R&D Investment and Debt Financing of High-Tech Firms in Emerging Economies: The Role of Patents and State Ownership

Abstract

Substantial R&D investment can increase high-tech firms’ potential to establish long-term competitive advantages. Yet it can also cause high levels of transaction costs that may be an obstacle to accessing debt financing. In this article, we examine the influence of R&D investment on firms’ debt financing in emerging economies. Then, we explore how a firm's patents and state ownership alter this influence. Leveraging a panel dataset comprising 1084 Chinese high-tech manufacturing firms during a 12-year period from 2007 to 2018, we find that R&D investment has a direct negative effect on a firm's debt financing, which may be mediated by a firm's patents. Explicitly, R&D investment increases a firm's likelihood of having a patent, which in turn facilitates access to debt financing, because the patent acts as a signal. State ownership makes the negative direct influence of R&D investment more salient as a moderator, whereas it also moderates the positive influence of patents on debt financing in an inverted U-shaped pattern. Thus, our article not only reveals that R&D-intensive firms do face financing constraints in emerging economies but also indicates how patents and state ownership can relax or tighten the constraints.