客户管理层语调与企业研发投入——来自“管理层讨论与分析”文本的证据

Customer Management Tone and Firms’R&D Investment:Evidence from the MD&A Text

基于企业前五大上市客户及其年报“管理层讨论与分析”文本的语调数据,文章实证检验了客户管理层语调对企业研发投入的影响。研究发现,客户管理层负面语调传达的悲观情绪会沿着供应链传染给上游企业,表现在客户“管理层讨论与分析”净负面语调越多,企业研发投入水平越低。异质性检验发现,与国有企业、资本密集型或劳动密集型企业以及行业竞争程度低的企业相比,在非国有企业、技术密集型企业以及行业竞争程度高的企业中,客户“管理层讨论与分析”净负面语调对其研发投入的负向影响更为显著。拓展性研究发现,客户管理层净负面语调越多,其未来面临的财务风险和破产风险水平越高,陷入财务困境的可能性越大。研究认为,客户“管理层讨论与分析”文本语调具有一定可信度和增量信息价值,上游供应商企业应适当关注下游客户管理层发布的文本信息语调,据此判断研发投入这一关系专用性投资的预期回报是否能够实现。

Based on the tone data of firms’top five listed customers and MD&A text in their annual report,this paper empirically tests the effect of customers’management tone on firms’R&D investment behaviors.The result shows that pessimism conveyed by the negative tone of customer management can be transmitted upstream along the supply chain.The more the net negative tone of customers’MD&A,the lower the level of R&D investment of firms.Heterogeneity study confirms that compared with state-owned firms,capital intensive or labor-intensive firms and firms with low level of industry competition,the net negative tone of customers’MD&A has a more significantly negative impact on firms’R&D investment in non-state-owned firms,technology intensive firms and firms with high level of industry competition.Results of the extensive test show that the more the net negative tone of customer management,the higher the level of financial risk and bankruptcy risk to face in the future,and the greater the possibility of financial distress.It is concluded that the text tone of customers’MD&A has certain credibility and incremental information value,and upstream suppliers should pay proper attention to the tone of text messages issued by the management of downstream customers to judge whether the expected return on the R&D as relationship-specific investment can be realized.