How Do the Human Capital Characteristics of Entrepreneurial Team Influence Corporate Financial Performance?

Abstract

Researches on the direct impact of the characteristics of top management team on corporate financial performance have obtained many achievements for a long time. Little literatures studied the relationship between human capital characteristics of entrepreneurial team and corporate financial performance. Based on the Upper Echelons theory, this paper empirically tests the relationship among the characteristics of entrepreneurial team, debt financing scale and corporate financial performance. It collects 1221 valid data from the datasets of listed companies on ChiNext in 2014-2016. Using multiple regression analysis, this paper finds that human capital characteristics of entrepreneurial team have a significant impact on corporate financial performance as well as debt financing scale. Besides, the debt financing scale plays a partial mediating role. This paper enriches Upper Echelons theory by focusing on human capital characteristics of entrepreneurial team in new ventures. Previous studies usually pay their attention to the human capital characteristics of top management team in main board listed companies. Besides, by verifying the mediating effect of debt financing scale, this paper inspires to explore the indirect relationship between human capital characteristics of entrepreneurial team and corporate financial performance.