Corporate Technological Innovation Research Articles

How corporate technological innovation social responsibility leads to better radical technological innovation: an intellectual capital perspective

PurposeCorporate social responsibility (CSR) is regarded as the driving factor of innovation. However, corporate technological innovation social responsibility’s (CTISR) role and effect mechanism in leveraging radical technological innovation (RTI) has been limited. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between CTISR and RTI and the moderating effect of intellectual capital and institutional support on CTISR and RTI.Design/methodology/approachGrounded in resource-based view, a research model including CTISR, intellectual capital, institutional support and RTI is proposed Content analysis is performed on the CSR reports of Chinese companies that have been publicly listed published from 2008 to 2022, to measure each company’s CTISR. A regression analysis was then applied to relate CTISR, intellectual capital and institutional support to firm-specific variables to determine their relevance and influence on RTI.FindingsResults indicate that CTISR is positively related to RTI. The results also indicate that human capital, structural capital and institutional support strengthen this positive relationship. Furthermore, institutional support strengthens the positive interaction effect of human capital with CTISR and structural capital with CTISR, respectively.Originality/valueThis research explores the relationships among CTISR, intellectual capital, institutional support and RTI in a comprehensive model, which is the first known study to highlight that CTISR can enhance RTI and gives managers implications on how to align corporate technological innovation while pursuing RTI.

Digital knowledge management effect on enterprise technological innovation: an empirical study from China’s manufacturing industry

ABSTRACT With digital technology permeating across the layers of businesses, digital knowledge management has emerged, transforming the means through which companies acquire, integrate, share, and innovatively apply knowledge. However, the specific impact of digital knowledge management on corporate technological innovation remains unclear. Based on dynamic capabilities theory, this study delves into how digital knowledge management influences corporate technological innovation. Analyzing data from manufacturing companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2007 to 2021, this study confirms that digital knowledge management significantly and positively affects corporate technological innovation by enhancing a company's absorptive capacity, adaptability, and innovation ability. Based on the findings, this study suggests that companies should leverage digital knowledge management to acquire and integrate external innovative resources, seek cooperation opportunities with external stakeholders, and jointly build a mutually beneficial innovation knowledge network, thereby boosting technological innovation capabilities. Additionally, companies should encourage employees to learn digital technologies and create a culture conducive to learning and innovation.

Network news reporting, information transparency, and corporate technological innovation

This study analyses the relation between network news reporting, information transparency, and corporate technological innovation. Results indicate that network news reporting can promote corporate technological innovation with information transparency playing an intermediary role. These findings are supported by robustness tests and endogeneity analyses. Heterogeneity analyses show that the technological innovation promotion effect of network news coverage was more significant for corporations with low information transparency than for those with high information transparency.

The impact of environmental protection tax on corporate performance: A new insight from multi angles analysis

This study investigates the practical effects of adopting the environmental protection tax (EPT) policy on corporate performance in China. The analysis uses the Difference in Differences (DID) approach based on a quasi-natural experiment scenario. The findings indicate there is a negative impact of implementing the EPT policy on the financial performance of corporations, and the conclusion remains unchanged despite exhaustive robustness testing. The negative impact can be partly attributed to corporate technology innovation inputs. Meanwhile, enterprise property rights, pollution, and technical levels also substantially influence the implementation effect of the legislation. However, implementing this policy has improved corporations’ environmental performance and established its efficacy in enhancing their sustainable capabilities. This study comprehensively explores the impact of environmental control legislation on business performance, spanning financial, environmental, and social dimensions. Corresponding findings offer valuable insights into how firms react to environmental legislation and adjust to the external environment. Meanwhile, it also provides an objective reference for the comprehensive green transformation.

