Research On The Relationship Between Financial Flexibility,R&D Investment And Enterprise Value

With the development of economic globalization,enterprises are facing increasingly uncertain operating environment.For example,changes in national policies,cyclical changes in the economic market,and the transition period of China's economic development,the external living environment facing enterprises is becoming more and more complex.Faced with these uncertainties,scholars put forward the concept of financial flexibility in order to better understand the black box of enterprise development.High financial flexibility means that cash flow,low debt,such enterprises better able to cope with adverse impact or grasp the future investment opportunities are favorable,its operating performance is good,so high financial flexibility can promote the improvement of enterprise value.The research and development activities of enterprises are very risky and uncertain.Research and development activities occupy a large amount of capital,long duration,high risk,and strong uncertainty,which is easily influenced by the development schedule of competitors.Companies face financing constraints,it is difficult for a reasonable price to obtain the funds required for the research and development,to a great extent,inhibit r&d,at this time,keep the appropriate financial flexibility is an effective way to solve this problem.Higher financial flexibility is reflected in adequate cash flow and low debt.On the one hand,sufficient cash flow to provide direct financial support for r&d,help enterprises to seize the investment opportunities in time,to continue r&d activities,i.e.through cash reserves to enterprise's r&d activities to provide long-term,stable funding.Low debt,on the other hand,means that the enterprise's own capital than major,liabilities on a smaller scale,retained the ability to borrow in the future,also enables the enterprise to support funds footprint,long cycle,high risk of r&d activities,i.e.high financial flexibility to enterprise's r&d activities have a positive incentive effect.Therefore,enterprises with high financial flexibility are more inclined to engage in research and development activities.Today,in the increasingly fierce competition in the enterprises,in order to adapt to the trend of the development of the economic tide,earned his place in the increasingly fierce competition environment,enterprise in addition to put in more effort on marketing strategy,more important is to constantly increase investment in scientific research,promote the core competitiveness of products,and this is the key to the development of enterprises.And the research and development investment activity as the key to the core competitiveness of the enterprise helps to improve the enterprise value.Based on the above analysis,this paper makes the assumption that r&d investment is a mediating variable between financial flexibility and enterprise value.This paper choose the gem listed companies as research samples,because the gem listed companies exist greater uncertainty,when making financial decisions are more necessary to take into consideration of the financial flexibility.In addition,considering the gem listed companies belonging to the high-growth,high innovative small and medium-sized enterprises,independent innovation ability is stronger,has high r&d strength but at the same time,r&d is faced with high uncertainty,risk is bigger,so the financial flexibility of this kind of enterprise,the relationship between r&d investment and enterprise value has more reference value.The following conclusions are drawn from the research :(1)financial flexibility helps to improve enterprise value.(2)companies with high financial flexibility are more inclined to engage in r&d activities.(3)research and development input contributes to the improvement of enterprise value,and the positive relationship between them has a hysteresis effect.(4)the research and development investment has the role of intermediary between financial flexibility and enterprise value.Finally,some Suggestions on improving enterprise value are put forward in this paper.