R&D Intensity: What to Expect When Family and Non-Family Firms Underperformed?

Abstract

The main purpose of our study is to test the R&D investment decision-making process of family and non-family enterprises, especially focus on their R&D investment differences under extreme below performance aspiration (EBPA). And we further discuss the regulatory mechanism of unabsorbed slack on performance feedback process. The results show that: first, in the range of EBPA, the R&D investment intensity of non-family enterprises will decrease with the increase of negative performance aspiration, while that of family enterprises will accelerate with the increase of negative performance aspiration. (2) Unabsorbed slack could enhance the positive relationship between performance aspiration gap and R&D investment intensity of family business, while for non-family business, it would weaken the negative relationship between aspiration gap and R&D investment intensity.