Can intellectual property protection promote trade credit financing of high-tech enterprises: evidence from the Chinese ‘three-in-one trial’ reform

Abstract

Whether the intellectual property protection (IPP) system can improve the financing environment for enterprise innovation is a poorly studied research issue. Taking the Chinese ‘three-in-one trial’ reform of intellectual property rights (IPRs) as a quasi-natural experiment; we investigate the impact of strengthening IPP on trade credit financing of high-tech enterprises. The results show that strengthening IPP can promote their trade credit by about 2%, and the technology market effect, innovation effect and information effect are the underlying mechanisms. Further tests indicate that the promotion effects of IPP are more obvious on high-tech enterprises with lower government support, lower proportion of fixed assets and healthier government–business relationship. Different from the previous literature, which focuses on the relationship between IPP and innovation activities or benefits, this article expands the literature by investigating its impact on innovation financing and fills the research gap of the impact of IPP on capital market information searching.