| As the global economy and innovation landscape continues to evolve,countries consider innovation as an important tool for competition.The innovation process within companies relies on various factors,one of which is the availability of funds.The funding for corporate research and development(R&D)and innovation activities mainly comes from internal funds,government funding,and bank technology loans.Among these sources,bank technology loans provide strong support for companies by alleviating financing constraints,expanding internal R&D investment,and enhancing innovation quality.However,existing research on the relationship among bank technology loans,R&D investment structure,and innovation quality of companies is relatively scarce and lacks attention.Therefore,this study focuses on high-tech companies and,based on an in-depth analysis of their current innovation and funding sources,employs the theories of financing constraints,endogenous growth,and technological innovation.It utilizes methods such as Generalized Least Squares(GLS),Bootstrap analysis,Panel-corrected Standard Errors(PCSE),and threshold effects test to investigate two major aspects: the impact of bank technology loans on innovation quality in high-tech companies,and the influence of R&D investment structure on innovation quality.The study breaks down into six sub-questions:(1)The impact of bank technology loans on innovation quality,and the presence of threshold and heterogeneity effects;(2)The influence of bank technology loans on a company’s internal R&D investment,and the presence of threshold and heterogeneity effects;(3)The impact of a company’s internal R&D investment on innovation quality,and the presence of threshold and heterogeneity effects;(4)The mediating role of a company’s internal R&D investment in the relationship between bank technology loans and innovation quality.(5)The impact of R&D investment structure on innovation quality,including threshold and heterogeneity effects of different investment structures.(6)Validation of the conclusions derived from the previous five questions using regional data and micro-level data of companies.Based on the aforementioned questions,the study draws the following conclusions:First,bank technology loans can significantly enhance innovation R&D quality and innovation diffusion quality.Under the threshold effect of bank technology loans,innovation quality,and corporate internal R&D investment,there exist varying degrees of threshold effects in the impact of bank technology loans on innovation quality.In the eastern and central regions of China,and in the computer and office equipment manufacturing and pharmaceutical manufacturing industries,the utilization of bank technology loans better contributes to the improvement of innovation quality.This effect is particularly pronounced in state-owned and state-controlled enterprises.Second,bank technology loans have a significant positive impact on a company’s internal R&D investment.Under the nonlinear threshold of innovation R&D quality,bank technology loans exhibit a threshold effect on a company’s internal R&D investment.There is a positive impact of bank technology loans on a company’s internal R&D investment in the eastern part of China,for state-owned and state-controlled enterprises.However,in the central region,bank technology loans lead to a crowding-out effect on a company’s internal R&D investment.Bank technology loans can enhance the innovation input of enterprises,though in China’s central and western regions,companies may use bank technology loans to replace their own funds for innovation activities,thereby crowding out their own R&D investment.Third,a company’s internal R&D investment has a significant positive impact on innovation diffusion quality and a significant negative impact on innovation application quality.In the eastern region of China,internal R&D investment plays a cutting role in innovation application quality.In state-owned and state-controlled enterprises,internal R&D investment plays a contributing role to innovation diffusion quality,but a cutting role to innovation R&D quality,which is mainly due to the slower transformation and upgrading of state-owned enterprises slowing down the improvement of enterprise innovation R&D quality.Fourth,a company’s internal R&D investment plays a significant mediating role in promoting innovation quality in high-tech companies through bank technology loans.Under the nonlinear threshold effects of innovation R&D quality or innovation application quality,the mediating effect of a company’s internal R&D investment in the relationship between bank technology loans and innovation diffusion quality exhibits varying degrees of threshold effects.Corporate internal R&D investment plays a significant mediating role in the promotion of innovation quality of high-tech enterprises through bank technology loans,particularly among samples of pharmaceutical manufacturing,state-owned and state-controlled enterprises.Next,the structure of R&D investment has a significant impact on innovation quality.Specifically,R&D acquisition investment has a significant positive impact on innovation R&D quality but has a significant negative impact on innovation diffusion quality and innovation application quality.R&D application investment has a significant positive impact on innovation R&D quality but has a significant negative impact on innovation application quality.Under the nonlinear threshold effects of innovation diffusion quality,there is a threshold effect in the relationship between R&D acquisition investment and innovative applications quality.Different R&D investment structures yield heterogeneous results,with R&D acquisition investment positively impacting innovation application quality in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.There is a negative impact of R&D acquisition investment on innovation application and innovation diffusion quality in enterprises in the eastern region.Among state-owned and state-controlled enterprises,there is a significant positive effect of R&D acquisition investment on innovation diffusion quality.The main academic contributions and highlights of this research are reflected in the following three aspects:To start with,this paper explores and adds insights to the relevant research on the factors influencing innovation quality in high-tech enterprises,laying a theoretical foundation for in-depth study of the ways to improve innovation quality.Taking into account the factors influencing innovation quality,this research focuses on the impact of internal and external research and development funding inputs on the innovation process.It thoroughly examines the evolving connotation and measurement methods of innovation quality,and analyzes the differences and relationships among innovation quality,quantity and performance.The study constructs a framework covering bank technology loans,R&D investment,and innovation quality,and explores the mechanism of bank technology loans in alleviating corporate financing constraints and enhancing innovation quality.It empirically tests the leverage effect of bank technology loans on corporate internal R&D investment and the mediating effect of internal R&D investment.The research findings fully reveal the diversity and complexity of the role of bank technology loans in affecting the innovation quality of high-tech enterprises and expand the research scope on the relationship between corporate financing constraints and innovation development.Second,it incorporates the structure of R&D investment into the existing research framework on the interaction between the funding chain and innovation chain of technological innovation activities.Based on a diversified and expanded research framework,it analyzes the differences in innovation quality caused by different R&D investment structures and the threshold and heterogeneity effects in the process of improving innovation quality.It explores the transmission mechanism of the impact of bank technology loans on corporate innovation performance after incorporating different R&D investment structures,providing new analytical perspectives for further discussion on the mechanism of external capital and internal investment affecting innovation activities.Last,based on micro-level data of listed companies in China,the detailed data on loans from banks nationwide to listed companies are selected for word frequency analysis to measure the bank technology loans received by companies.Annual report data is used to conduct text analysis and word frequency statistics on the detailed loan data from banks nationwide using word segmentation tools,after which the word frequency of bank technology loans is standardized to obtain a proxy variable for annual bank technology loans for each company.Based on this,the relationship between bank technology loans,corporate R&D investment,and innovation quality is examined at the micro level.Compared to the existing research that mainly uses meso-level data for analysis,this research provides a micro-level measurement method and analytical approach for further discussion and analysis of the role of bank technology loans. |
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