IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v76y2021icp1126-1145.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does political turnover stifle or stimulate corporate innovation?

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Yinghui

Abstract

This paper investigates how political turnover affects firm innovation activities. In contrast to the literature documenting negative effects of local leader turnover on innovation output, I find that uncertainty over provincial leader turnover encourages firm patent filings. Local leader changes cause, on average, an increase of approximately 3.4% firm patent filings. The turnover effect is stronger in state-owned enterprises, in firms located in provinces featured with worse business environment (with more government-dominated markets), in firms facing fierce market competition, and in firms subject to higher growth opportunities. My findings suggest that the real effects of local political uncertainty depend on firms’ ownership structure, business environment, market competition, and growth opportunities.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Yinghui, 2021. "Does political turnover stifle or stimulate corporate innovation?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1126-1145.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:76:y:2021:i:c:p:1126-1145
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2021.08.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105905602100174X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2021.08.010?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. M. Berk Talay & Janell D. Townsend, 2015. "Do or die: competitive effects and Red Queen dynamics in the product survival race," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 24(3), pages 721-738.
    2. Gan, Weiyu & Xu, Xixiong, 2019. "Does anti-corruption campaign promote corporate R&D investment? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 292-296.
    3. Hainmueller, Jens, 2012. "Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects: A Multivariate Reweighting Method to Produce Balanced Samples in Observational Studies," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 25-46, January.
    4. Feng, Xunan & Johansson, Anders C., 2017. "Political Uncertainty and Innovation in China," Stockholm School of Economics Asia Working Paper Series 2017-44, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm China Economic Research Institute.
    5. Christopher T. Stanton & Catherine Thomas, 2016. "Landing the First Job: The Value of Intermediaries in Online Hiring," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 83(2), pages 810-854.
    6. Zhi Wang & Qinghua Zhang & Li-An Zhou, 2020. "Career Incentives of City Leaders and Urban Spatial Expansion in China," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(5), pages 897-911, December.
    7. James S. Ang & Yingmei Cheng & Chaopeng Wu, 2014. "Does Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Matter in China? Evidence from Financing and Investment Choices in the High-Tech Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(2), pages 332-348, May.
    8. Waguespack, David Matthew & Birnir, Johanna Kristin & Schroeder, Jeff, 2005. "Technological development and political stability: Patenting in Latin America and the Caribbean," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1570-1590, December.
    9. Li, Hongbin & Zhou, Li-An, 2005. "Political turnover and economic performance: the incentive role of personnel control in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1743-1762, September.
    10. Ben S. Bernanke, 1983. "Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Cyclical Investment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(1), pages 85-106.
    11. Kostovetsky, Leonard, 2015. "Political capital and moral hazard," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 144-159.
    12. Chen, Shaojian & Mao, Hui & Feng, Zongxian, 2020. "Political uncertainty and firm entry: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing industries," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 16-30.
    13. Brandon Julio & Youngsuk Yook, 2012. "Political Uncertainty and Corporate Investment Cycles," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(1), pages 45-84, February.
    14. Bhattacharya, Utpal & Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Tian, Xuan & Xu, Yan, 2017. "What Affects Innovation More: Policy or Policy Uncertainty?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(5), pages 1869-1901, October.
    15. Avinash K. Dixit & Robert S. Pindyck, 1994. "Investment under Uncertainty," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 5474.
    16. Tan, Yongxian & Tian, Xuan & Zhang, Xinde & Zhao, Hailong, 2020. "The real effect of partial privatization on corporate innovation: Evidence from China's split share structure reform," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    17. Pindyck, Robert S, 1988. "Irreversible Investment, Capacity Choice, and the Value of the Firm," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(5), pages 969-985, December.
    18. An, Heng & Chen, Yanyan & Luo, Danglun & Zhang, Ting, 2016. "Political uncertainty and corporate investment: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 174-189.
    19. Robert McDonald & Daniel Siegel, 1986. "The Value of Waiting to Invest," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(4), pages 707-727.
    20. He, Feng & Ma, Yaming & Zhang, Xiaojie, 2020. "How does economic policy uncertainty affect corporate Innovation?–Evidence from China listed companies," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 225-239.
