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Performance shortfall, institutional logic and firms’ tax avoidance

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Abstract

Based on the special background of transition economies, in which governments play a particularly important role in firms’ survival and development, we discuss the impact of performance shortfall on firms’ tax avoidance, which is a behavior that is considered unethical and irresponsible by the public. Drawing upon performance feedback theory and institutional theory, we propose that performance shortfall will drive firms to reduce tax avoidance to enhance their political legitimacy, thereby gaining more government support to solve current performance problems. We also argue that the relationship between performance shortfall and firms’ tax avoidance is likely nuanced and may vary by institutional logics (e.g., state-owned enterprises (SOEs)), and regional marketization degree). Specifically, we argue that SOEs will strengthen the above-mentioned relationship, and the regional marketization degree will weaken the above-mentioned relationship. After testing listed companies in China as the research object, we find that most of our theoretical views are supported by empirical evidence.

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Notes

  1. http://finance.sina.com.cn/China/20141013/051220518554.shtml.

  2. http://static.nfapp.southcn.com/content/202005/19/c3548623.html?group_id=1.

  3. https://m.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnJS5k8.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Professor Virginia Bodolica and four anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions and guidance. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation Project of China (Grant No.72202043) and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant No. 2021A1515110864).

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  1. School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, 161 Yinglong Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Xi Zhong

  2. School of Accounting, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Xiaoguwei Panyu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Liuyang Ren

  3. School of Business Administration, South China University of Technology, 381 Wushan Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Ge Ren

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Zhong, X., Ren, L. & Ren, G. Performance shortfall, institutional logic and firms’ tax avoidance. Eurasian Bus Rev 13, 855–886 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40821-023-00242-7

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