IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pacfin/v62y2020ics0927538x20302468.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The explanatory power of R&D for the stock returns in the Chinese equity market

Author

Listed:
  • Lu, Sean

Abstract

There is a vast literature documenting the evidence that the firms with higher research and development (R&D) intensity experience higher stock returns in both US and international market. This study seeks to examine whether the effect of R&D intensity can significantly predict the subsequent stock returns in the Chinese equity market. We construct three different measurements of R&D intensity factors using the firm's R&D expenditure scaled by market capitalization, book equity and net sales. Our test results show that all three R&D intensity factors can effectively predict subsequent stock returns, with low correlation to the other fundamental value, growth, and quality factors. Furthermore, our results indicate that the R&D effect is not only driven by big or small firms. The R&D signals, in particular those constructed using R&D expenditure deflated by market capitalization and book equity, are very effective across different index groups, including CSI 300, CSI 500 and CSI 1000.

Suggested Citation

  • Lu, Sean, 2020. "The explanatory power of R&D for the stock returns in the Chinese equity market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:62:y:2020:i:c:s0927538x20302468
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2020.101380
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X20302468
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.pacfin.2020.101380?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pramod Kumar Naik, 2014. "R&D Intensity and Market Valuation of Firm: A Study of R&D Incurring Manufacturing Firms in India," Journal of Studies in Dynamics and Change (JSDC), ISSN: 2348-7038, Voices of Inclusive Change and Expressions- (VOICE) Trust, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, vol. 1(7), pages 295-308., November.
    2. David McLean, R. & Pontiff, Jeffrey & Watanabe, Akiko, 2009. "Share issuance and cross-sectional returns: International evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 1-17, October.
    3. Dennis Oswald & Paul Zarowin, 2007. "Capitalization of R&D and the Informativeness of Stock Prices," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 703-726.
    4. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Oriani, Raffaele, 2006. "Does the market value R&D investment by European firms? Evidence from a panel of manufacturing firms in France, Germany, and Italy," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 971-993, September.
    5. Lev, Baruch & Sougiannis, Theodore, 1996. "The capitalization, amortization, and value-relevance of R&D," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 107-138, February.
    6. Wesley M. Cohen & Richard C. Levin & David C. Mowery, 1987. "Firm Size and R&D Intensity: A Re-Examination," NBER Working Papers 2205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Dongmei Li, 2011. "Financial Constraints, R&D Investment, and Stock Returns," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(9), pages 2974-3007.
    8. Gu, Lifeng, 2016. "Product market competition, R&D investment, and stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 441-455.
    9. Baruch Lev & Bharat Sarath & Theodore Sougiannis, 2005. "R&D Reporting Biases and Their Consequences," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(4), pages 977-1026, December.
    10. Acs, Zoltan J & Audretsch, David B, 1987. "Innovation, Market Structure, and Firm Size," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(4), pages 567-574, November.
    11. Baruch Lev, 1999. "R&D And Capital Markets," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 11(4), pages 21-35, January.
    12. Cohen, Wesley M & Levin, Richard C & Mowery, David C, 1987. "Firm Size and R&D Intensity: A Re-examination," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 543-565, June.
    13. Xu, Ming & Zhang, Chu, 2004. "The explanatory power of R&D for the cross-section of stock returns: Japan 1985-2000," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 245-269, June.
    14. Ozgur S. Ince & R. Burt Porter, 2006. "Individual Equity Return Data From Thomson Datastream: Handle With Care!," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 29(4), pages 463-479, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Booth, G. Geoffrey & Junttila, Juha & Kallunki, Juha-Pekka & Rahiala, Markku & Sahlstrom, Petri, 2006. "How does the financial environment affect the stock market valuation of R&D spending?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 197-214, April.
    2. Hai Wu & Anne-Maree Thomas & Sue Wright, 2020. "Using the R&D capitalisation choice to explain the scale benefits of R&D investment," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 45(4), pages 579-606, November.
    3. Leung, Woon Sau & Evans, Kevin P. & Mazouz, Khelifa, 2020. "The R&D anomaly: Risk or mispricing?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    4. Xiang, Erwei & Gasbarro, Dominic & Cullen, Grant & Ruan, Wenjuan, 2020. "Does R&D expenditure volatility affect stock return?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3).
    5. Bereskin, Fred & Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Latham, William & Wang, Huijun, 2023. "So Sue Me! The cross section of stock returns related to patent infringement allegations," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    6. Dinh, Tami & Schultze, Wolfgang, 2022. "Accounting for R&D on the income statement? Evidence on non-discretionary vs. discretionary R&D capitalization under IFRS in Germany," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    7. Jia, Shaoqing & Yang, Liuyong & Zhou, Fangzhao, 2022. "Geopolitical risk and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Oh, Jong-Min, 2017. "Absorptive capacity, technology spillovers, and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 146-164.
    9. Ralph Sonenshine, 2010. "The Stock Market’s Valuation of R&D and Market Concentration in Horizontal Mergers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 37(2), pages 119-140, September.
    10. Tami Dinh Thi & Wolfgang Schultze, 2011. "Capitalizing research & development and ‘other information’: the incremental information content of accruals versus cash flows," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 241-278, November.
    11. Blazsek, Szabolcs & Escribano, Álvaro, 2012. "Patents, secret innovations and firm's rate of return : differential effects of the innovation leader," UC3M Working papers. Economics we1202, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    12. Gharbi, Sami & Sahut, Jean-Michel & Teulon, Frédéric, 2014. "R&D investments and high-tech firms' stock return volatility," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 306-312.
    13. Chuchu Chen & Albert N. Link & Zachary T. Oliver, 2018. "U.S. federal laboratories and their research partners: a quantitative case study," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(1), pages 501-517, April.
    14. Chan, Konan & Lin, Yueh-Hsiang & Wang, Yanzhi, 2017. "Limits-to-arbitrage, investment frictions, and innovation anomalies," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-14.
    15. Alfranca, Óscar & Diaz-Balteiro, Luis & Herruzo, A. Casimiro, 2009. "Technical innovation in Spain's wood-based industry: The role of environmental and quality strategies," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 161-168, May.
    16. David Hirshleifer & Po-Hsuan Hsu & Dongmei Li, 2018. "Innovative Originality, Profitability, and Stock Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(7), pages 2553-2605.
    17. Tobek, Ondrej & Hronec, Martin, 2021. "Does it pay to follow anomalies research? Machine learning approach with international evidence," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    18. Gao, Wenlian & Chou, Julia, 2015. "Innovation efficiency, global diversification, and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 278-298.
    19. Sumit Majumdar, 2011. "Scalability versus flexibility: firm size and R&D in Indian industry," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 101-116, February.
    20. Robin, Stéphane & Schubert, Torben, 2013. "Cooperation with public research institutions and success in innovation: Evidence from France and Germany," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 149-166.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:62:y:2020:i:c:s0927538x20302468. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/pacfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.