    21. Chen, Yinghui & Du, Julan, 2020. "Does regulatory reform of cumulative voting promote a more balanced power distribution in the boardroom?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    22. Scott F. Turner & Will Mitchell & Richard A. Bettis, 2010. "Responding to Rivals and Complements: How Market Concentration Shapes Generational Product Innovation Strategy," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(4), pages 854-872, August.
    23. Samuel B. Bonsall & Brian P. Miller, 2017. "The impact of narrative disclosure readability on bond ratings and the cost of debt," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 608-643, June.
    24. Melissa M. Appleyard & Clara Y. Wang & J. Alexander Liddle & John Carruthers, 2008. "The innovator's non-dilemma: the case of next-generation lithography," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 407-423.
    25. Pertuze, Julio A. & Reyes, Tomas & Vassolo, Roberto S. & Olivares, Nicolas, 2019. "Political uncertainty and innovation: The relative effects of national leaders’ education levels and regime systems on firm-level patent applications," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    26. Rita Gunther McGrath & Atul Nerkar, 2004. "Real options reasoning and a new look at the R&D investment strategies of pharmaceutical firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 1-21, January.
    27. Cao, Chunfang & Dong, Yizhe & Hou, Wenxuan & Liu, Yue & Qian, Xianhang, 2019. "Provincial official turnover and bank loans," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    28. Dang, Jianwei & Motohashi, Kazuyuki, 2015. "Patent statistics: A good indicator for innovation in China? Patent subsidy program impacts on patent quality," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 137-155.
    29. Josh Lerner, 1997. "An Empirical Exploration of a Technology Race," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(2), pages 228-247, Summer.
    30. Tong, Tony W. & Zhang, Kun & He, Zi-Lin & Zhang, Yuchen, 2018. "What determines the duration of patent examination in China? An outcome-specific duration analysis of invention patent applications at SIPO," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 583-591.
    31. Samuel M. Hartzmark, 2015. "The Worst, the Best, Ignoring All the Rest: The Rank Effect and Trading Behavior," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(4), pages 1024-1059.
    32. Varsakelis, Nikos C., 2006. "Education, political institutions and innovative activity: A cross-country empirical investigation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1083-1090, September.
    33. Wan, Wei & Zhou, Fanqi & Liu, Lingjie & Fang, Libing & Chen, Xudong, 2021. "Ownership structure and R&D: The role of regional governance environment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 45-58.
    34. Wang, Yizhong & Wei, Yueling & Song, Frank M., 2017. "Uncertainty and corporate R&D investment: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 176-200.
    35. Hartman, Richard, 1976. "Factor Demand with Output Price Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(4), pages 675-681, September.
    36. Jun (Qj) Qian & Philip E. Strahan & Zhishu Yang, 2015. "The Impact of Incentives and Communication Costs on Information Production and Use: Evidence from Bank Lending," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 1457-1493, August.
    37. Daniel Bradley & Incheol Kim & Xuan Tian, 2017. "Do Unions Affect Innovation?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(7), pages 2251-2271, July.
    38. Hartman, Richard, 1972. "The effects of price and cost uncertainty on investment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 258-266, October.
    39. Nalin Kulatilaka & Enrico C. Perotti, 1998. "Strategic Growth Options," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(8), pages 1021-1031, August.
    40. Cao, Jerry & Julio, Brandon & Leng, Tiecheng & Zhou, Sili, 2016. "Political Turnover, Ownership, and Corporate Investment," RIEI Working Papers 2016-06, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Research Institute for Economic Integration.
    41. Sanjeev Agarwal & Sridhar N Ramaswami, 1992. "Choice of Foreign Market Entry Mode: Impact of Ownership, Location and Internationalization Factors," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 23(1), pages 1-27, March.
    42. Abel, Andrew B, 1983. "Optimal Investment under Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 228-233, March.
    43. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2002. "Patents, Real Options and Firm Performance," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(478), pages 97-116, March.
    44. Ricardo Cabral & Michael J. Leiblein, 2001. "Adoption of a Process Innovation with Learning‐by‐Doing: Evidence from the Semiconductor Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 269-280, September.
    45. Cabral, Ricardo & Leiblein, Michael J, 2001. "Adoption of a Process Innovation with Learning-by-Doing: Evidence from the Semiconductor Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 269-280, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xing Shi & Ya Zhang & Yanrui Wu & Huaqing Wu, 2023. "Political Turnover and Firm Innovation in China: The Moderating Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Environment," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 23-08, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    2. Yogeeswari Subramaniam & Nanthakumar Loganathan, 2022. "Uncertainty and technological innovation: evidence from developed and developing countries," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 2527-2545, November.
    3. Ji, Xiaoqing & Liu, Shuai & Lang, Jingyi, 2022. "Assessing the impact of officials' turnover on urban economic efficiency: From the perspective of political promotion incentive and power rent-seeking incentive," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PB).

