Research On The Influence Of Innovation Voucher On The Innovation Performance Of SMEs

With the deepening of China’s economic transformation,the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)is becoming more and more prominent,and the government is paying more and more attention to the development of SMEs.Usually,the development of SMEs depends largely on their innovation level,so how to improve the innovation level of SMEs has become the focus of promoting the development of SMEs.The innovation voucher policy introduced by the Chinese government in 2012,as a demand-side innovation policy,stimulates market demand and promotes the progress of enterprise innovation level,effectively solving the phenomenon of resource allocation failure of supply-side innovation policy.It is of great significance for the implementation and optimization of innovation vouchers to verify whether innovation vouchers can improve the innovation performance of SMEs and further analyze its mechanism.In this study,firstly,the implementation data of innovation voucher policy in Beijing,Shanghai,Guangdong and Jiangsu were obtained by inquiring official website,email and telephone communication,and then 2,772 small and medium-sized enterprises were determined as the research samples.By using propensity score matching method and difference in difference method,the influence of sample selfselection and time factors was eliminated,and finally it was verified that innovation vouchers had a significant promotion effect on the innovation performance and investment of small and medium-sized enterprises.Secondly,on the basis of innovation vouchers improving the innovation performance of SMEs and promoting the innovation investment of enterprises,this study uses three-step method to verify the mechanism of "innovation vouchers-innovation investment-innovation performance".Thirdly,this study introduces the variable of financing constraint,and verifies the moderating effect of financing constraint on the innovation performance of SMEs through the analysis of cross-product.The findings of this study are as follows: firstly,innovation vouchers can improve the performance of SMEs’ innovation vouchers,and at the same time promote their innovation investment,so innovation vouchers have good policy effects.Secondly,innovation vouchers can improve the innovation performance of SMEs by promoting their innovation investment.Third,financing constraints have a moderating effect on the policy effect of innovation vouchers,and enterprises with higher financing constraints will get more innovation performance improvement after obtaining innovation vouchers.Fourthly,compared with government subsidies,innovation vouchers have a better effect on improving the innovation performance of SMEs,and there is a certain synergistic effect between innovation vouchers and government subsidies.Finally,based on the main research conclusions,this study puts forward some suggestions for the further implementation and optimization of innovation vouchers.