Does science–industry cooperation policy enhance corporate innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed firms

Abstract

We examine science–industry collaborations by identifying how academician workstations – joint platforms by listed firms and academicians under provincial governments – influence corporate innovation. We discover that academician workstations (i) significantly increase firms’ innovation input, quality and efficiency, even after controlling for endogeneity issues; (ii) primarily promote corporate innovation by attracting more talented human capital rather than through funding support; and (iii) are even more significant among state‐owned companies and large companies. These results indicate that government policies on bridging the gap between star scientists and firms could be an important non‐financial incentive to partially explain China’s rapidly growing capacity for innovation.

Financial constraints, government subsidies, and corporate innovation

“…Moreover, government subsidies with specific requirements (e.g., R&D taxes) hedge uncertainty in innovation and spur innovating enterprises to acquire continuous subsidies [ 32 ]. Specifically, targeted government subsidies help to reallocate labor [ 33 ], and more talented human capital promotes corporate innovation in addition to funding support [ 34 ]. Furthermore, a more innovative atmosphere leads to a more positive external environment for collaboration [ 35 ], and this helps knowledge spillover among technology-driven corporations.…”

Managerial inclusiveness and corporate innovation in China

“…To test the robustness of the results, we changed the measurement of innovation and performed the same regression with innovation inputs instead of innovation outputs. Following existing studies (Li & Qi, 2023; Song & Chen, 2023; Xu et al, 2021), two innovation indicators were constructed based on R&D expenditure data: (1) measured by the natural logarithm of firms' total R&D expenditures plus one for firm i in year t , and (2) measured by the ratio of R&D expenditures to firm sales.…”

CEO decision horizon and corporate R&D investments: an explanation based on managerial myopia and risk aversion

“…Second, this study adds to the literature on corporate R&D investments from the upper echelons perspective. Prior studies have attributed R&D activities to institutional factors and corporate governance mechanisms such as science-industry collaboration policies (Xu et al, 2020), institutional ownership (Bena et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2020) and internal governance factors (Xie et al, 2020). However, corporate R&D activity is also impacted by the cognition and preference of decision-makers.…”