Change your identity and fit in: an empirical examination of ownership structure change, firm performance and local knowledge spillovers in China

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of China’s reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by exploring if reformed SOEs have genuinely changed their identity and fitted in. Using a firm-level data set, we show that reformed SOEs have learned more from non-SOEs about how to promote economic performance. Empirical results also confirm that the effectiveness of the SOE reform is contingent on regional institutional contexts. Finally, this research...