Managerial myopia and corporate financialization: Evidence from China

Abstract

While managerial characteristics significantly impact corporate strategies, the role of managerial myopia in corporate financialization remains underexplored. Using data from a sample of 20,881 firm-year observations of Chinese firms from 2007 to 2019, we examine how managerial myopia influences corporate financialization. We find that managerial myopia promotes corporate financialization. The results are robust to various measures of financialization, alternative specifications, and considerations of endogeneity. Further analysis reveals that external supervision, indicated by analyst attention and institutional investor shareholdings, mitigates the positive effect of managerial myopia on corporate financialization. By contrast, corporate pressures, such as default risk and competitive pressure, amplify the tendency toward financialization.