    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. Cao, Yang & Chen, Yinghui & Zhang, Yuhe, 2022. "Political uncertainty, innovation-driven strategy, and corporate R&D," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Phan, Dinh Hoang Bach & Tran, Vuong Thao & Nguyen, Dat Thanh, 2019. "Crude oil price uncertainty and corporate investment: New global evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 54-65.
    3. Cui, Xin & Wang, Chunfeng & Liao, Jing & Fang, Zhenming & Cheng, Feiyang, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty exposure and corporate innovation investment: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    4. Wei-Fong Pan, 2019. "Geopolitical Risk and R&D investment," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2019-11, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    5. Muhammad Arif Khan & Xuezhi Qin & Khalil Jebran & Abdul Rashid, 2020. "The Sensitivity of Firms’ Investment to Uncertainty and Cash Flow: Evidence From Listed State-Owned Enterprises and Non-State-Owned Enterprises in China," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440209, January.
    6. Yu, Zhen & Xiao, Yao & Li, Jinpo, 2021. "Firm-level perception of uncertainty and innovation activity: Textual evidence from China's A-share market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    7. Yang, Zhenyi & Yu, Yiwei & Zhang, Yubing & Zhou, Sili, 2019. "Policy uncertainty exposure and market value: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    8. Ilyas, Muhammad & Khan, Aamir & Nadeem, Muhammad & Suleman, Muhammad Tahir, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty, oil price shocks and corporate investment: Evidence from the oil industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    9. Pertuze, Julio A. & Reyes, Tomas & Vassolo, Roberto S. & Olivares, Nicolas, 2019. "Political uncertainty and innovation: The relative effects of national leaders’ education levels and regime systems on firm-level patent applications," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    10. Fengxiu Zhou & Chien-Chiang Lee, 2023. "Political uncertainty and innovation of export enterprises: international evidence for developing countries," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4371-4400, December.
    11. Laarni T. Bulan, 2005. "Real options, irreversible investment and firm uncertainty: New evidence from U.S. firms," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(3-4), pages 255-279.
    12. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Narayan, Seema & Tran, Vuong Thao & Thuraisamy, Kannan, 2021. "State-level politics: Do they influence corporate investment decisions?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    13. Lin, Yongjia & Fu, Xiaoqing & Fu, Xiaolan, 2021. "Varieties in state capitalism and corporate innovation: Evidence from an emerging economy," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    14. Sha, Yezhou & Kang, Chenlei & Wang, Zilong, 2020. "Economic policy uncertainty and mergers and acquisitions: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 590-600.
    15. Guan, Jialin & Xu, Huijuan & Huo, Da & Hua, Yechun & Wang, Yunfeng, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    16. Chen, Yanyan, 2022. "Does political turnover affect corporate investment? Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PA).
    17. Meng, Rujing, 2008. "A patent race in a real options setting: Investment strategy, valuation, CAPM beta, and return volatility," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 3192-3217, October.
    18. Bulan, Laarni T., 2005. "Real options, irreversible investment and firm uncertainty: New evidence from U.S. firms," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3-4), pages 255-279.
    19. Irawan, Denny & Okimoto, Tatsuyoshi, 2021. "Overinvestment and macroeconomic uncertainty: Evidence from renewable and non-renewable resource firms," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    20. Ji (George) Wu & Jian Zhang & Yiwen Wu & Dongmin Kong, 2020. "When to go abroad: economic policy uncertainty and Chinese firms’ overseas investment," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(2), pages 1435-1470, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Innovation; Patent filings; Political turnover; Growth options;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:reveco:v:76:y:2021:i:c:p:1126-1145. 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/inca/620165 .

    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.