Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/asiaec/v16y2017i1p201-226.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Government Support and R&D Investment Effectiveness in Chinese SMEs: A Complex Relationship

Author

Listed:
  • Claudio Petti

    (University of Salento)

  • Lauretta Rubini

    (University of Ferrara)

  • Silvia Podetti

    (Institute of Management Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)

Abstract
This paper investigates the combined role of innovation support policies and firm's own innovative activities on the performance of Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in high-tech sectors. By distinguishing two components of innovative activities—research and development (R&D) investments and embedded innovative capacity—the paper develops and tests an integrative moderated moderation model. The results suggest that in Chinese high-tech SMEs innovation-support policies positively moderate the relationship between R&D investments and performance, but this positive effect diminishes when there are higher levels of embedded innovative capacity. These results highlight that the relationship between government innovation policies and a firm's own R&D investments is not only reciprocal but also more complex than the one so far analyzed in the literature. The results show in particular that the effects of innovation-support policies on R&D investments is not as neat as it seems, because of the internal balance within the firm between investment in R&D and other sources of innovation. Therefore, although innovation support policies have been found to help Chinese SMEs in high-tech sectors benefit from their R&D investments, these policies are particularly effective only when R&D investments are significantly driving firms’ innovative activities. This highlights the relevance of both government support and a firm's own efforts in the competitive modernization of Chinese SMEs.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudio Petti & Lauretta Rubini & Silvia Podetti, 2017. "Government Support and R&D Investment Effectiveness in Chinese SMEs: A Complex Relationship," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 16(1), pages 201-226, Winter/Sp.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:asiaec:v:16:y:2017:i:1:p:201-226
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ASEP_a_00504
    File Function: link to full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xiaolan Fu & Jizhen Li & Hongru Xiong & Henry Chesbrough, 2014. "Open Innovation as a Response to Constraints and Risks: Evidence from China," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 13(3), pages 30-58, Fall.
    2. Zoltan J. Acs & David B. Audretsch, 2008. "Innovation in Large and Small Firms: An Empirical Analysis," Chapters, in: Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, chapter 1, pages 3-15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Carmichael, Jeffrey, 1981. "The Effects of Mission-Oriented Public R&D Spending on Private Industry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(3), pages 617-627, June.
    4. Elisa Barbieri & Marco R. Di Tommaso & Manli Huang, 2009. "Industrial Development Policy and Innovation in Southern China: Government Targets and Firms' Behaviour," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 83-105, September.
    5. H. Piekkola, 2007. "Public Funding of R&D and Growth: Firm-Level Evidence from Finland," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 195-210.
    6. Lööf, Hans & Heshmati, Almas, 2004. "The Impact of Public Funding on Private R&D investment: New Evidence from a Firm Level Innovation Study," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 6, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, revised 01 Mar 2005.
    7. David, Paul A. & Hall, Bronwyn H., 2000. "Heart of darkness: modeling public-private funding interactions inside the R&D black box," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1165-1183, December.
    8. Kenneth Arrow, 1962. "Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, pages 609-626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Elisa Barbieri & Roberto Iorio & Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera, 2010. "Incentivi alla ricerca e sviluppo in Italia: una indagine sugli effetti della Legge 46/82," Working Papers 1003, c.MET-05 - Centro Interuniversitario di Economia Applicata alle Politiche per L'industria, lo Sviluppo locale e l'Internazionalizzazione.
    10. Conte, Andrea & Vivarelli, Marco, 2005. "One or Many Knowledge Production Functions? Mapping Innovative Activity Using Microdata," IZA Discussion Papers 1878, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Paul Geroski, 1995. "Innovation and Competitive Advantage," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 159, OECD Publishing.
    12. Dirk Czarnitzki & Cindy Lopes-Bento, 2014. "Innovation Subsidies: Does the Funding Source Matter for Innovation Intensity and Performance? Empirical Evidence from Germany," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(5), pages 380-409, July.
