The Dual Effects Of Pretaxadditional Deduction Policy For R&D Expenditure And Government Subsidies On The Innovation Performance Of SMEs

OECD points out that enterprises stand at the center of the national innovation system.As important innovation units,SMEs not only contribute more than 60% of China’s GDP,but also play an important role in the development and dissemination of science and technology in China through the improvement of their own innovation.With the advent of the digital economy era,the pattern of China’s economic development gradually changes from high-speed growth to high-quality growth.How to promote the innovation of SMEs and stimulate the innovation vitality of SMEs have become an important content to realize the high-quality development of economy and society.Formulating corresponding innovation incentive policies is an important means to promote the innovative and high-quality development of SMEs.Pretax additional deduction policy for R&D expenditure and government subsidy is used as innovation incentive means respectively,which not only reduces the cost of technological innovation,but also directly encourages enterprises to increase innovation investment.Most of the existing literature focused on the incentive effect of a single policy on the innovation behavior of enterprises.Less literature discussed the innovation behavior of SMEs in the context of multiple policies,and the combination of multiple policies is the common thing in reality.The relevant research has important theoretical and practical significance.Taking the benefit intensity of pretax additional deduction policy for R&D expenditure and the strength of government subsidies as independent variables,the innovation performance of SMEs as dependent variables,entrepreneurial orientation and R&D manipulation behavior as moderators,this paper constructs a conceptual model of the impact of pretax additional deduction policy for R&D expenditure and government subsidy policy on the innovation performance of SMEs,theoretically analyzes the relationship between each two variables,and establishes relevant theoretical hypothesis.This paper measures the innovation performance of SMEs from the two dimensions of the quantity and quality of innovation patents,and uses the corresponding variable measurement scale based on the previous research results.By collecting the relevant financial indicators,patent data and relevant data in the annual statements of A-share listed Enterprises from 2010 to 2020,this paper empirically tests the impact of pretax additional deduction policy for R&D expenditure and government subsidies on enterprise innovation performance,as well as the moderation effect of entrepreneurial orientation and R&D manipulation,and further analyzes whether there are differences in the research results caused by the industrial heterogeneity and regional heterogeneity of SMEs.The empirical results show that:(1)there is a significant positive correlation between pretax additional deduction policy for R&D expenditure and government subsidies on enterprise innovation performance.(2)There is a positive interaction between the two policies.The incentive effect of policy combination on the innovation performance of SMEs is higher than that of a single policy.(3)Entrepreneurial orientation positively moderates the relationships between innovation incentive policy and innovation quality of SMEs,but moderation effect is not significant between the policies and the quantity of innovation.(4)R&D manipulation negatively moderates the impact of innovation incentive policies on the innovation performance of SMEs.(5)There is industrial difference for the effect of policy incentives.The promotion effect of pretax additional deduction policy for R&D expenditure on the quantity of innovation in manufacturing industry is greater than that in non manufacturing industry;The promotion effect of pretax additional deduction policy for R&D expenditure on innovation quality of manufacturing industry is lower than that of non manufacturing industry;The promotion effect of government subsidies on the quantity and quality of innovation in manufacturing industry is greater than that in non manufacturing industry.(6)There is regional heterogeneity in the effect of policy incentives.The pretax additional deduction policy for R&D expenditure and government subsidies have different incentive effects on the innovation performance of SMEs in various regions.The possible contributions of this study lie in the following aspects: firstly,most of the existing literature explores the impact of incentive policies on the number of invention and innovation of enterprises,and less attention paid to the impact on the quality of innovation of enterprises.This study considers both the quantity and quality of innovation of SMEs.Secondly,most of the existing studies consider the impact of a single policy on the innovation behavior of SMEs.This study considers both the pretax additional deduction policy for R&D expenditure and subsidy policy,and explores the moderation role of entrepreneurial orientation and R&D manipulation between the benefit intensity of policies and enterprise innovation performance.Finally,further grouping analysis is carried out based on the heterogeneity of industries and regions,which provides theoretical support for encouraging the development of innovation in different industries and regions.