企业专利与外部融资

除保护技术输出的传统职能外，专利在企业和利益相关者沟通中也发挥着重要的信号传递职能。其中，专利在资本市场上的信号价值近年来备受关注，已有研究指出专利作为质量信号有助于企业获得投资者认可，并且专利信号效果依赖于投资者获得企业信息的多少。在此基础上，进一步讨论了投资者获得企业信息的内容对信号价值的影响。具体地，在负面信号情境下（企业过去的财务绩效差、收益波动性大、未来不确定性高），专利的信号价值更强，而在正面信号情境专利信号效果减弱。利用来自深沪两市1 787家上市公司2000-2011年面板数据验证了以上假设，专利数量和外部融资之间存在正向关系，并且在负面信号情境下二者正向关系更强。稳健性检验进一步表明，发明专利的信号效应比非发明专利更强，而私企的专利信号效应比国企更强。

Firm Patents and External Financing

In addition to the conventional role of protecting technology output,patent plays an information role in the communication between firms and their stakeholders.Recently studies have been focused on the signaling value of patents in capital market,suggesting patents as quality signals are recognized by investors.Also studies show that the signaling effect of patents depends on to what extent investors know about firms.Further,this study discusses if patents’ signaling effect depends on what investors know about firms.Specifically,this study proposes in negative signal context (firms with lower past performance,higher return volatility,higher future uncertainty),the signaling value of patents would be stronger and vice versa.Panel data analysis based on 1787 firms on Shanghai and Shenzhen stock market from 2000 to 2011 support these hypotheses.Patent number has positive effect on external financing,and the effect is stronger in negative context.Robustness test shows that invention patents have stronger signaling effect than non invention patents,and private firms benefit more from patent signal than state owned firms do.