中文摘要：

在中国，企业家的政治关联层级是其最核心、最重要的社会关系，也是其社会地位和影响力的最佳表征。本文选择2005-2014年A股中小板421家民营上市公司发起的非同-实际控制人1497件并购交易为样本．研究企业家即民营上市公司实际控制人这个特别群体的“影响力”对企业扩张路径的影响。实证研究发现：企业家的“影响力”越大（政治关联层级越高），企业越容易进行跨市并购，但跨省的并购却减少：进一步经验证据表明，企业家的政治关联层级越高、影响力越大，企业越倾向进入经济欠发达地区和市场化程度较低地区，基于政治关联的政策套利型扩张行为明显：但如果并购方来自经济发达、市场化程度高的地区时，这种意愿则会有所降低。显然，企业家的影响力会影响企业的跨区域并购行为，但更多地表现为基于影响力的“深度扩张”（而非广度扩张）和“政策套利”。本文为社会关系对中国资本市场的深刻影响以及经济转型升级进程中的企业家行为及其逻辑提供了新的证据。

英文摘要：

In China, the entrepreneur＇s political connection level plays the most important role in the social connection, and is also the best representation of his social status and influence. This paper studies the relationship between influence of private entrepreneurs who are the actual controllers of the private enterprise and the expansion path of the private enterprise by studying 1497 cross-regional M＆As within the SME Board from 2005 to 2014. After a rigorous empirical research, we found that the stronger the influence of private entrepreneurs which is represented by a higher political connection level, the more possible the enterprise will conduct a cross-city M＆A and the less possible the enterprise will conduct a cross-province M＆A. Further study found that if the private entrepreneurs have a higher political connection level, the enterprise tends to seek target companies in less developed areas with a low degree of marketization, the policy arbitrage oriented expansion based on political connections is obvious. However, if the acquirer comes from more economically developed areas with a high degree of marketization, this tendency will be reduced. Obviously, the entrepreneurs＇ influence would affect the firms＇ behavior of cross-regional M＆As, and reflect the depth of the expansion （rather than breadth of expansion） and policy arbitrage. This paper provided new evidence about the profound influence of social relations on Chinese capital market and entrepreneurs＇ behavior and logit in the process of economic transformation and upgrading.