Financial reporting quality and corporate innovation

This paper examines the relationship of financial reporting to corporate innovation. Given the importance of a high‐quality information system and coordination to innovation, I predict a positive association between financial reporting quality and future innovation. My empirical evidence is consistent with this prediction. I also find some evidence that the positive association between financial reporting quality and innovation is more pronounced for firms with intensive internal research and development activities and for firms in competitive industries. The main findings are robust to using an instrumental variable approach as well as controlling for alternative explanations. I find that firms with high‐quality financial reporting transform investment inputs into greater innovation outcomes and firm value. This study provides additional insight into the role of financial reporting quality and its relation to the real economy.     

Vertical merger,R&D collaboration and innovation

This paper studies the effects of vertical merger and R&D collaboration activities on firms' innovation decisions and stock returns based on a continuous-time real option model under market and technological uncertainties. Our analysis confirms vertical merger's benefit in amplifying the potential gain from innovation through eliminating inefficiencies. We show that vertical merger boosts innovation incentives in two ways: it reduces the optimal innovation threshold when firms suspend the project and increases R&D investment when firms launch the project. If vertical merger is not possible, R&D collaboration can improve firms' innovation levels as an alternative decision, but inefficiencies still exist which implies less pronounced stimulation effects. Both vertical merger and R&D collaboration can reduce firms' risk when conducting innovation project and weaken the positive R&D-returns relation and financial constraints-returns relation, while these effects of vertical merger are stronger than those of R&D collaboration.     

Estimating dynamic R&D choice: an analysis of costs and long‐run benefits

This article estimates a dynamic structural model of discrete Research and Development (R&D) investment and quantifies its cost and long‐run benefit for German manufacturing firms. The model incorporates linkages between R&D choice, product and process innovations, and future productivity and profits. The long‐run payoff to R&D is the proportional difference in expected firm value generated by the investment. It increases firm value by 6.7% for the median firm in high‐tech industries but only 2.8% in low‐tech industries. Simulations show that reductions in maintenance costs of innovation significantly raise investment rates and productivity, whereas reductions in startup costs have little effect.     

Investment in organization capital

We study a firm’s investment in organization capital by analyzing a dynamic model of language development and intrafirm communication. We show that firms with richer internal language (i.e., more organization capital) have lower employee turnover, and higher diversity in skill and wages among incumbents who are promoted from within the firm. Our results also suggest that firms in rapidly changing industries are less likely to invest in organization capital, and are more likely to have high managerial turnover. Finally, our model shows that employment protection regulations lead to more investment in organization capital but less innovation.     

Firm vertical boundaries,internal capital markets,and firm performance

We investigate how vertical relatedness between business segments of firms affects capital allocation within internal capital markets. Using a battery of tests including exogenous import tariff reductions, we show that investments flow toward segments with better investment opportunities in firms with significant vertical relatedness between segments. This benefit of vertical relatedness is more pronounced in economic environments prone to information problems and in imperfectly competitive industries. Firms with significant inter-segment vertical relatedness also exhibit superior productivity and operating profitability. Overall, we show that superior capital allocation is a channel through which vertical integration impacts real outcomes of firms.     

When is upstream collusion profitable?

Motivated by the recent antitrust cases in which Japanese auto parts suppliers colluded to raise supply prices against their long‐term collaborators, the Japanese carmakers, we study the conditions under which an upstream collusion is profitable even after compensating downstream direct purchasers. Oligopoly competition in successive industries is shown to give rise to a vertical externality and a horizontal externality. If a collusive price of intermediate goods better balances the two externalities, the collusion will raise the joint profit of all firms in the two industries and is therefore profitable for the upstream after compensation of downstream firms.     

Legal shareholder protection and corporate R&D investment

This paper investigates the effects of shareholder protection law on corporate R&D investment. I find that the institutional protection of shareholder benefits reduces both underinvestment and overinvestment in R&D projects. Legal shareholder rights significantly increase R&D investment for firms that may underinvest, but reduce R&D for firms that may overinvest. Shareholder protection further enhances the growth of firms in R&D intensive industries, and promotes the economic growth of innovative countries. The results consistently show that enforcing stronger legal shareholder protection can help firms achieve an overall more efficient capital allocation to productive R&D investment.     

