Parent–Subsidiary Company Geographic Distance and Corporate Innovation Performance: Inhibitive or Stimulative?

The implementation of innovation-driven and regional collaborative development strategies of China has injected new vitality into corporate trans-regional operation and collaborative innovation. Accordingly, listed companies expand the distance between parent and subsidiary in space geographically. This paper discusses the effect of geographic distance between parent and subsidiary companies on corporate innovation. The results show that parent – subsidiary company geographic distance has a significant positive effect on corporate innovation performance. The results still hold following a battery of endogeneity test and robustness check. We also find that government subsidies, information acquisition, and construction of internal capital markets are the mechanisms for the effect to work. In addition, the stimulative effect of parent – subsidiary geographic distance on corporate innovation performance is more pronounced for SOEs, under better intellectual property protection, and for eastern and central China. This paper not only refines the research on corporate innovation at the spatial level for parent and subsidiary companies, but also provides a framework for corporations to implement regional collaborative development and to adhere to a belief in innovation. It can also assist the government in creating a unified national market.