AUTHOR=Chen Fengwen , Xu Jingwei , Wang Wei , Liao Fangnan , Guo Yineng 

TITLE=Linking What I Say and What I Do: Evidence From Perceived Competition Networks

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.887510

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.887510

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=The network between companies has a great significance of corporate risk-taking. However, the unobservable network between companies has long been neglected. Using China’s listed companies from 2007 to 2018, this paper adopts a textual analysis method to capture managers’ perceptions of pressure, and build a special kind of hidden inter-firm networks, that is, the perceived competition networks of managers. In addition, this paper discusses the influence of network characteristics on corporate risk-taking behavior. Empirically, there is a positive association between the density of perceived competition network and the level of corporate risk-taking. Furthermore, this paper explores the risk-taking behaviors of peer firms in perceived competition networks, and finds that the improvement of the risk bearing level of peer firms significantly increases the risk bearing level of focal firm, that is, the positive spillover effect of risk-taking behaviors among firms in perceived competition networks. Moreover, managers’ personal traits significantly moderate the effects of network characteristics on corporate risk-taking, which is mainly reflected in younger and male managers. The findings of this paper can enrich the literature on social interactions and corporate behaviors, and help companies to improve their understanding of perceptible peer firms.