Historical Evolution of Firm’s Operational Objectives： Theory and Practice

Firm's operational objective has been a long-debated topic,which triggers various theories,such as Profit Maximization, Firm's Value(shareholder's wealth)Maximization,Stockholder's Value Maximization,Sales Maximization and Firm's Size Maximization.After analyzing questionnaire data,this paper finds out the following results:1)Chinese firms nowadays still regard Profit Maximization as the most important operational objective,and care little about interests of stockholders such as firm staffs;2)although most firms set several operational objectives at the same time,these objectives are logically self-conflicting,which indicates that firms' choices on operational objectives in reality are influenced by multiple factors;3)Logit regression illustrates that firm's types,sizes,operational styles,manager's office tenure,age,and shareholding are closely associated with firm's choices on operational objectives.