| In recent years,with the transformation of China’s economic development model and the introduction of deleveraging policies,the downward pressure on the economy has intensified,and corporate capital pressure has doubled.Coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on corporate business environment,the risk of corporate debt default has obviously accumulated.At the same time,the country attaches great importance to the development of scientific and technological innovation,and the 14 th Five-Year Plan emphasizes that China must insist on the core position of scientific and technological innovation in modernization construction.Moreover,innovation activities are characterized by large capital demand and long profit cycle,and stable resource support is an important guarantee for the efficiency of innovation activities.Therefore,it is of great significance to study the impact,mechanism and countermeasures of debt default risk on corporate innovation efficiency under the current background.Taking Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2020 as research samples,this paper empirically tests the impact of debt default risk on corporate innovation efficiency.The research result shows that debt default risk significantly reduces corporate innovation efficiency.Based on the mediating effect test from the perspectives of management and creditors,this paper finds that debt default risk reduces corporate innovation efficiency by imposing management risk preference and financing constraint restriction.The heterogeneity test results based on property rights and regional differences show that there is significant regional heterogeneity but no significant property right heterogeneity in the restraining effect of debt default risk on corporate innovation efficiency,and the restraining effect is mainly reflected in enterprises in the central or western regions.Further research shows that the decline of R&D investment intensity is an important reason for the debt default risk to reduce corporate innovation efficiency.Finally,from the perspective of digital transformation and digital finance,this paper explores the governance effect of debt default risk inhibiting corporate innovation efficiency.The results show that both digital transformation and digital finance alleviate the inhibition effect of debt default risk on corporate innovation efficiency,and the governance effect of digital transformation is more significant in state-owned enterprises and enterprises in central or western regions.The governance effect of digital finance is concentrated in non-state-owned enterprises and enterprises in central or western regions.The conclusions of this paper not only enrich the understanding of the economic consequences of corporate debt default risk and influencing factors of innovation efficiency,but also provide beneficial decision support for the government and relevant departments of enterprises to solve the management decision dilemma and financing dilemma faced by innovation activities under the debt default risk. |