Investment frictions and leverage dynamics

The paper examines the effect of investment frictions on leverage dynamics, using a model of a firm whose investment projects are (1) indivisible and lumpy, and (2) subject to time-to-build. Regressions on the model-simulated data demonstrate that investment frictions can provide alternative interpretations of the observed leverages shown in the empirical literature. Cross-sectional analysis of firms in the oil and gas extraction industries, as well as analysis across all industries, reveals the evidence that small firms have more volatile investments and longer time-to-build, which may explain the observed differences in leverage dynamics across small and large firms.     

Market structure and the competitive effects of vertical integration

We analyze the competitive effects of backward vertical integration when firms exert market power upstream and compete in quantities downstream. Contrasting with previous literature, a small degree of vertical integration is always procompetitive because efficiency gains dominate foreclosure effects, and vertical integration even to full foreclosure can be procompetitive. Interestingly, vertical integration is more likely to be procompetitive if the industry is otherwise more concentrated. Extensions analyze welfare effects of integration and the incentives to integrate. Our analysis suggests that antitrust authorities should be wary of vertical integration when the integrating firm faces many competitors and should be permissive otherwise.     

Pension accrual management and research and development investment

This study investigates whether discretion in reporting pension expenses mitigates research and development (R&D) manipulation. Using a sample of Japanese manufacturing firms during the fiscal years 2001–2011 where both pension costs and R&D expenditures have large impacts on the bottom‐line earnings, I find that higher discount rates are associated with higher R&D investment among firms in which pension expenses could have large impacts on reported earnings. I also find that this relationship is found only among firms in high‐tech industries. These results suggest that pension accrual management substitutes costly R&D manipulation that may hurt future competitive edge.     

Do major customers promote firms’ innovation?

This study examines whether and how a concentrated supply chain relationship affects a firm’s innovation decisions. Using data from Chinese listed firms in the manufacturing industry, we find that a concentrated customer base constrains a firm’s R&D investment, where a 1% increase in customer concentration is associated with a 0.011% decrease in R&D investment. To establish causality, we use the instrumental variable method, the reverse causality model, and the Granger causality test to re-examine the relationship and arrive at a consistent conclusion. Results from mechanism analysis suggest that a concentrated customer base constrains the internal fund availability and that the negative relationship between customer concentration and firms’ innovation is less pronounced for firms with more external financial support. Additional analysis reveals that the negative effect of customer concentration mainly affects R&D investment expenditure and that customer concentration also constrains innovation output in China. Overall, our paper reveals the dark side of close customer-supplier relationships and provides new insights into how supply chain relationships affect firms’ innovation decisions.     

Competitive environment and innovation intensity

We find a U-shaped relation between industry concentration and innovation. The relation is driven by neck-and-neck industries where firms operate with similar productivity. When industry concentration is low, innovation intensity decreases as concentration increases. However, when industry concentration is high, increased concentration causes industry firms to increase innovation intensity to escape competition. The U-shaped relation is more pronounced in industries where firms compete in strategic substitutes. Using tariff rate reductions as an exogenous shock to the competitive environment, firms in neck-and-neck industries and industries where firms compete in strategic substitutes respond to foreign competitive threats by increasing innovation intensity.     

Monetary Policy in a Schumpeterian Growth Model with Vertical R&D Sectors

We explore the growth and welfare effects of monetary policy in a Schumpeterian economy with cash-in-advance (CIA)-constrained research and development (R&D) investment in both the upstream and downstream sectors. We show that the nominal interest rate can have an inverted-U relation with economic growth due to its effects on labor allocations between manufacturing and R&D and between the R&D sectors. Furthermore, aggregate R&D overinvestment is generally sufficient but not necessary for the Friedman rule of zero nominal interest rates to be suboptimal. Calibrated using data from U.S. manufacturing firms, our model features a positive welfare-maximizing nominal interest rate despite aggregate R&D underinvestment.     

Capital Structure, Information Acquisition and Investment Decisions in an Industry Framework

This paper analyzes the relationship between a firm's capital structure and its information acquisition prior to capital budgeting decisions. It is found that low-growth industries can sustain a large number of levered firms. In these industries, leverage is negatively related to a firm's incentive to acquire information during the capital budgeting process. In contrast, high-growth industries only sustain a small number of levered firms. In these industries, levered firms acquire more information than all-equity financed firms. The model yields empirical predictions regarding the effects of leverage on the expected amount and the volatility of corporate investment. While leverage does not affect firm value, highly levered firms generate a more volatile cash flow than firms with low debt levels.     

