IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/mgtdec/v44y2023i4p1935-1961.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do financial constraints and corruption limit firms' innovation capability? Evidence from developing economies

Author

Listed:
  • Pragati Priya
  • Chandan Sharma

Abstract

This study examines the effects of financial constraints and corruption on product and process innovation of firms in developing nations. We contribute to the existing literature by analyzing the singular and joint effects of financial constraints and corruption on firms' innovation activities. We examine firm‐level data for 74 developing nations for the period 2015–2020. Our findings show that (a) financial constraints have an adverse impact on firms' innovation, (b) corruption has a positive outcome on the innovation of firms, (c) positive effects of corruption on their innovation decisions are dampened when firms are subjected to high financial constraints, (d) larger, older, and exporting firms that are equipped with foreign technology are more prevalent in innovation schemes than smaller, younger, nonexporting, and technologically disrupted firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Pragati Priya & Chandan Sharma, 2023. "Do financial constraints and corruption limit firms' innovation capability? Evidence from developing economies," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 1935-1961, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:44:y:2023:i:4:p:1935-1961
    DOI: 10.1002/mde.3792
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.3792
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/mde.3792?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ayyagari, Meghana & Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2014. "Bribe Payments and Innovation in Developing Countries: Are Innovating Firms Disproportionately Affected?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(1), pages 51-75, February.
    2. Hyytinen, Ari & Toivanen, Otto, 2005. "Do financial constraints hold back innovation and growth?: Evidence on the role of public policy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1385-1403, November.
    3. Xun Wu, 2009. "Determinants of Bribery in Asian Firms: Evidence from the World Business Environment Survey," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(1), pages 75-88, June.
    4. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen & Heidi Williams, 2019. "A toolkit of policies to promote innovation," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, issue 10.
    5. Clò, Stefano & Florio, Massimo & Rentocchini, Francesco, 2020. "Firm ownership, quality of government and innovation: Evidence from patenting in the telecommunication industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(5).
    6. Bronwyn Hall, 2004. "The financing of research and development," Chapters, in: Anthony Bartzokas & Sunil Mani (ed.), Financial Systems, Corporate Investment in Innovation, and Venture Capital, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Benjamin A. Olken & Rohini Pande, 2012. "Corruption in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 479-509, July.
    8. Frederique Savignac, 2008. "Impact Of Financial Constraints On Innovation: What Can Be Learned From A Direct Measure?," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(6), pages 553-569.
    9. Paunov, Caroline, 2016. "Corruption's asymmetric impacts on firm innovation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 216-231.
    10. Jakob Svensson, 2003. "Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much? Evidence from a Cross Section of Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 207-230.
    11. Howell, Anthony, 2016. "Firm R&D, innovation and easing financial constraints in China: Does corporate tax reform matter?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1996-2007.
    12. Faulkender, Michael & Flannery, Mark J. & Hankins, Kristine Watson & Smith, Jason M., 2012. "Cash flows and leverage adjustments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 632-646.
    13. Ross Levine, 1997. "Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 688-726, June.
    14. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Laeven, Luc & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2006. "The determinants of financing obstacles," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 932-952, October.
    15. Greenaway, David & Guariglia, Alessandra & Kneller, Richard, 2007. "Financial factors and exporting decisions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 377-395, November.
    16. Jakob Svensson, 2005. "Eight Questions about Corruption," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(3), pages 19-42, Summer.
    17. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    18. Ullah, Barkat, 2020. "Financial constraints, corruption, and SME growth in transition economies," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 120-132.
    19. Heitor Almeida & Murillo Campello, 2007. "Financial Constraints, Asset Tangibility, and Corporate Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(5), pages 1429-1460, 2007 12.
    20. Hovakimian, Gayane & Titman, Sheridan, 2006. "Corporate Investment with Financial Constraints: Sensitivity of Investment to Funds from Voluntary Asset Sales," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(2), pages 357-374, March.
    21. Elisa Ughetto, 2008. "Does internal finance matter for R&D? New evidence from a panel of Italian firms," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 32(6), pages 907-925, November.
    22. Anokhin, Sergey & Schulze, William S., 2009. "Entrepreneurship, innovation, and corruption," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 465-476, September.
    23. Rajesh S. N. Raj & Kunal Sen, 2015. "Finance Constraints and Firm Transition in the Informal Sector: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 123-143, March.
    24. Cull, Robert & Li, Wei & Sun, Bo & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2015. "Government connections and financial constraints: Evidence from a large representative sample of Chinese firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 271-294.
    25. Toni M. Whited & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Financial Constraints Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 531-559.
    26. Akie Iriyama & Rajiv Kishore & Debabrata Talukdar, 2016. "Playing dirty or building capability? Corruption and HR training as competitive actions to threats from informal and foreign firm rivals," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(10), pages 2152-2173, October.
