财务柔性、研发投入与企业全要素生产率

Financial Flexibility,R&D and Total Factor Productivity of Enterprises

在外部经济不确定性明显增强的条件下,经济增长质量成为比经济增长速度更加重要的观测指标,而提高企业的全要素生产率是驱动经济高质量发展的微观基础,研究企业全要素生产率与研发和财务结构资源关系有重要意义。财务柔性作为不完全市场下企业融资的重要储备资源,在2008年金融危机之后越发受到企业的重视,越来越多的企业通过低负债和高现金持有以保持财务柔性。以2007-2017年我国A股上市制造业企业为研究对象,探究财务柔性对企业全要素生产率的影响。结果表明:财务柔性与全要素生产率之间存在着倒“U”型关系,随着财务柔性的增强,企业的全要素生产率先升后降。同时,研发投入在财务柔性与全要素生产率间发挥着重要的中介作用,当企业面临融资约束时,财务柔性会增强研发投入对全要素生产率正向影响,但当企业不存在融资约束时,财务柔性会削弱研发投入对全要素生产率的作用。因此,在提升企业的全要素生产率时要对不同融资状况的企业分别考虑,对于存在融资约束的企业需要增加其财务资源以提升全要素生产率,但是对于不存在融资约束的企业,需要降低其财务柔性储备,以减轻财务柔性对于研发投入对全要素生产率作用的反向影响。

Under the new normal economy, the quality of economic growth has become a more important economic index than the speed of economic growth, and improving the total factor productivity (TFP) of enterprises is the micro-basis of improving the quality of economic growth. It is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the factors affecting the TFP of enterprises. Financial flexibility, as an important reserve resource of enterprise financing in imperfect market, has been paid more and more attention by enterprises since the financial crisis in 2008. More and more enterprises keep low debt and high cash holdings to maintain financial flexibility. Starting from this more and more important financial index, this paper studies the impact of financial flexibility on TFP using A-share listed manufacturing enterprises from 2007 to 2017. It is found that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between financial flexibility and TFP. With the increase of financial flexibility, the TFP of enterprises increases first and then decreased. At the same time, R&D investment plays an important intermediary role between financial flexibility and TFP. When enterprises face financing constraints, financial flexibility will enhance the positive impact of R&D investment on total factor productivity, but when enterprises do not have financing constraints, financial flexibility will weaken the role of R&D investment on TFP. The conclusion of this paper is that the enterprises with different financing conditions should be considered separately when promoting TFP. The enterprises with financing constraints need to increase their financial resources to enhance TFP. But for the enterprises without financing constraints, the financial flexibility reserve should be reduced to reduce the negative impact of flexibility on TFP through R&D investment.