Under the current intense international competition situation,innovation becomes the main way to promote national development and progress,and research and development activities are the core link to realize innovation.In the process of carrying out R&D related activities,Chinese enterprises need overseas talents with rich international experience to provide intellectual support,so as to better realize the leapfrog development of international operation.The research on the expansion of foreign executives can provide an evaluation basis for the existing policies on the introduction of overseas talent,provide decision support for the subsequent improvement of various policies on opening up of talent and attract more overseas talents to the development of our country.It is of great significance to improve the concept and thought of the senior management team and improve the effect of corporate governance.Based on the principal-agent theory,the upper echelon theory,the knowledge resource theory and the innovation theory,this paper selects Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2020 as samples to verify the relationship between foreign executives and enterprises’ R&D investment from the perspective of theoretical and empirical combination.This paper discusses the influence of the property of enterprise ownership and the property of high-tech enterprise on the above relationship,and tests the intermediary mechanism between foreign executives and enterprises’ R&D investment.The research findings are as follows: Firstly,compared with the listed companies without foreign executives,the listed companies with foreign executives have higher R&D investment.Secondly,compared with state-owned holding enterprises,foreign executives in non-state-owned holding enterprises have a more obvious positive impact on R&D investment.Thirdly,compared with high-tech enterprises,foreign executives in non-high-tech enterprises have a more significant positive impact on R&D investment.Fourthly,foreign executives can promote enterprise R&D investment by restraining management’s short-sighted behavior.Based on the research results,this paper puts forward relevant countermeasures and suggestions from the executive level,the company level and the government level: Firstly,senior executives should improve their own ability and corporate responsibility,effectively supervise the operation of enterprises,and inject vitality into the long-term development of enterprises.Secondly,the enterprise should establish a reasonable management team with diversified characteristics,hire appropriate foreign executives,and give full play to their positive role in realizing the long-term development goals of the enterprise.Thirdly,the government should improve the relevant system construction,relax the policy of introducing overseas talents in a targeted way,and provide a sound environment and platform for the international development of enterprises. |