    27. Claudio Fassio, 2018. "Export-led innovation: the role of export destinations," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(1), pages 149-171.
    28. Fu, Xiaolan & Pietrobelli, Carlo & Soete, Luc, 2011. "The Role of Foreign Technology and Indigenous Innovation in the Emerging Economies: Technological Change and Catching-up," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1204-1212, July.
    29. Lamont, Owen & Polk, Christopher & Saa-Requejo, Jesus, 2001. "Financial Constraints and Stock Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(2), pages 529-554.
    30. Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Monika Schnitzer, 2013. "Financial Constraints And Innovation: Why Poor Countries Don'T Catch Up," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(5), pages 1115-1152, October.
    31. Muravyev, Alexander & Talavera, Oleksandr & Schäfer, Dorothea, 2009. "Entrepreneurs' gender and financial constraints: Evidence from international data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 270-286, June.
    32. Thorsten Beck & Asli Demirgüç‐Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2005. "Financial and Legal Constraints to Growth: Does Firm Size Matter?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(1), pages 137-177, February.
    33. Kaplinsky, Raphael & Kraemer-Mbula, Erika, 2022. "Innovation and uneven development: The challenge for low- and middle-income economies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(2).
    34. Roman Inderst & Holger M. Müller, 2003. "Internal versus External Financing: An Optimal Contracting Approach," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1033-1062, June.
    35. Nirosha Hewa Wellalage & Stuart Locke & Helen Samujh, 2019. "Corruption, Gender and Credit Constraints: Evidence from South Asian SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 267-280, September.
    36. Saggi, Kamal, 1999. "Foreign Direct Investment, Licensing, and Incentives for Innovation," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(4), pages 699-714, November.
    37. Xuemei Xie & Guoyou Qi & Kevin Xiaoguo Zhu, 2019. "Corruption and New Product Innovation: Examining Firms’ Ethical Dilemmas in Transition Economies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 107-125, November.
    38. Fisman, Raymond & Svensson, Jakob, 2007. "Are corruption and taxation really harmful to growth? Firm level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 63-75, May.
    39. Lyandres, Evgeny, 2007. "Costly external financing, investment timing, and investment-cash flow sensitivity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 959-980, December.
    40. Alam, Pervaiz & Walton, Karen Schuele, 1995. "Information Asymmetry and Valuation Effects of Debt Financing," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 30(2), pages 289-311, May.
    41. Elena Bardasi & Shwetlena Sabarwal & Katherine Terrell, 2011. "How do female entrepreneurs perform? Evidence from three developing regions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 417-441, November.
    42. Pham, Tho & Talavera, Oleksandr, 2018. "Discrimination, Social Capital, and Financial Constraints: The Case of Viet Nam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 228-242.
    43. Mansfield, Edwin, 1995. "Academic Research Underlying Industrial Innovations:," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(1), pages 55-65, February.
    44. Meghana Ayyagari & Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Vojislav Maksimovic, 2008. "How Important Are Financing Constraints? The Role of Finance in the Business Environment," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(3), pages 483-516, November.
    45. Aggarwal, Raj & Zong, Sijing, 2006. "The cash flow-investment relationship: International evidence of limited access to external finance," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 89-104, February.
    46. Choi, Suk Bong & Lee, Soo Hee & Williams, Christopher, 2011. "Ownership and firm innovation in a transition economy: Evidence from China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 441-452, April.
    47. Mohammad Amin & Yew Chong Soh, 2022. "Financial constraints and the impact of corruption on employment growth," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(3), pages 612-635, April.
    48. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    49. James Alm & Yongzheng Liu & Kewei Zhang, 2019. "Financial constraints and firm tax evasion," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(1), pages 71-102, February.
    50. Kraft, Kornelius, 1989. "Market Structure, Firm Characteristics and Innovative Activity," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 329-336, March.
    51. Chandan Sharma & Arup Mitra, 2019. "Corruption and Economic Growth: Some New Empirical Evidence from a Global Sample," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(8), pages 691-719, November.
    52. Alessandra Canepa & Paul Stoneman, 2008. "Financial constraints to innovation in the UK: evidence from CIS2 and CIS3," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 60(4), pages 711-730, October.
    53. Spiros Bougheas, 2004. "Internal vs External Financing of R&D," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 11-17, February.
    54. Sasaki, Takafumi, 2016. "Financial cash flows and research and development investment," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-15.
    55. Lui, Francis T, 1985. "An Equilibrium Queuing Model of Bribery," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(4), pages 760-781, August.
    56. Chava, Sudheer & Oettl, Alexander & Subramanian, Ajay & Subramanian, Krishnamurthy V., 2013. "Banking deregulation and innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 759-774.
    57. Paolo Mauro, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712.
    58. Prashanth Mahagaonkar, 2008. "Corruption and Innovation: A Grease or Sand relationship?," Jena Economics Research Papers 2008-017, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    59. Sharma, Chandan & Mitra, Arup, 2015. "Corruption, governance and firm performance: Evidence from Indian enterprises," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 835-851.
    60. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    61. Kadapakkam, Palani-Rajan & Kumar, P. C. & Riddick, Leigh A., 1998. "The impact of cash flows and firm size on investment: The international evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 293-320, March.
    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. Priya, Pragati & Sharma, Chandan, 2023. "Reinforcing the effects of corruption and financial constraints on firm performance: Normal versus crisis period in developing economies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).

