The Impact Of R&D Investment On Enterprise Performance:Moderated Mediating Effect

Under the background of the rapid development of knowledge economy and the continuous progress of science and technology,technological innovation has become a key driving force for enterprise's sustainable development.More and more enterprises are aware of technological progress have a great effect on enterprise performance,so they gradually increase investment in technological innovation.Independent innovation has gradually become a way for enterprises to seek long-term development.However,decisions of R&D investment are often decided by top management of enterprises,and the efficiency and effectiveness of R&D activities are also closely related to executives' thoughts and action.Owing to R&D activities characterized with high risk,uncertain revenue and long payback period,the goals of corporate agents and principals are inconsistent.Corporate agents tend to avoid risk,and they are concerned with personal occupational safety,reputation and income,not the long-term development of the company.They are willing to invest money in immediate projects,rather than R&D activities.The principal is the real owner of the company,and their interests are often linked to the interests of the company.They tend to increase their investment in R&D activities and pay more attention to the long-term interests of the enterprises.Therefore,the problem of agency cost of the enterprise arises.Jensen & Meckling(1976)points out that making decisions on behalf of an agent increases the management costs of the client and the residual losses including in-service consumption.It's necessary to set up a set of effective executive incentive mechanism,to encourage and restrain managers,so that the interests of owners and managers will be consistent.Therefore,this paper,based on the study of the relationship between R&D investment and enterprise performance,discusses whether the R&D investment of enterprises will influence the performance of enterprises through the in-service.Does executive equity incentive have an impact on the relationship between R&D investment and perk? Is there any impact on the relationship between perk and enterprise performance? and whether the relationshipbetween R&D investment and enterprise performance is moderated by executive equity incentive? This thesis uses the theoretical methods and empirical methods to answer these questions.Firstly,this thesis,based on technology innovation theory,principal-agent theory,behavior incentive theory and human capital theory,systematically reviews the domestic and foreign literatures about the relationship among R&D investment,corporate performance,perk and equity incentive,and Secondly,this thesis defines the concept of R&D investment,corporate performance,perk and equity incentive and then puts forward the hypothesis based on the above theoretical analysis.In order to validate the above hypothesis,this thesis selects A shares listed company of China as the research object,and chooses reasonable methods to measure the variables and build the research model.Thirdly,this thesis uses empirical analysis to validate the above hypothesis,including descriptive analysis,correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis,and tests moderated mediation effect.Finally,this thesis obtains the conclusions according to the empirical analysis,and put forward the reasonable suggestions to enhance the R&D investment,and summarize the shortcomings of this study.The main conclusions of this thesis as following: Firstly,the overall R&D investment of the listed companies in China needs to be improved,whose level is below 5%.And there is a great difference among these companies,showing a signal of polarization.From this,we can conclude that the listed companies in China are not paying much attention to technological innovation,and their enthusiasm for R&D investment is not high enough.Secondly,R&D investment can effectively promote enterprise performance.The results of the empirical study shows that there is a significant positive correlation between the R&D investment and enterprise performance.Thirdly,in the relationship between R&D investment and enterprise performance,perks is a mediator.Fourthly,equity incentive is a moderated mediator of perks.Forthly,equity incentive is not only a moderated mediator of R&D investment and perk,also a moderated mediator of perk and enterprise performance.Fifthly,equity incentive is a moderator of R&D investment and enterprise performance.