Banking competition, credit financing and the efficiency of corporate technology innovation

Based on the data spanning 2010 to 2022, this study delves into how banking competition impacts the efficiency of enterprise science and technology innovation by lowering credit costs, enhancing credit availability, optimizing credit allocation, and offering empirical evidence for the significant role of banking competition in influencing corporate technology innovation efficiency. This paper concludes that increased competition in the banking sector notably impacts corporate technology innovation efficiency. Banking competition alters the traditional relationship-based lending model, enhancing banks' ability to assess risks and support innovative projects by enterprises, encouraging enterprises to enhance innovation quality and boost research and development investments, leading to a learning curve effect on innovation and enhancing the efficiency of technology innovation. Mechanism analysis reveals that credit financing plays an intermediary role. Competition in the banking sector leads to lower costs and increased availability of bank credit for research and development in enterprises. It helps address the issue of limited finance for innovation in enterprises, encourages larger-scale innovation, and enhances innovation efficiency. Banking rivalry has a role in enhancing corporate technology innovation efficiency, which is influenced by the environment to a certain extent.

The impact of ESG performance on firms’ technological innovation: evidence from China

Technological innovation is crucial for creating sustainable corporate value and shaping competitive advantage in the market. ESG, as an indicator of corporate value practices, plays a significant role in enterprise technological innovation. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. This study analyzes the relationship between ESG performance and technological innovation in Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2011 to 2021. The statistical data shows that strong ESG performance has a significant positive impact on corporate technological innovation. ESG performance can promote corporate technological innovation through external mechanisms, such as enhancing corporate network location and increasing institutional shareholding. Additionally, internal mechanisms, such as reducing labor costs and easing financing constraints, can also promote corporate technological innovation. The impact of ESG performance on corporations exhibits heterogeneity, with ESG performance promoting innovation more strongly among labor-intensive firms, non-state-owned firms, highly competitive industries, and mature firms. Based on the study results, it is recommended that enterprises actively practice ESG development concepts, optimize their equity structure, strengthen information communication with stakeholders, and alleviate problems such as information asymmetry to improve their technological innovation. The government should focus on enterprise characteristics, improve ESG development policies, and promote enterprise innovation through ESG performance.

Study on the impact of regional carbon emissions on enterprise technological innovation under the background of low-carbon transformation in China

Low-carbon transition, as the backbone of corporate innovation drive, has an important strategic position globally. In order to avoid heterogeneous intercepts related to explanatory variables or interfering with each other, this paper empirically examines the impact of regional carbon emissions on corporate technological innovation and its mechanism based on the data of listed companies in China from 2009 to 2020, using a fixed-effects model. It is found that 1) the reduction of regional carbon emissions is favourable to corporate technological innovation; 2) in terms of the impact mechanism, the reduction of regional carbon emissions promotes corporate technological innovation by enhancing R&D investment and reducing financing constraints. 3) Based on the study of heterogeneity, it is found that: from the perspective of spatial distribution, regional carbon emissions show the phenomenon of “high on both sides and low in the middle”; state-owned enterprises refer to wholly state-owned enterprises, wholly state-owned companies and state-owned capital holding companies in which the State Council and the local people’s governments respectively perform the responsibilities of funders on behalf of the state. In terms of the nature of equity, compared with state-owned enterprises, regional carbon emissions have a greater impact on the technological innovation of non-state-owned enterprises. 4) Further analysis reveals that the low-carbon city pilot policy is conducive to regional carbon emission reduction. Through the comparison before and after the implementation of low carbon policy, this paper reliably verifies that the introduction of urban carpet policy is conducive to regional carbon emissions, and explores the issue of enterprise technological innovation from the perspective of low carbon transformation, providing theoretical support for the carbon emission reduction efforts and the improvement of the technological innovation capacity of different enterprises. At the same time, it fully affirmed the important role of regional carbon emissions, continued to deepen the process of green transformation of enterprises, and boosted the high-quality development of low-carbon enterprises.

The Impact of Shareholder and Director Networks on Corporate Technological Innovation: A Multilayer Networks Analysis

We adopt a multilayer networks approach to assess how network structural embeddedness affects corporate technological innovation. Our findings indicate an annual increase in both single-layer and multilayer networks, although adoption of the latter by Chinese listed companies is comparatively low. We found that structural embeddedness of multilayer networks positively impacts corporate technological innovation. By reducing uncertainty within the internal environment, these networks bolster technological innovation. Moreover, such embeddedness notably spurs innovation in non-state-owned companies and those with greater internal transparency and robust external oversight. Our analysis reveals an intermediate effect where structural embeddedness in multilayer networks influences innovation. Our work provides new insights into enhancing innovation capacity via network embeddedness and supplies empirical data on utilizing network resources for innovation. We also offer actionable guidance and policy advice for managers, investors, and policymakers, especially relevant amidst economic transformation and pursuit of technological self-reliance of China.