    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. Priya, Pragati & Sharma, Chandan, 2023. "Reinforcing the effects of corruption and financial constraints on firm performance: Normal versus crisis period in developing economies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    2. Carlos Carreira & Filipe Silva, 2010. "No Deep Pockets: Some Stylized Empirical Results On Firms’ Financial Constraints," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 731-753, September.
    3. Ullah, Barkat, 2020. "Financial constraints, corruption, and SME growth in transition economies," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 120-132.
    4. Georgios Efthyvoulou & Priit Vahter, 2016. "Financial Constraints, Innovation Performance and Sectoral Disaggregation," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 84(2), pages 125-158, March.
    5. Du, Qingjie & Heo, Yuna, 2022. "Political corruption, Dodd–Frank whistleblowing, and corporate investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. Trang Hoai Phan & Rainer Stachuletz & Hai Thi Hong Nguyen, 2022. "Export Decision and Credit Constraints under Institution Obstacles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-27, May.
    7. Xu, Gang & Yano, Go, 2017. "How does anti-corruption affect corporate innovation? Evidence from recent anti-corruption efforts in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 498-519.
    8. Schauer, Catharina & Elsas, Ralf & Breitkopf, Nikolas, 2019. "A new measure of financial constraints applicable to private and public firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 270-295.
    9. Phan, Trang Hoai & Stachuletz, Rainer & Nguyen, Hai Thi Hong, 2022. "Export Decision and Credit Constraints under Institution Obstacles," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 132783, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    10. Manzur Quader & Karl Taylor, 2018. "Corporate efficiency, credit status and investment," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(6), pages 439-457, April.
    11. Hung Quang Doan & Nam Hoang Vu & Binh Tran-Nam & Ngoc-Anh Nguyen, 2022. "Effects of tax administration corruption on innovation inputs and outputs: evidence from small and medium sized enterprises in Vietnam," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 1773-1800, April.
    12. Yu Yan & Shusen Qi, 2021. "I Know What I Need: Optimization of Bribery," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 311-332, November.
    13. Ullah, Barkat & Wei, Zuobao & Zhu, Yicheng, 2023. "Can a signal mitigate a dilemma? Quality management standards, corruption, and business ethics," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 701-716.
    14. Muhammad Kaleem Khan & Ahmad Kaleem & Salman Zulfiqar & Umair Akram, 2019. "Innovation Investment: Behaviour Of Chinese Firms Towards Financing Sources," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(07), pages 1-29, October.
    15. Liu, Duan & Li, Zhiyuan & He, Hongbo & Hou, Wenxuan, 2021. "The determinants of R&D smoothing with asset sales: Evidence from R&D-intensive firms in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 76-93.
    16. Lu, Jiankun & Zhang, Hongsheng & Meng, Bo, 2021. "Corruption, firm productivity, and gains from import liberalization in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    17. Yan-Leung Cheung & P. Raghavendra Rau & Aris Stouraitis, 2021. "What Determines the Return to Bribery? Evidence from Corruption Cases Worldwide," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(10), pages 6235-6265, October.
    18. Barth, James R. & Lin, Chen & Lin, Ping & Song, Frank M., 2009. "Corruption in bank lending to firms: Cross-country micro evidence on the beneficial role of competition and information sharing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(3), pages 361-388, March.
    19. Nirosha Wellalage & Sujani Thrikawala, 2021. "Does bribery sand or grease the wheels of firm level innovation: evidence from Latin American countries," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 891-929, July.
    20. Nirosha Hewa Wellalage & Stuart Locke & Helen Samujh, 2019. "Corruption, Gender and Credit Constraints: Evidence from South Asian SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 267-280, September.

    More about this item

    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:wly:mgtdec:v:44:y:2023:i:4:p:1935-1961. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/7976 .

    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.