    13. Utterback, James M & Abernathy, William J, 1975. "A dynamic model of process and product innovation," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 3(6), pages 639-656, December.
    14. Lu, Yi & Tao, Zhigang, 2009. "Contract enforcement and family control of business: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 597-609, December.
    15. Li, Xibao, 2012. "Behind the recent surge of Chinese patenting: An institutional view," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 236-249.
    16. Raquel Ortega‐Argilés & Mariacristina Piva & Lesley Potters & Marco Vivarelli, 2010. "Is Corporate R&D Investment In High‐Tech Sectors More Effective?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(3), pages 353-365, July.
    17. Dodgson, Mark & Hughes, Alan & Foster, John & Metcalfe, Stan, 2011. "Systems thinking, market failure, and the development of innovation policy: The case of Australia," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(9), pages 1145-1156.
    18. Wakelin, Katharine, 2001. "Productivity growth and R&D expenditure in UK manufacturing firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 1079-1090, August.
    19. Lichtenberg, Frank R, 1987. "The Effect of Government Funding on Private Industrial Research and Development: A Re-assessment," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 97-104, September.
    20. Claudio Petti, 2014. "Making R&D efforts profitable: the role of absorptive capacity and policy implications in an emerging economy setting," ECONOMIA E POLITICA INDUSTRIALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(2), pages 67-97.
    21. Seyed Mehrshad Parvin Hosseini & Suresh Narayanan, 2014. "Adoption, Adaptive Innovation, and Creative Innovation Among SMEs in Malaysian Manufacturing," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 13(2), pages 32-58, Summer.
    22. Almus, Matthias & Czarnitzki, Dirk, 2003. "The Effects of Public R&D Subsidies on Firms' Innovation Activities: The Case of Eastern Germany," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 21(2), pages 226-236, April.
    23. Lu, Yi & Tao, Zhigang & Wang, Yijiang, 2010. "Union effects on performance and employment relations: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 202-210, March.
    24. Wesley M. Cohen & Daniel A. Levinthal, 1994. "Fortune Favors the Prepared Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(2), pages 227-251, February.
    25. Giovanni Cerulli & Bianca Potì, 2012. "Evaluating the robustness of the effect of public subsidies on firms’ R&D: an application to Italy," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 15, pages 287-320, November.
    26. Changwen Zhao, 2010. "No Simple Relationship between Technological Improvements and Employment Generation in a Large Developing Country like China: Thoughts Stimulated by Sjöholm and Lundin," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 9(2), pages 35-43, Summer.
    27. Fredrik Sjöholm & Nannan Lundin, 2010. "Will Science and Technology Solve China's Unemployment Problem?," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 9(2), pages 1-28, Summer.
    28. Cohen, Wesley M & Levinthal, Daniel A, 1989. "Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(397), pages 569-596, September.
    29. Marco R. Di Tommaso & Stuart O. Schweitzer, 2013. "Industrial Policy in America," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13749.
    30. Massimo Colombo & Luca Grilli, 2007. "Funding Gaps? Access To Bank Loans By High-Tech Start-Ups," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 25-46, June.
    31. Falck, Oliver & Gold, Robert & Heblich, Stephan, . "Entrepreneurship education," Chapters in Economics,, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    32. Adams, James D, 1990. "Fundamental Stocks of Knowledge and Productivity Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 673-702, August.
    33. Czarnitzki, Dirk & Hussinger, Katrin, 2004. "The Link Between R&D Subsidies, R&D Spending and Technological Performance," ZEW Discussion Papers 04-56, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    34. Holger Görg & Eric Strobl, 2007. "The Effect of R&D Subsidies on Private R&D," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(294), pages 215-234, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chenghua Guan & Shengxue Jin, 2023. "Does the Type of Funding Affect Innovation? Evidence from Incubators in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Cátia Rosário & Celeste Varum & Anabela Botelho, 2022. "Impact of Public Support for Innovation on Company Performance: Review and Meta-Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-16, April.
    3. Jugend, Daniel & Fiorini, Paula De Camargo & Armellini, Fabiano & Ferrari, Aline Gabriela, 2020. "Public support for innovation: A systematic review of the literature and implications for open innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    4. Guo, Di & Guo, Yan & Jiang, Kun, 2022. "Government R&D support and firms’ access to external financing: funding effects, certification effects, or both?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    5. Zhang, Man & Merchant, Hemant, 2020. "A causal analysis of the role of institutions and organizational proficiencies on the innovation capability of Chinese SMEs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2).