Private Equity Investment and Corporate Technological Innovation: An Empirical Examination Based on Chinese Mainboard-listed High-Tech

Technological innovation is very important to the growth and success of an enterprise, which greatly affects its market competitiveness. There are many known factors that affect the technological innovation of enterprises, and private equity investment is one of the important but often neglected factors. As a country with relatively developed finance, China's laws and systems related to private equity investment are relatively sound. Based on a large number of sample data of high-tech enterprises listed on the main board of China in 2012-2022, this paper studies the influence of private equity investment on technological innovation of enterprises. This paper finds that private equity investment has an obvious positive effect on enterprise technological innovation, and the effect of private equity investment on innovation shows certain differences due to different types of enterprises, which is embodied in the fact that state-owned enterprises or smaller enterprises are more sensitive to private equity investment. The research has both theoretical and practical significance, and can provide some help and suggestions for enterprises and the government in making decisions related to private placement.

Technological innovation under trade disputes: how does product market competition matter?

PurposeThis study investigates firms' innovation behaviour under environmental change. Therefore, it examines the effect of trade disputes on corporate technological innovation and how product market competition moderates this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis research tests the hypotheses using the fixed effects model based on panel data of publicly listed enterprises in China from 2007–2020.FindingsThe empirical results validate the positive association between trade disputes and corporate research and development (R&D) intensity as well as the U-shaped relationship between trade disputes and radical innovation. Additionally, the moderating effect of product market competition is verified: a concentrated market with less competition flattens the U-shaped curve of radical innovation induced by trade disputes; as the market becomes more concentrated and less competitive, the U-shaped relationship eventually turns into an inverted U.Originality/valueFirst, this study contributes to the corporate innovation and trade dispute literature by expanding the environmental antecedents of technological innovation and the firm-level consequences of trade disputes. Second, this study enriches the theoretical framework of the environment–innovation link through an integrated perspective of contingency theory and dynamic capabilities view. Third, instead of the traditional linear mindset which had led to contradictory results, this study explores a curvilinear effect in the environment–innovation relationship.

The Impact of Local Government Environmental Target Constraints on the Performance of Heavy Pollution Industries

The world is plagued by difficult problems such as ecological degradation and resource depletion. This study utilizes data from 664 Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed enterprises in the heavy pollution industry from 2007 to 2019; this paper constructs a two-way fixed effects panel model and a mediated effect model to test the relevant effects of local government environmental target constraints (LGETCs) on the performance of heavy pollution enterprises (HPEs). The main findings are as follows: First, LGETCs significantly inhibit the short-term performance of HPEs. Second, LGETCs have a heterogeneous impact on the short-term performance of HPEs based on regional, industry, and firm ownership differences. This sentence suggests that local environmental targets can exert a restraining effect on the short-term performance of heavily polluting companies by influencing factors such as financial constraints, agency costs, and levels of technological innovation. In this context, financial constraints and agency costs act as mediating factors, while corporate technological innovation and green technological innovation act as masking factors in this relationship. The sentence appears to suggest that local environmental targets can indirectly have a positive impact on the long-term performance of heavily polluting companies through innovative incentives. Furthermore, the research in this article provides theoretical support for local government efforts to address deteriorating ecological environments and expedite energy conservation and emission reduction in heavily polluting companies.

