Abstract: The formation of zombie enterprises is closely related to credit imbalance and enterprise efficiency heterogeneity. Through theoretically analyzing the internal mechanism of the formation of zombie enterprises and making use of the data of China Industrial Enterprise Database, this paper conducts an empirical analysis of the relationship between the formation of zombie enterprises, the credit imbalance and the heterogeneity of enterprise efficiency with a Logit model. The findings show that the probability of formation of Chinese zombie enterprises is positively related to the degree of credit imbalance and the heterogeneity of enterprise efficiency. If Chinese governments at all levels and the relevant policymakers can identify the potential or forthcoming zombie enterprises earlier from the two aspects of the credit imbalances and the heterogeneity of enterprise efficiency during the economic and financial operation, it will be of positive significance for China to effectively reduce the disposal cost on the zombie enterprises. At the same time, China must speed up the reform of the financial system, reduce the financial friction and promote the flow of funds into the high efficiency enterprises. The enterprises with lower production efficiency should also try to practice the system and technological innovation, constantly improve the total factor productivity, reduce the differences in the average total productivity among the industries and regions, and strive to improve the core competitiveness，so as to generally reduce the probability of the occurrence of zombie enterprises in China.

Key words: credit imbalance; business efficiency heterogeneity; zombie enterprises