Research On The Existence,Paths,and Influencing Factors Of R&D Smoothing Behavior In Chinese High-tech Enterprises

R&D investment is an important guarantee for technological innovation of hightech enterprises,which is characterized by large scale,high risk,long cycle and high adjustment cost.Therefore,to prevent the interruption of R&D investment and maintain a certain stability is the key to play its guarantee role,which is the motivation for enterprises to carry out R&D smoothing behavior.If an enterprise is faced with liquidity crisis and uses certain financial reserves to release liquidity to supplement R&D investment to maintain the stability of R&D investment,then the enterprise has R&D smoothing behavior.Starting from the motivation of R&D smoothing,this study explores whether there is R&D investment smoothing behavior in Chinese high-tech enterprises,and makes a comparative analysis of two smoothing paths,cash holding smoothing and working capital smoothing.Then,on this basis,the influence of monetary policy uncertainty on R&D investment smoothing behavior is introduced,and whether there is threshold effect of such influence is explored.The empirical analysis part is based on the panel data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed high-tech enterprises from 2007 to 2020.Based on Euler’s investment equation,the research and development investment smoothing model is constructed.The GMM is used for empirical test,and the threshold effect based on the degree of financing constraint is investigated.Additionally,heterogeneity analysis is conducted by differentiating the level of smoothing,ownership nature,and asset size,and the robustness test was carried out by substituting variables.First,the empirical test results support the hypothesis of R&D investment smoothing behavior of Chinese high-tech enterprises.Cash holdings and working capital smoothing paths are both effective,but the cash smoothing path is more sensitive.Second,the uncertainty of monetary policy weakens the smoothing behavior of R&D investment of enterprises,and the higher the financing constraint of high-tech enterprises,the more obvious the weakening effect.Third,the degree of financing constraint has a single threshold effect on the weakening effect of monetary policy uncertainty,and the group with a higher degree of financing constraint has a stronger weakening effect.This study focuses on the smoothing behavior of R&D investment of Chinese high-tech enterprises,analyzes the two approaches,discusses the influence of monetary policy uncertainty and financing constraint level,attempts to depict the realization mechanism and influencing factors of the smoothing behavior of R&D investment of Chinese high-tech enterprises,and puts forward possible enlightenment for enterprises,central banks and external investors from different perspectives.