现金持有、研发投资平滑和产品市场竞争绩效——基于中国高科技行业上市公司的实证

Cash Holdings,R&D Investment Smoothing and the Competition of Product Market——Empirical Study of Chinese Listed High-Tech Enterprises

研发投资支出需要大量资金长期、持续地投入,而企业的融资却充满了风险,高科技行业企业尤甚。研发支出的波动将引发高昂的调整成本,因此,企业需要维持相对稳定的研发投资水平。采用80家沪深两市A股高科技行业上市公司为样本,利用其自2007年新会计准则规范研发投资相关账户信息披露后的数据,实证检验了现金持有对企业研发投资的平滑作用及其在产品市场上所产生的竞争效应。结果表明,现金持有能很好地平滑企业研发投资,这种平滑作用还对企业的产品市场竞争产生了影响,在研发投资支出平滑程度较高的企业中,研发支出与现金持有对产品市场竞争绩效有更明显的积极作用。此外,当企业面临融资受限时,现金持有对研发投资有更明显的平滑作用,且平滑程度高的企业其现金持有在产品市场竞争中的积极作用也更大。

R＆D needs continuous investment for a long time, while enterprises＇ financing, especially high-tech enterprise＇ financing is full of risks. The fluctuations of R＆D spending may lead to high adjustment costs, thus firms should maintain a stable R＆D spending. Based on eighty listed high-tech companies, we examine the effect that cash holdings have on R＆D spending and its impact on firm＇s competitive performance in product market. We find that cash holdings has a significant smoothing effect on R＆D spending, and the smoothing effect has a positive impact on firm＇s performance on product market. Both R＆D spending and cash holdings have a greater impact on firm＇s performance on product market in firms keeping a higher levels of investment smoothing. Moreover, when firms are financial constraints, the smoothing effect is more significant, and cash holdings＇ positive effect on the performance of product market competition is more obvious in firms keeping a higher levels of investment smoothing.