Research On The Effect Of Customer R&D Investment On Corporate Innovation Output

Innovation is the first driving force of corporate development and the cornerstone of national economic growth.With the volatile changes in the market environment,how to improve the level of innovation has become the top priority of corporate development.Scholars have carried out rich research on how to improve corporate innovation,and the research perspective has also shifted from the corporate itself to stakeholders.Among them,the impact of customers is the most prominent.Customer concentration,geographical distance and customer participation in new product development all affect corporate innovation to varying degrees.It has verified the key role of customers in corporate innovation in many ways,but has ignored the impact of customer research and development activities.This paper attempts to conduct in-depth research on the relationship between customer R&D investment and corporate innovation output.Based on the data of all A-share listed companies in China from 2010 to 2020,this paper draws the following conclusions:(1)Customer R&D investment positively affects corporate innovation output.(2)Common shareholders are positively regulating the relationship between customer R&D investment and corporate innovation output.When customers and suppliers have joint shareholders,customer R&D investment has a stronger role in promoting corporate innovation output.(3)The proportion of customer sales plays a positive regulatory role,and the role of customer R&D investment is more obvious in the samples with higher proportion of customer sales.(4)Customer R&D investment promotes suppliers to increase R&D investment,thus improving innovation outputs.(5)Both customer relationship and internal and external environment will affect the relationship between customer R&D investment and corporate innovation output.The positive relationship between the two is more significant when the customer geographical distance is closer,the customer relationship is more benign,and the supplier corporate financing constraints and industry competition are lower.(6)Customer R&D investment helps to improve corporate R&D efficiency.(7)Customer R&D investment only has a significant positive impact on the number of corporate invention patents and utility model patents.This paper enriches the literature on the influencing factors of corporate innovation and the relationship between customers and corporate innovation.Government regulators should recognize the role of customers in corporate innovation,promote the integration of supply chain through policy implementation,strengthen cooperation and exchange between upstream and downstream,and promote collaborative innovation of supply chain.For corporate managers,R&D decisions based on external knowledge and information obtained from customers can help improve the level of innovation output of corporates.However,the impact of customer geographical distance,customer relationship and internal and external environment of corporates should also be considered,and customer R&D activities should be viewed in combination with the actual situation of corporates.