Purpose – It is widely accepted that business excellence comes from firm-specific factors. However, it is still unclear how institutional relatedness – the degree of embeddedness with the dominant institutions that confer resources and legitimacy, influences the business excellence of the firm. The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of three kinds of institutional relatedness, i.e. home government ties, initial public offerings (IPOs) and alliances with foreign firms, on the business excellence of Chinese firms. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a sample of firms enlisted on the “Most Respected Companies” rank in China during the period 2002–2015 and their paired firms who are absent from the list, by means of ordinary least square regression estimator, to explore the relationship between institutional relatedness and business excellence. Findings – The empirical results suggest that IPOs and alliances with foreign firms significantly strengthen firms’ business excellence. Furthermore, home government ties have positive effects on outbound IPOs and alliances with foreign firms but hinder business excellence. Originality/value – This study extends the business excellence literature by characterizing institutional rather than firm-specific factors from an institution-based view. It also enriches research on outcomes of institutional relatedness through investigating empirically its impact on business excellence. The findings provide new insights into the dual role of home government ties in achieving business excellence.

培养符合时代要求的人才是高校学科建设与人才培养工作的根本出发点.当前,经济社会已经进入到数据驱动的新发展阶段,数字时代需要数字人才,而数字人才储备不足已经成为制约我国经济高质量发展的瓶颈之一.如何构建数据科学教育体系,培养满足经济社会发展亟须的数字人才,是目前高校需要共同思考和探索的问题.文章在梳理国内外代表性高校数据科学教育体系现状上,构建面向新时期数字人才培养体系框架,即在课程设置上基于数学,统计学和计算机等基础科学开展交叉学科知识培养,同时针对某个行业的大数据分析与应用问题开展实践应用能力培养.未来数字人才培养体系的完善也应围绕学科交叉和行业应用两方面展开.