Enterprise R&D Innovation and Bond Credit Spreads: Analysis Based on the Signal Transmission Theory

Abstract

In an increasingly competitive economic market, RD compared with state-owned enterprises, the bond market is more sensitive to private enterprises’ RD compared with non-innovative enterprises, the bond market is more optimistic about innovative enterprises’ RD the “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation” macro policy strengthens the bond market’s response to corporate R&D information. In the robustness test section, we conduct sensitivity analysis on the main explained variables, explanatory variables, and regulatory differences in different listed sectors, and the above conclusion is still valid.The main contributions of this article are as follows: Firstly , this article expands the literature view in the direction of “external soil”. Secondly, based on the signal transmission theory, this article treats corporate R&D innovation behavior as a signal, and examines the interpretation of this signal by bond investors, enriching the literature view of debt financing. Thirdly, from a practical point of view, the empirical result of this article shows that China’s bond market can identify corporate R&D innovation information and interpret it as a positive signal, thereby reducing the financing cost of R&D innovation “high-quality” companies, which indicates that the bond market has higher information transmission efficiency and resource allocation efficiency, namely, for companies with financing constraints, it is conducive to increase their enthusiasm for innovation and improve their core competitiveness. All in all, this article provides empirical evidence for the bond market’s role in the real economy, and has implications for improving transition economies’ R&D innovation capabilities and improving their bond market mechanism.