Corporate Governance Structure and Performance in the Tourism Industry in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study of Chinese Listed Companies in China

Abstract

All industries around the world have been greatly impacted by the 2019 COVID-19 outbreak. China’s tourism market was almost suspended. Tourism enterprises generally face difficulties in the form of low capital turnover and increased operating pressure, and the overall tourism industry is showing a downturn in its development. In this study, we construct a quasi-natural experiment with the COVID-19 pandemic in public health emergencies using a propensity score matching difference in differences model (PSM-DID) to match the treatment group of tourism enterprises and the control group of non-tourism enterprises. We empirically test that the COVID-19 pandemic has produced a more severe impact on the performance of tourism enterprises than other industries. Further analysis shows that given different enterprise equity natures, the characteristics of the board, supervision, and executive salary incentive levels, the COVID-19 pandemic has a heterogeneous impact on the operating performance of tourism enterprises.