their incentives in corporate governance practices. The western media generally hold a monolithic view of the Chinese state as a unified entity, but actually it is not. Marketization and political reform have led to a divergence of interests across the local bureaucracies.

“The financial crisis provides the ideal test ground to test my hypothesis. During the financial crisis Chinese business was suffering from one of the worst economic situations and in this case the appropriation incentives will be strong. I think that this will expose many existing and neglected weaknesses in the corporate governance system.

“The political reforms and crack- down on corruption that is happening now are a reflection of what is happening in the economic sector and where we can see the rise of large non-state firms such as Alibaba and Tencent. These private businesses constitute a new constituency. For the Chinese party state, this will counter balance the conservative or entrenched interests and their power. I don’t think China will morph into the political situation that we find now in Russia.”

Listen to the full interview with Boya Wang

More podcasts from the workshop on Law and Finance in Rising Powers,
Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge, December 9th 2014