Does oil price uncertainty matter in firm innovation? Evidence from China

Inspired by the prevalence of firm innovation and substantial influence of international oil price uncertainty (OPU) on firm operation and decision-making, we investigate the influence of OPU on firm innovation. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms over the 2007–2019 period, our study reveals that OPU decreases firm innovation. This finding is consistent with the real options theory and the prospect theory. Mediation analysis shows that OPU could decrease firm innovation by increasing firms' financing constraints degree. Moreover, high-tech firms and those in highly competitive industries have fewer options to delay their innovation investments, we find that the adverse effects of OPU on their innovation are weaker. Finally, further analysis shows that government subsidies can help mitigate adverse effects of OPU on firm innovation. This paper reveals that OPU goes beyond the commonly known and understood regular indicator that shapes a firm's innovation activity and enriches firm-level evidence for the effects of OPU by highlighting the effects on long-term investment in intangible assets.     

Spinoffs and clustering

Geographic clustering of innovative industries is associated with the entry and success of spinoff firms. We develop a model to explain the multiple empirical patterns regarding cluster growth and spinoff formation and performance, without relying on agglomeration externalities. Clustering naturally follows from spinoffs locating near their parents. In our model, firms grow and spinoffs form through the discovery of new submarkets based on innovation. Rapid and successful innovation creates more opportunities for spinoff entry and drives a region's growth. Our model provides baseline estimates of levels of agglomeration that can be attributed to this process of innovation and spinoff formation.     

环境规制、研发投入与先进制造业绿色技术创新

基于2012—2020年先进制造业行业面板数据,运用系统GMM和门槛面板模型考察环境规制对绿色技术创新的影响及其传导机制,同时检验不同研发投入水平下环境规制对绿色技术创新的作用。结果显示：环境规制通过成本遵循和创新补偿两个渠道对先进制造业绿色工艺创新具有正向促进作用,而对绿色产品创新产生负向影响。研发投入在环境规制对先进制造业绿色技术创新的影响中存在双重门槛效应,在较高研发投入水平下,环境规制能够显著促进先进制造业绿色技术创新。     

Are Overconfident CEOs Better Innovators?

Previous empirical work on adverse consequences of CEO overconfidence raises the question of why firms hire overconfident managers. Theoretical research suggests a reason: overconfidence can benefit shareholders by increasing investment in risky projects. Using options‐ and press‐based proxies for CEO overconfidence, we find that over the 1993–2003 period, firms with overconfident CEOs have greater return volatility, invest more in innovation, obtain more patents and patent citations, and achieve greater innovative success for given research and development expenditures. However, overconfident managers achieve greater innovation only in innovative industries. Our findings suggest that overconfidence helps CEOs exploit innovative growth opportunities.     

Capital structure and large investment projects

This paper provides empirical evidence that lumpy investment projects provide firms with the opportunity to adjust leverage at low marginal cost. Consistent with a theoretical model, I find that 1) firms sequence equity before debt during the financing period of their investment projects, and 2) that firms adjust their leverage ratios toward their target leverage during these investment periods. I also show that proactive increases in leverage observed in other studies can be explained by the evolution of firms' target leverage ratios over the financing period of a project. My results are consistent with trade-off theory and imply that firms move toward their target capital structures when they invest.     

企业技术并购、自主研发投资与创新效率——来自技术密集型行业的实证

以沪深两市技术密集型行业企业为样本,研究主并企业并购前自主研发投资形成的研发资本存量和对外技术并购获取技术知识两方面对其并购后创新效率产生的混合作用,再进一步检验并购双方技术重叠在主并企业并购前自主研发投资和并购后创新效率之间关系的调节作用.研究表明:企业并购前自主研发投资形成的知识储备量会促进其并购后创新效率的提升.技术并购及并购双方的技术重叠进一步放大了这种正向促进作用,说明技术并购及技术重叠会加强主并企业内部自主研发对外来创新能量的内化、吸收速度,并改善和提升内部研发投资效率.同时,在并购前持续追加研发投资的主并企业中,这种现象和作用也会更为明显.