关键词: 高管团队, 职能背景异质性, 企业避税, 产权性质, 公司治理

Abstract: The senior management team plays a crucial role in promoting strategic decisions, increasing the value of the enterprise, and contributing to economic and social development. In the current era of global economic changes, with slow expansion of external demand and domestic economic growth, it is important to leverage the strengths of senior management teams to promote high-quality enterprise development. This topic has gained attention in top-level design, academic research, and social practice. The senior management team is crucial to the success of an enterprise. Their personal characteristics, experience, ability level, and other backgrounds influence their cognitive preferences and problem-solving methods, ultimately affecting the strategic decision-making of the company. This paper aims to clarify the key elements, management mechanisms, and economic consequences related to the background characteristics of senior management teams. The study provides new empirical evidence for the governance effects of functional background characteristics of executive teams, offering a fresh perspective on the topic. This paper presents a systematic analysis of the impact of the functional background heterogeneity of executive teams on corporate tax avoidance. The study is supported by empirical evidence, which contributes to the economic consequences of executive team characteristics and expands the literature on corporate tax avoidance. Additionally, the research expands and enriches the understanding of the factors that influence corporate tax avoidance.
This paper conducts an empirical study on the governance effect of functional background heterogeneity of top management teams on corporate tax avoidance using A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2008~2020. The study employs multiple regression analysis to verify the impact of functional background heterogeneity of top management teams on corporate tax avoidance and explores the differences in impact under different property rights. Additionally, the study uses a mediation effect test model to examine the mechanism of corporate tax avoidance related to the functional background heterogeneity of top management teams.To address potential issues with multicollinearity in regression, this paper uses Blau coefficient-based standardization to construct a heterogeneity index of the functional background of senior management teams.
The results indicate that a diverse functional background among top management effectively reduces tax avoidance behavior, particularly in non-state-owned enterprises. Mechanism testing reveals that this heterogeneity primarily alleviates financing constraints as a means of inhibiting corporate tax avoidance. According to further research, the functional background of a top management team has varying effects on corporate tax avoidance, with the production function having the greatest impact, followed by the peripheral function and then the output function. This effect is more pronounced in regions with poor external institutional environments. These findings not only provide empirical evidence for the impact of corporate governance in relation to the heterogeneity of executive team functional backgrounds, but also have important implications for improving the corporate governance environment and reducing the motivation for corporate tax avoidance. Future studies could explore the influence of senior management team’s overseas and financial backgrounds on corporate tax avoidance.

Key words: top management team, heterogeneity of functional backgrounds, corporate tax avoidance, ownership nature, corporate governance