The Impact Of R&D Investment And Government Subsidies On The Performance Of New Energy Companies

After the 19 th CPC National Congress put forward the requirements of “building an innovative country at a fast speed”,the development of a new energy industry has been put on the agenda.An increasing number of enterprises have listed research and development as their core competitiveness.Increasing the R&D investment will lead to decreasing in cost,thus improving operating performance.Due to the positive externalities of R&D,the government has to provide subsidies so as to alleviate the performance risks during the R&D process faced by new energy enterprises.Through analyzing the impact of R&D investment on new energy enterprises’ performance and discussing the mediation effect of government subsidies,this paper is meaningful both theoretically and practically.Using the panel data from 2010 to 2019 of the new energy enterprises,empirical tests were conducted by this paper to explore the process of how R&D investment will influence new energy enterprises’ performance,as well as how government subsidies lead to the mediation effect.Moreover,this paper makes further distinguishment of the nature of equity,regional location,financing constraints,and industrial chain location.The empirical research results show that:(1)The R&D investment is positively correlated with the new energy enterprises’ performance;(2)When new energy enterprises invest more in R&D,chances are that they will get more subsidies from the government;(3)The government subsidies play a positive intermediary role in the relationship between the lagged R&D investment and the new energy enterprises’ performance;(4)Mediation effect differs in various nature of equity,financing constraints,regional location,and industrial chain location.It is found that for nonstate-owned new energy companies,located in eastern regions,with low levels of financing constraints,classified as upstream or downstream of the industrial chain,the lagged R&D investment has a greater positive impact on new energy enterprises’ performance,and the intermediary role of government subsidies is more obvious.This paper enriches the research of enterprises’ performance from the perspective of new energy enterprises.Besides,it establishes the logical chain of “R&D investmentgovernment subsidies-corporate performance”.Finally,based on the research conclusions,relevant suggestions and policy recommendations have been provided for both enterprises and the government.At the same time,shortcomings of this paper have been raised to make prospects for future research.