This study investigates the association between financing constraints/agency problem (agency costs) and corporate R&D investment in China by using the two‐tier stochastic frontier model initially developed by Kumbhakar and Parmeter (2009) in light of the Euler equation analysis framework. The results show that there is a significantly negative association between financing constraints and firms' R&D investments and a significantly positive relationship between agency costs and R&D investments. Thus, financing constraints lead to R&D underinvestment, while agency costs cause R&D overinvestment by the sample firms. However, government subsidies have a positive moderating effect on the relationships. The impact of financing constraints and agency costs on R&D investment varies slightly by firms in different geographical regions, industries, business ownerships, and years.
This paper investigates the relationship between business strategy and cost stickiness under different ownership. Using the data from listed firms in China from 2002 to 2015, we find that first, firms with different strategies exhibit different cost behavior. The cost stickiness of choosing a differentiation strategy is higher than that of choosing a low-cost strategy. Second, management expectations will affect cost stickiness. Optimistic expectations will increase cost stickiness, while pessimistic expectations will reduce cost stickiness. Third, management expectations can adjust the relationship between business strategy and cost stickiness in terms of government-created advantages (GCAs). If management expectations tend to be optimistic, the cost stickiness is higher with a differentiation strategy than with a low-cost strategy. If management expectations tend to be pessimistic, then cost stickiness is higher with a low-cost strategy than with a differentiation strategy. Finally, the state-owned equity affects the extent of the effect of a differentiation strategy on cost stickiness. State-owned firms, which receive more GCAs than non-state-owned firms, have stronger cost stickiness than non-state-owned firms, even if both categories of firms use more differentiation strategy.
Few studies have addressed how customer concentration affects the decision of a firm’s research and development (R&D) strategies and then innovation outcome. Using a sample of China’s listed companies for the period from 2009 to 2017, this study investigates the relationship between customer concentration and enterprise sustainable innovations, as well as how such the relationship changes with economic policy uncertainty. The findings imply that there is a significant inverted-U-shaped relationship between customer concentration and enterprise sustainable innovations. Under a high level of economic policy uncertainty, the advantage of the customer relationship is maximized. In this context, raising customer concentration significantly promotes enterprise sustainable innovations. Customer concentration affects innovations differently as the equity properties, and locations of enterprises vary under different levels of economic policy uncertainty. Thus, the interval of customer concentration conducive to enterprise innovations differs. The results are robust to econometric techniques that control for endogeneity. Overall, our findings suggest that enterprises build and adjust the customer relationship and improve the driving mechanism for sustainable innovations.
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