The knowledge linkage between science and technology influences corporate technological innovation: Evidence from scientific publications and patents

Scientific knowledge has been shown to be a key contributor to corporate technological innovation; hence, modern inventive firms place a strong emphasis on scientific research. However, little is known about how the knowledge linkage between science and technology (ST linkage) of corporations fosters their technological innovation. In an effort to fill this vacuum in the literature, we investigate how multiple properties of ST linkage influence corporate technological innovation. We conducted a Zero-inflated Negative Binomial regression using scientific publications, patents, and firm-level data from 671 pharmaceutical and 686 semiconductor corporations to test our hypotheses. We find that the higher the proportion of corporations citing their published scientific publications in patents, the more likely they are to produce more patents, and corporate technological innovation benefits from the utilization of scientific knowledge produced in the early stages. Furthermore, the positive effects of the aforementioned factors on the technological innovation performance of corporations are present in both scientific research strategies (e.g., independent vs. joint research). These findings contribute to the understanding of the underlying mechanism of corporate basic research facilitating technological innovation. This study also provides meaningful advice regarding how corporations can enhance their technological innovation through scientific research.

Analysis of the Degree of Influence of External Unfairness of Executive Compensation on the Stability of Corporate Management Teams

Abstract This paper uses explanatory variables to carry out the degree of executive unfairness on the stability of the team, using the number of members serving in the sample period to measure the stability of the executive team, the introduction of risk-taking, inefficient investment mediating variables on the role of corporate merger and acquisition behavior impact path. By calculating the causal relationship between executive team stability and corporate technological innovation performance, it is concluded that the degree of external positive inequity in compensation impacts corporate stability. It is found that the mean value of executive compensation in the agriculture and forestry industry is 0.287, the median is 0.193, and the average annual growth rate of average executive compensation is 24.2%, which can provide practical suggestions for corporate managers and decision-makers about compensation setting and team building.

Media attention, urban environmental regulation and corporate environmental responsibility

We investigate the effect of media attention and urban environmental regulation on corporate environmental responsibility fulfilment. Media attention and urban environmental regulation can significantly increase corporate environmental responsibility fulfilment probability and level. The synergistic effect between media attention and urban environmental regulation is shown, and both jointly promote corporate environmental responsibility fulfilment. The mechanism study shows that the synergistic effect enhances the probability and level of corporate environmental responsibility fulfilment by promoting corporate technological innovation and obtaining environmental protection subsidies from the government.

External environment uncertainty, key resources acquisition, and corporate technological innovation

AbstractThis study investigates the impact of external environmental uncertainty on technological innovation from the perspective of key resource acquisition. Using data from A‐share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2008 to 2019, we empirically test the relationship between external environmental uncertainty faced by firms and technological innovation input and output. Our findings reveal that external environmental uncertainty has a negative impact on the input and output of corporate technological innovation. In addition, key resource acquisition, namely, capital resource acquisition and information resource acquisition, plays a mediating role in this relationship. As an asset for obtaining resources, corporate social capital is a crucial means for firms to obtain external resources. This study further incorporates corporate social capital into the analysis, which shows that corporate social capital plays a positive moderating role in the impact of external environmental uncertainty on corporate technological innovation. Furthermore, research shows that compared with nonhigh‐tech industry firms, the technological innovation of high‐tech industry firms is more sensitive to external environmental uncertainty.

Internal controls and corporate technological innovation: Empirical evidence from Chinese listed companies

As the underlying institutional design for enterprise risk management, it is important to study whether and how internal control affects enterprise technological innovation in the current context of increased economic policy uncertainty. Based on the principal-agent theory and information asymmetry theory, this paper explores the impact of internal control on corporate technological innovation using the listed company data from 2009-2019 CSMAR database, and obtains the following research conclusions: (1) the quality of internal control positively affects the corporate technological innovation. (2) The operational risk plays an intermediary role in the relationship between the internal control affecting the corporate technological innovation. (3) The degree of market competition positively moderates the impact of internal control on enterprise technological innovation. (4) Relative to non-state-owned enterprises and non-high-tech enterprises, the quality of internal control of state-owned enterprises and high-tech enterprises has a more significant impact on enterprise technological innovation. This paper enriches the consequences of the study of internal control on the one hand, and on the other hand, it provides a new perspective for improving technological innovation, and it provides certain guidance for further improving the level of corporate governance.

