Abstract: From the dual perspectives of“ability”and“willingness”, this paper conducts an empirical study by making use of the data of Chinese private listed companies from 2012 to 2018. The findings show that with the increasing number of state-owned shares, the level of strategic risk-taking of private companies presents a tendency of first increasing then decreasing. After a series of robustness and endogeneity tests, the conclusion is still stable. When the multiple mediating effect model is used to test, the results show that the state-owned equity not only can make private enterprises possess the“ability”of taking strategic risks by alleviating financing constraints, but also can improve their“willingness”to take strategic risks by reducing the principal-agent level. The results of further research show that although reducing the principal-agent level can play a certain role in promoting the level of risk-taking, it is mainly through relieving financing constraints that the state-owned equity can improve the level of strategic risk-taking of private enterprises. Moreover, this promoting effect is much more significant in the industries with high potentials or stronger background of state-owned shareholders’ control. In the provinces with lower marketization level, the state-owned equity can be seen as an alternative to the market mechanism, and it can play a more significant role in improving the level of strategic risk-taking of private enterprises.

Key words: state-owned equity, mixed ownership reform, strategic risk-taking, multiple mediating effect, financing constraints