Ideological Imprint of Politicians, Local embeddedness and Political Tie Formation in Emerging Markets

Abstract

While existing studies have examined benefits and costs of political ties through the perspective of firms, underexplored is the rationale of politicians to form ties with firms. Drawing on the imprinting theory, this study investigates how education and career imprints influence politicians’ propensity of building institutional connections with firms. Using China as the empirical context, we find that Chinese publicly listed firms are less likely if the mayor of the headquartering city joined the Communist Party prior to 1978 while are more likely to have ties if the mayor has longer tenure. Furthermore, tenure attenuates the negative effect of the Party imprint, while substitutes for overseas education in influencing the likelihood. We discuss the implications on political ties research and the imprinting theory.