Can environmental regulation break the political resource curse: evidence from heavy polluting private listed companies in China

This paper aims to explore whether the over-reliance on political resources hampers corporate technological innovation and the role of environmental regulation in mitigating the adverse effect. A simplified theoretical framework is proposed to combine political ties, environmental regulations, and corporate innovation. Then, based on the data for listed private companies in China’s heavy pollution industry, our empirical results show that political relations have negative impacts on both patent licensing and R&D investment, indicating the existence of a political resource curse in listed private companies in China’s heavy pollution industry. The transmission mechanisms include mitigating market competition and inducing overinvestment, but increasing the rent-seeking motivation is not a channel through which political connections negatively affect corporate innovation. Further empirical analysis demonstrates that environmental regulations help eliminate the curse effect of political ties on technological innovation at the firm level in China, through increasing market competition and reducing overinvestment. The findings of this paper provide insights for optimizing environmental regulation policies, which are conducive to inducing technical innovation in politically connected enterprises.

The heterogeneous impacts of M&As on renewable energy firms’ innovation: Comparative analysis of China, the US and EU

The renewable energy sector is characterized by two key externalities that make government participation critical to technological innovation within the industry. This paper explores the country-specific heterogeneity of the impact of M&A on innovation in renewable energy firms from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, based on variability in the level of renewable energy China, the United States, and Europe. In this framework, we further explore the heterogeneous effects of domestic M&A and cross-border M&A on corporate technology innovation. The main empirical results of this paper show that: first, the M&A behavior of US renewable energy firms has a significantly higher effect on technological innovation than that of Chinese and European renewable energy firms; and second, the effect of cross-border M&A of Chinese and European renewable energy firms on innovation is significantly higher than the effect of domestic M&A on innovation, while the effect of cross-border M&A of US renewable energy firms on innovation is not significantly different from the effect of domestic M&A on innovation. These results are consistent with diminishing marginal returns on innovation from M&A activity.

Does carbon emission trading policy promote the corporate technological innovation? Empirical evidence from China's high-carbon industries

Global warming can be solved with carbon trading. When carbon emissions become a commodity, it can be a powerful motivator for companies to optimize production capacity and innovate technologically. The goal of this paper is to examine the way in which China's carbon emissions trading policy (CET) influences firm technological innovation in seven pilot regions, using a sample of firms in eight high-carbon industries. We employ difference-in-difference (DID) as well as DID-based propensity score matching (PSM-DID) models to investigate the influence of China's carbon emission policy on firms' technological innovation by using 4745 observations of 749 A-share listed firms in eight high-carbon industries in mainland China from 2007 to 2021. According to the findings, China's CET policy significantly boosts firms' technological innovation, and this beneficial effect persists even after a series of robustness tests that change the policy's implementation year and the technological innovation measure. Further analysis shows that this positive effect is heterogeneous across high-carbon industries and firms with different ownership. In addition, based on the external governance perspective, we find that CET policy performs better in firms in high-carbon industries with a sizable portion of ownership held by institutional investors. This study suggests the effectiveness of CET policy in promoting firms' technological innovation, confirms empirical evidence for Porter's hypothesis, and provides a basis for Chinese firms to achieve their emission reduction targets by improving technological innovation.

Nonlinear Impact of the Digital Inclusive Finance on Enterprise Technological Innovation Based on the AK Model and PSTR Empirical Analysis

Using a panel smooth conversion model, data of listed companies in the Chinese A-stock market and the digital inclusive finance index from 2011 to 2018 are used to empirically test the nonlinear impact and heterogeneity of digital inclusive finance on corporate technological innovation. The results show the following: First, the development of digital inclusive finance has a nonlinear effect of first promoting and then inhibiting the technological innovation of enterprises. Second, the nonlinear impact of digital inclusive finance development on the technological innovation of SMEs is more obvious. Finally, in the subdivision dimension of digital inclusive finance, the depth of use has a significant positive effect on the technological innovation of enterprises, the breadth of coverage has a significant inhibitory effect on the impact of enterprise innovation, and the degree of digitization is realized as an inverted U-shaped relationship that first rises and then falls.