Research On The Impact Of Board Heterogeneity On R&D Expenditure

"Science and technology is the first productivity",and R&D expenditure(R&D)has always been an important indicator to measure the innovation capability of enterprises.In 2018,China's R&D expenditure accounted for 2.18% of GDP,while the U.S.R&D expenditure accounted for about 2.8% of GDP in the same period,indicating that China still has a gap to catch up with.There are many factors affecting R&D investment of enterprises.As the core of company decision-making,the composition and role of board members will directly affect the R&D expenditure of enterprises.As the strategic decision-making body of an enterprise,the board of directors controls the business planning and investment direction of the enterprise.Its status as the "helmsman" and "household" is beyond doubt,and it will exert a significant influence on the R&D and innovation activities of the enterprise.Independent innovation of enterprises increasingly depends on two inputs: one is large-scale R&D investment,the other is the team cooperation of the board of directors.Therefore,the impact of board heterogeneity on R&D expenditure is an urgent issue to be explored.Based on this understanding,this paper introduces the research background and purpose,research contents and methods,reviews the relevant research literature on the impact of board heterogeneity,corporate R&D expenditure and board heterogeneity on corporate R&D expenditure,analyses the application of Upper Echelons Theory and Social Identity Theory in this study,expounds the path of board heterogeneity affecting corporate R&D expenditure,and explores how board heterogeneity affects corporate R&D expenditure,and discusses the regulatory role of the degree of industry competition and the nature of enterprise property rights.In the empirical research part,we select the relevant data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share companies listed on the main board of China's high-tech industry from 2013 to 2017.We take R&D expenditure as the explanatory variable,and age heterogeneity of board members,industry background heterogeneity,education level heterogeneity and functional background heterogeneity as explanatory variables.Moreover,we take the degree of industry competition and the nature of property rights as moderating variables,and take enterprise scale,enterprise performance,ownership concentration,financial leverage and cash flow as controlling variables.Thus,we examine the impact of board members' heterogeneity on R&D expenditure.Empirical results show that,as the main body of corporate R&D decision-making,the heterogeneity of board structure affects corporate R&D expenditure,but the impact of different levels of board heterogeneity on corporate R&D expenditure is different.Age heterogeneity of board of directors is negatively correlated with R&D expenditure.The higher the degree of age heterogeneity of board of directors is,the less R&D expenditure is.The background heterogeneity of directors industry is positively correlated with R&D expenditure.The higher the background heterogeneity of directors industry is,the more R&D expenditure is.There is an inverted U-shaped correlation between the heterogeneity of board education level and the heterogeneity of board function background.With the improvement of board education level,corporate R&D expenditure increases first and then decreases.With the improvement of board function background heterogeneity,corporate R&D expenditure increases first and then decreases.The board of directors is an important factor affecting R&D investment.In order to promote enterprises to make appropriate R&D decisions and increase R&D expenditure,enterprises should optimize the composition and selection mechanism of the board of directors,and consider the team building of the board of directors from the perspective of the overall heterogeneity of the board of directors.The conclusion of the study has a certain theoretical guidance for listed companies to improve the board system,explore R&D decision-making and how to build the board of directors to improve the level of R&D investment.