How does political connection impact firm performance? This is a hot issue in the management field. This study contributes to existing literature in three ways. First, it examines the relationship between political connection and firm performance in different firm life cycle stages; Second, it investigates the combined moderating effects of firm life cycle stage and industrial environment; Third, it develops and utilizes a new scale of political connection by using the datamining technology. Empirical results show that political connection is good for firms in the growth stage, but bad for those in the maturity stage. Further, competitive intensity weakens the impacts of political connection on firm performance in both the growth and the maturity stages, while structural uncertainty weakens the negative effect of political connection on firm performance in the maturity stage.

政治关联行为如何影响企业绩效？这是管理领域一个备受关注但未形成共识的研究话题。本文尝试从三个方面发展现有文献观点：第一，引入企业生命周期理论，考察政治关联对企业绩效的动态影响；第二，基于资源依赖理论，进一步考察企业发展阶段与行业环境的复合情境化影响；第三，利用数据挖掘技术改进政治关联测量方法，提升研究结论的可靠性。基于我国A股上市公司样本的实证研究发现：一方面，政治关联对企业绩效的影响因企业发展阶段而异。对处于成长期的企业来说，政治关联正向影响企业绩效；对处于成熟期的企业来说，政治关联负向影响企业绩效。另一方面，上述关系进一步受到所处行业环境的影响。行业竞争强度削弱了政治关联对绩效的影响，行业结构不确定性削弱了成熟期企业政治关联对绩效的负向影响。