This study investigates the effects of investments by qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) on the informational efficiency of stock prices in Chinese A‐share stock markets. Employing a large sample of listed firms from 2004 to 2012, we document a significant and positive relationship between stock price informativeness and stock ownership by foreign institutional investors. We also use the instrument‐variable approach, propensity‐score matching method, as well as an alternative measure of informational efficiency to ensure the robustness of our findings. We document that the effects of foreign ownership on informational efficiency is stronger for firms with lower levels of assets intangibility and in regions with less developed institutions. In addition, we document that the effects of foreign ownership on informational efficiency is more pronounced when QFIIs have better local information and more incentives to monitor.

Innovation has become an essential source of sustainable growth for most firms, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Governments around the world widely implement innovation vouchers to promote innovation in SMEs. This study empirically explores the effects of innovation vouchers in stimulating patentable innovation and ultimately enhancing firms’ financial performance. Using a panel of 1274 listed SMEs from the Small and Medium Enterprise Board (SMEB) and the Growth Enterprise Board (GEB), we find that innovation vouchers lead firms to utilize knowledge-intensive services and significantly increase their financial performance. We further document that patentable innovations mediate the relationship between innovation vouchers and firms’ financial performance. We report that the effects of innovation vouchers on financial performance are more prominent for SMEs with limited external informational resources. We believe that our study yields novel evidence and sheds further light on the important policy implications of innovation vouchers to facilitate the sustainable growth of SMEs.

In this article, we investigate initial public offerings (IPOs) of high-tech firms on the Chinese Growth Enterprise Market (GEM). Almost half of the GEM IPOs are set up in pyramid structures. The likelihood of a pyramid structure increases with the size of the IPO firm and state control. Our results do not suggest that pyramids are set up to overcome financial constraints. However, we document that pyramid IPOs are discounted before the IPO. The subscription price-to-book ratio is significantly lower for pyramid IPOs, and this translates into higher underpricing. We conclude that IPO investors demand a higher risk premium when investing in pyramid IPOs.