    6. Mukhamad Najib & Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman & Farah Fahma, 2021. "Business Survival of Small and Medium-Sized Restaurants through a Crisis: The Role of Government Support and Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-16, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. José Ángel Zúñiga-Vicente & César Alonso-Borrego & Francisco J. Forcadell & José I. Galán, 2014. "Assessing The Effect Of Public Subsidies On Firm R&D Investment: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 36-67, February.
    2. Bettina Becker, 2013. "The Determinants of R&D Investment: A Survey of the Empirical Research," Discussion Paper Series 2013_09, Department of Economics, Loughborough University, revised Sep 2013.
    3. Beck, Mathias & Junge, Martin & Kaiser, Ulrich, 2017. "Public Funding and Corporate Innovation," IZA Discussion Papers 11196, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Xing Shi & Yanrui Wu & Dahai Fu & Xiumei Guo & Huaqing Wu, 2019. "Effects of National Science and Technology Programs on Innovation in Chinese Firms," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 18(1), pages 207-236, Winter/Sp.
    5. Giovanni Cerulli & Bianca Potì, 2010. "The differential impact of privately and publicly funded R&D on R&D investment and innovation: The Italian case," Working Papers 10, Doctoral School of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, revised 2010.
    6. Özçelik, Emre & Taymaz, Erol, 2008. "R&D support programs in developing countries: The Turkish experience," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 258-275, March.
    7. Tommy Clausen, 2008. "Do subsidies have positive impacts on R&D and innovation activities at the firm level?," Working Papers on Innovation Studies 20070615, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo.
    8. Cohen, Wesley M., 2010. "Fifty Years of Empirical Studies of Innovative Activity and Performance," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 129-213, Elsevier.
    9. Beck, Mathias & Lopes-Bento, Cindy & Schenker-Wicki, Andrea, 2016. "Radical or incremental: Where does R&D policy hit?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 869-883.
    10. Liu, Rebecca & Rammer, Christian, 2016. "The contribution of different public innovation funding programs to SMEs' export performance," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-078, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Giovanni Cerulli, 2008. "Modelling and measuring the effects of public subsidies on business R&D: theoretical and econometric issues," CERIS Working Paper 200803, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    12. Bettina Becker, 2015. "Public R&D Policies And Private R&D Investment: A Survey Of The Empirical Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 917-942, December.
    13. Thomas H. W. Ziesemer, 2021. "The Effects of R&D Subsidies and Publicly Performed R&D on Business R&D: A Survey," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 236(1), pages 171-205, March.
    14. Raquel Ortega-Argilés & Marco Vivarelli & Peter Voigt, 2009. "R&D in SMEs: a paradox?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 3-11, June.
    15. Heijs, Joost & Guerrero, Alex J. & Huergo, Elena, 2020. "Matching methods for impact evaluation of public subsidies to business R&D: Measuring heterogeneous effects," MPRA Paper 103874, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Tommy Clausen, 2007. "Access (not) granted: What kinds of firms participate in technology programs?," Working Papers on Innovation Studies 20070612, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo.
    17. Wang, Yanbo & Li, Jizhen & Furman, Jeffrey L., 2017. "Firm performance and state innovation funding: Evidence from China’s innofund program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1142-1161.
    18. Clausen, Tommy H., 2009. "Do subsidies have positive impacts on R&D and innovation activities at the firm level?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 239-253, December.
    19. Dominique Guellec & Bruno Van Pottelsberghe De La Potterie, 2003. "The impact of public R&D expenditure on business R&D," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 225-243.
    20. Ugur, Mehmet & Trushin, Eshref, 2018. "Asymmetric information and heterogeneous effects of R&D subsidies: evidence on R&D investment and employment of R&D personel," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 21943, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F33 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions
    • F36 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Financial Aspects of Economic Integration
    • F50 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - General
    • F65 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Finance
    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tpr:asiaec:v:16:y:2017:i:1:p:201-226. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kelly McDougall (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://direct.mit.edu/journals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.