Fund style drift and stock price crash risk – analysis of the mediating effect based on corporate financial risk

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to identify the direct impact of fund style drift on the risk of stock price collapse and the intermediary mechanism of financial risk, so as to better protect the interests of minority investors.Design/methodology/approachThis paper takes all the non-financial companies on the Chinese Growth Enterprise Market from 2011 to 2020 as study object and selects securities investment funds of their top ten circulation stocks to study the relationship between fund style drift and stock price crash risk.FindingsFund style drift is likely to add stock price crash risk. Financial risk is positively correlated with stock price crash risk. Fund style drift affects stock price crash risk via the mediating effect of financial risk, and fund style drift and financial risk have a marked impact on the stock price crash risk of non-state enterprises, yet a non-significant impact on that of state-owned enterprises.Originality/valueThis paper links fund style drift with stock price crash risk in an exploratory manner and enriches the study perspectives of relationship between institutional investors’ behaviors and stock price crash risk, thus enjoying certain academic value. On the one hand, it furnishes a new approach to the academic frontier issue concerning financial risk and stock price crash risk, and proves that financial risk is positively correlated with stock price crash risk. On the other hand, it regards financial risk as a mediating variable of fund style drift for stock price crash risk and further explores different influencing mechanism of institutional investors’ behaviors.