Effect of agglomeration on firms’ research and development investment: a U‐shaped relationship
Effect of agglomeration on firms’ research and development investment: a U‐shaped relationship
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DOI：
10.1111/radm.12545
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发表时间：
2022-06
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Yuhua Li;Ze Jian
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Yuhua Li;Ze Jian
关于集聚如何影响企业R&D投资的现有研究揭示了相互矛盾的观点。一些研究表明，由于知识外溢产生的搭便车现象，集聚减少了企业的研发投资，而另一些研究则发现，集聚通过加强当地竞争，为创新创造了额外的激励，从而增加了企业的研发投资。因此，本研究试图调和这两种相互冲突的观点。我们提出了集聚与企业R&D投资之间的U型关系，即当集聚程度较低时，知识溢出效应很重要，而地方竞争可以忽略不计。搭便车效应在局部竞争效应中占主导地位。因此，企业R&D投资随着集聚程度的增加而递减。相反，当集聚程度高时，地方竞争成为主导力量。因此，企业的R&D投资随着集聚程度的增加而增加。利用中国299，256家制造业企业的数据，我们发现企业的R&D投资先随着集聚程度的降低而降低，达到最小值，然后随着集聚程度的继续提高而增加。这些结果表明，产业集聚与企业R&D投资之间存在显著的U型关系。
Extant research on how agglomeration affects firms’ R&D investment reveals conflicting views. Some studies suggest that, owing to free riding arising from knowledge spillovers, agglomeration reduces firms’ R&D investment, whereas others find that it creates additional incentives for innovation through intensifying local competition, thereby increasing firms’ R&D investment. Thus, this study attempts to reconcile these two conflicting views. We propose a U‐shaped relationship between agglomeration and firms’ R&D investment; that is, when the extent of agglomeration is low, knowledge spillover effects are important, while local competition is negligible. The free riding effects dominate local competition effects. Therefore, firms’ R&D investment decreases with the extent of agglomeration at a decreasing rate. By contrast, when the extent of agglomeration is high, local competition becomes the dominant force. Consequently, firms’ R&D investment increases with the extent of agglomeration at an increasing rate. Using data from 299,256 manufacturing firms in China, we find that firms’ R&D investment first decreases with the extent of agglomeration to reach a minimum, then increases as the extent of agglomeration continues to rise. These results indicate that there is a robust U‐shaped relationship between agglomeration and firms’ R&D investment.