Supply Chain Concentration,financing Constraints And Technological Innovation

The 14 th Five-Year Plan clearly defines the strategic development goal of "adhering to the core position of innovation and accelerating the construction of a powerful country in science and technology",and once again emphasizes the importance of scientific and technological development and technological innovation to our country’s future development.Technological innovation has become an important way for Chinese enterprises to get rid of the low-end predicament of the global value chain,realize the transition from "following" to "leading",and achieve "overtaking on curves",and is the most effective way for enterprises to increase market share and enhance competitiveness.The importance of technological innovation has been unanimously recognized,and the behavior,decision-making and effect of technological innovation of enterprises have received extensive attention from academia and practice.Along with the transformation of the social and economic development model,not only the market competition has become more intense,but also the competition mode and expansion mode of enterprises have undergone tremendous changes.The competition among enterprises has been transformed into the competition among supply chains.The expansion mode of the enterprise has gradually changed from "vertical integration" alone to embed itself in a supply chain system suitable for itself to pursue coordinated development.As important external stakeholders and supply chain partners,suppliers and customers also have a profound impact on enterprise technology innovation.On the one hand,the communication and cooperation among suppliers,customers and enterprises will affect the business activities and resource holdings of the enterprise,which in turn affects the resource conditions for technological innovation of the enterprise;on the other hand,the technological innovation of the enterprise will bring new procurement needs and product upgrades,thereby affecting the interests of suppliers and customers.Suppliers and customers also have different preferences for business decisions such as technological innovation based on their own interests.Based on the relational embedded theory,if the "big suppliers" and "big customers" with strong discourse power have different attitudes towards the technological innovation of enterprises based on their own needs and interests,will the technological innovation behavior and decision-making of enterprises be affected?How will it be affected? This will be the main question that this study aims to address.This paper starts from the perspective of "ternary relationship",uses a sample of China’s A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2020 to study the impact of supply chain concentration on enterprise technological innovation.Using capital as a clue,we try to explore whether financing constraints play an intermediary role between supply chain relationships and technological innovation,and whether the internal cash flow level and the nature of property rights that affect the capital situation of the enterprise play a regulatory role.In the further research,the influence of the ternary relationship of large suppliers and large customers on the technological innovation of enterprises is discussed.The research conclusions are as follows:(1)As an important supply chain partner of an enterprise,both suppliers and customers have a significant impact on the technological innovation investment of the enterprise,and show the opposite effect.Among them,large suppliers will restrict investment in technological innovation of enterprises;large customers will promote investment in technological innovation of enterprises;(2)Large suppliers and large customers mainly affect the technological innovation investment of enterprises through the intermediary effect of financing constraints;(3)Sufficient cash flow within the enterprise can alleviate the restrictive effect of large suppliers on technological innovation investment,and strengthen the promotion effect of major customers on technological innovation investment.Compared with private enterprises,the state-owned nature can ease the constraints of large suppliers on technological innovation investment;(4)The existence of large customers and the positive credit financing support that enterprises obtain from the supply chain can weaken the inhibitory effect of large suppliers on enterprise technological innovation,and the formation of a balanced and benign supply chain relationship is more conducive to enterprise technological innovation.According to the conclusions,some countermeasures and suggestions are put forward:(1)Enterprises should increase supply channels,form competition among multiple suppliers,and avoid economic business and innovation decisions being constrained by large suppliers;(2)Enterprises should further promote the integration of supply chains and achieve positive interactions.On the one hand,enterprises should make good use of the window opportunity for customers to feedback market information and product demand.And enterprises should carry out R&D and design according to customer needs;On the other hand,enterprises should strengthen the construction of the ternary relationship among themselves,suppliers and customers,establish supply chain innovation alliances,give full play to the advantages of supply chain collaborative innovation,and realize the benign relationship among enterprises and upstream and downstream enterprises from "competition" to "competition and cooperation" to "co-creation and win-win";(3)The government should provide low-cost financing channels for high-tech enterprises through policy-driven,relieve the pressure of financing constraints caused by large suppliers or other entities,so as to eliminate the "financial obstacles" faced by enterprises in carrying out technological innovation activities.