Financing Constraints And Enterprise R&D Investment

Since the 1970 s,China has carried the Reform and Opening,and joined World Ttrade Organization and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation;and now plays the role of advocator of the Belt and Road Initiative.The world witnessed China's rapid development.But as the biggest developing country in the world,the world's second largest economy,behind the rapid economic development also hidden problems.China's abundant and cheap labor nourishes the development of domestic manufacturing industry.As China successfully joins the ranks of middle-income countries,its demographic dividend gradually disappears and the economic competition among countries in the world becomes increasingly fierce.With labor-intensive industries no longer provide vitality for economic development,China's manufacturing industry needs to complete the transformation from labor-intensive to technology-intensive and capital-intensive industries.But in this process,the lack of investment in R&D and the lack of core technology have become major problems.R&D cannot do without the support of capital,but the problem of enterprise financing difficulty has not been solved for a long time.It is mainly manifested in the financing difficulties of small and medium-sized private enterprises.High entry threshold and high financing cost become obstacles in the innovation process of enterprises.Therefore,the research on the effect of financing constraints on R&D investment has become one of the major topics in the academic circle.This paper focuses on the relationship between financing constraints and R&D investment,and attempts to explain the influence mechanism of the two through theoretical analysis and empirical analysis.First of all,based on the current situations and theoretical causes of R&D investment and financing,this paper analyzes the influence of financing constraints on R&D investment from the perspectives of financing environment and enterprise heterogeneity..Secondly,From the perspective of the heterogeneity of enterprises,the research hypothesis proposed in this paper not only studies the role of the property nature of enterprises in financing constraints and R&D investment,but also further introduces the heterogeneity of senior executives to explore the influence of senior executives' gender on R&D investment under the financing constraints.Subsequently,the relevant hypotheses were verified in subsequent empirical analysis by using Panel Fixed Effect Model with relevant data of enterprises of manufacturing industry listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2013 to 2017.The empirical results show that:(1)The overall R&D investment level of China's listed manufacturing enterprises is relatively low,and R&D investment activities are obviously restrained by financing constraints,which shows that as the intensity of financing constraints increases,the degree of R&D investment intensity of enterprises will be weakened.In addition,most of the enterprises with active R&D activities in the manufacturing industry are concentrated in individual sub-sectors such as computer,electronic communication,medical,chemical and other industries,showing an uneven investment situation,indicating that the overall R&D investment of Chinese manufacturing enterprises is insufficient,and the external financing environment needs to be improved;(2)the state-owned enterprises in the sample show significant inhibiting effect on R&D investment when they are subject to financing constraints.In contrast,non-state-owned enterprises do not show such significant inhibiting effect,which indicates that the R&D investment level of state-owned enterprises is more sensitive to financing constraints and their ability to cope with financing constraints needs to be further improved;(3)This paper notes that when considering the gender of executives and the nature of corporate property rights,female executives of state-owned enterprises will significantly inhibit the R&D investment level of enterprises when they are subject to financing constraints,while considering the gender of executives under the same conditions.However,this feature has not been shown.Instead,female executives will have a slight boost to R&D investment.In view of the above results,this paper puts forward the following suggestions from different perspectives.Firstly,start from the innovation environment of manufacturing industry as a whole,as the main undertaker and beneficiary of R&D activities,enterprises should enhance their awareness of independent innovation and increase R&D investment.Secondly,the improvement of the social financing environment cannot be achieved without the full support of the government and the society.The government should introduce relevant measures to provide enterprises with more reasonable and effective capital market and financing and lending environment,so as to ensure smooth financing and vigorous R&D investment.Third,in terms of state-owned enterprises in the manufacturing industry,they need to further deepen reform,make full use of their resource advantages to carry out R&D investment activities,and improve their ability to deal with financing constraints.They should not just sit on their hands and do nothing.Finally,from the perspective of manufacturing enterprise management,enterprises should be more diversified and open in employing,and give full play to the positive role of female executives in enterprise investment decisions to stimulate enterprise innovation.