Abstract: Under the background of new development situation and mixed ownership reform, whether and how “reverse mixed-ownership reform” can enhance the persistent innovation ability of family enterprises is an important topic. From the perspective of heterogeneity of family control structures, this paper explores the relationship between state-owned equity participation and innovation persistence of family enterprises. The unbalanced panel data of Chinese digital listed companies from 2013 to 2021 show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between state-owned equity participation and innovation persistence of family enterprises. When the enterprise is controlled by husband and wife, the inverted U-shaped relationship flattens. When the enterprise is controlled by brothers, the inverted U-shaped relationship steepens. Further analysis shows that the preparation stage of second-generation succession in the father-son controlled enterprises steepens the inverted U-shaped relationship between state-owned equity participation and innovation persistence. This paper enriches the theoretical research of state-owned equity participation and family business innovation, and provides management implications for revitalizing state capital and improving the innovation persistence of family enterprises.

Key words: family business, state-owned equity participation, innovation persistence, family control structure