First, the background and significance of the topic.

Investment refers to the capital investment and the corresponding capital formation process of individuals or organizations in order to obtain benefits in the future. Investment decision refers to the company's effective choice of possible investment projects under the given financial constraints, so as to maximize its investment income. As the main factor of the company's growth and the important foundation of future cash flow growth, it will directly affect the company's financing decision, thus affecting the company's operating risk, profitability and the evaluation of its operating performance and development prospects by the capital market. Therefore, compared with fund-raising and dividend distribution, investment decision is the most important of the three major financial decisions of a company.

In recent years, China's economy has maintained rapid growth, and investment has played an important role, which is also inseparable from the rationality of corporate investment decisions. As far as the enterprise itself is concerned, if the decision of "over-investment" is made for non-profit projects that exceed or deviate from its own capabilities and growth opportunities, the net present value will be negative, which will not only damage the value of the enterprise, but also precipitate a large amount of capital in areas with overcapacity and deteriorating profitability, and will also "overheat" China's economy, thus causing a series of problems such as shortage of energy and raw materials, overcapacity, distorted economic structure and redundant construction. And making the decision of "insufficient investment" will also restrict the development of enterprises and affect the realization of enterprise value. Generally speaking, both over-investment and under-investment are uneconomical behaviors in investment decision-making, which may weaken the growth ability of enterprises and even drag enterprises into the quagmire of financial crisis. Therefore, in the immature stage of China's market economy, free cash flow, unreasonable corporate ownership structure, imperfect corporate governance structure and other related factors will affect the investment decision of enterprises and become the main factors restricting the quality improvement and long-term sustainable development of listed companies in China.

As far as the power industry is concerned, the power industry is a public enterprise and basic industry in China, which has a natural monopoly. Its development speed is restricted by market demand, development scale is restricted by economic development level, and electricity price is restricted by social affordability. Its project investment has the characteristics of huge capital occupation and long-term impact, so whether the investment decision is appropriate will have a far-reaching impact on listed companies in the power industry. Due to the particularity of the power industry, the development of listed companies in this industry has both opportunities and challenges. Therefore, a reasonable investment decision is conducive to the listed companies in the power industry to make full use of existing resources to develop new projects, improve profitability, enhance the vitality and strength of enterprises, and implement the group development strategy. However, the rationality of investment decision is closely related to the company's free cash flow and corporate governance structure. Managers may be influenced by factors such as free cash flow, ownership concentration, ownership nature and so on, which are well controlled by managers, or seek to maximize the private interests of the largest range of control rights in enterprises, and create a management opportunistic atmosphere such as kingdom and power investment, which will inevitably lead to the continuous decline of investment efficiency and operating performance due to improper investment decisions. Due to the existence of information asymmetry, many factors in corporate governance structure will not only affect the cost of corporate governance, but also affect the realization of corporate performance and corporate value. Therefore, the motivation, influencing factors and coping strategies of investment behavior of listed companies in power industry deserve our consideration and study.

The research significance of this paper: Firstly, the empirical analysis and research on the investment decisions of listed companies in the power industry has certain theoretical value and provides certain theoretical basis for the future development of listed companies in the power industry. Secondly, it is of practical significance to make an empirical analysis and research on listed companies in the power industry. It can effectively find out the problems existing in the foreign investment decision-making of listed companies in the power industry, promote the development of listed companies in the power industry, and provide reference for other listed companies in China, thus improving investment efficiency and promoting sustained and harmonious economic development. Thirdly, most of the listed companies in China's power industry are transformed from state-owned power enterprises, whose typical characteristics are imperfect corporate governance structure, and some unfavorable related factors directly affect the rationality of investment decisions of listed companies in the power industry. Establishing a good corporate governance mechanism can not only promote the listed companies in the power industry to make reasonable decisions, but also restrain the uneconomical behaviors of over-investment and under-investment. Therefore, based on this reason, it has become a very realistic research topic to study how to improve the corporate governance structure, rational decision-making and standardize investment behavior of listed companies in China's power industry in the face of the changes in the external environment brought about by the global economic environment, the adjustment of China's economic structure and related policies, and the reform of the economic management system of the power industry.

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