IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v248y2025ics0165176525000576.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cross-firm technological linkage and peer effects on investment efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Zeng, Kailin
  • Kuang, Wen
  • Mills, Ebenezer Fiifi Emire Atta

Abstract

This study provides compelling and robust evidence of investment imitation arising from technological peer relationship. The documented peer effect operates through competition-based, outcome-oriented, learning-based, and market feedback channels. Mimicking investment strategies of technological peers positively influences the future performance of focal firms, especially in highly competitive markets and when these peers exhibit superior financial performance or favorable stock returns.

Suggested Citation

  • Zeng, Kailin & Kuang, Wen & Mills, Ebenezer Fiifi Emire Atta, 2025. "Cross-firm technological linkage and peer effects on investment efficiency," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:248:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525000576
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112220
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176525000576
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112220?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Biddle, Gary C. & Hilary, Gilles & Verdi, Rodrigo S., 2009. "How does financial reporting quality relate to investment efficiency?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 112-131, December.
    2. Kelly Shue, 2013. "Executive Networks and Firm Policies: Evidence from the Random Assignment of MBA Peers," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(6), pages 1401-1442.
    3. Adhikari, Binay K. & Agrawal, Anup, 2018. "Peer influence on payout policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 615-637.
    4. Kenneth R. Ahern & Ran Duchin & Tyler Shumway, 2014. "Peer Effects in Risk Aversion and Trust," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(11), pages 3213-3240.
    5. Nicholas Bloom & Mark Schankerman & John Van Reenen, 2013. "Identifying Technology Spillovers and Product Market Rivalry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(4), pages 1347-1393, July.
    6. Josh Lerner & Ulrike Malmendier, 2013. "With a Little Help from My (Random) Friends: Success and Failure in Post-Business School Entrepreneurship," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(10), pages 2411-2452.
    7. Machokoto, Michael & Gyimah, Daniel & Ntim, Collins G., 2021. "Do peer firms influence innovation?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(5).
    8. Grennan, Jillian, 2019. "Dividend payments as a response to peer influence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 549-570.
    9. Lee, Charles M.C. & Sun, Stephen Teng & Wang, Rongfei & Zhang, Ran, 2019. "Technological links and predictable returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(3), pages 76-96.
    10. Badertscher, Brad & Shroff, Nemit & White, Hal D., 2013. "Externalities of public firm presence: Evidence from private firms' investment decisions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 682-706.
    11. Chevalier, Judith A & Scharfstein, David S, 1996. "Capital-Market Imperfections and Countercyclical Markups: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 703-725, September.
    12. Seo, Hojun, 2021. "Peer effects in corporate disclosure decisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1).
    13. Zhao, Yang, 2024. "Retail shareholder activism and investment efficiency," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    14. Christa H. S. Bouwman, 2011. "Corporate Governance Propagation through Overlapping Directors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(7), pages 2358-2394.
    15. Kaustia, Markku & Rantala, Ville, 2015. "Social learning and corporate peer effects," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 653-669.
    16. Matray, Adrien, 2021. "The local innovation spillovers of listed firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 395-412.
    17. Mark T. Leary & Michael R. Roberts, 2014. "Do Peer Firms Affect Corporate Financial Policy?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(1), pages 139-178, February.
    18. Bolton, Patrick & Scharfstein, David S, 1990. "A Theory of Predation Based on Agency Problems in Financial Contracting," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 93-106, March.
    19. Itay Goldstein, 2023. "Information in Financial Markets and Its Real Effects," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(1), pages 1-32.
    20. Grieser, William & Hadlock, Charles & LeSage, James & Zekhnini, Morad, 2022. "Network effects in corporate financial policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 247-272.
    21. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    22. Jie Cao & Hao Liang & Xintong Zhan, 2019. "Peer Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(12), pages 5487-5503, December.
    23. Aghamolla, Cyrus & Thakor, Richard T., 2022. "IPO peer effects," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 206-226.
    24. M. Cecilia Bustamante & Laurent Frésard, 2021. "Does Firm Investment Respond to Peers’ Investment?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(8), pages 4703-4724, August.
    25. Casey Dougal & Christopher A. Parsons & Sheridan Titman, 2015. "Urban Vibrancy and Corporate Growth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(1), pages 163-210, February.
    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. Grieser, William & Hadlock, Charles & LeSage, James & Zekhnini, Morad, 2022. "Network effects in corporate financial policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(1), pages 247-272.
    2. Zhu, Yanli & Yin, Li & Lu, Xueyan, 2024. "Peer effects with multifaceted network dependence structures in R&D investment decisions: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PA).
    3. Dong, Jichang & Liu, Xiaoting & Ji, Kangxian & Li, Xiuting & Dong, Zhi, 2023. "Peer Effects in Financial Investment of Board-interlocked Firms: An Information Sharing Perspective," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1490-1508.
    4. Ali-Rind, Asad & Boubaker, Sabri & Jarjir, Souad Lajili, 2023. "Peer effects in financial economics: A literature survey," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Zhang, Tianyu, 2023. "Peer effects in R&D investment based on interlock network: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    6. Chien Chi Chu & Xiu‐Fen Su & Yu‐En Lin & Akihiro Omura & Bin Li & Adrian Wai‐Kong Cheung, 2023. "Love thy neighbour: Evidence from capital structure decisions," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(3), pages 2907-2933, September.
    7. Ajirloo, Bahman Fathi & Switzer, Lorne N., 2022. "Self-disclosed peer effects on corporate capital structure," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Shijun Huang & Pengcheng Du & Yu Hong & Woran Wu, 2024. "Are corporate environmental, social, and governance practices contagious? The peer-effect perspective," Energy & Environment, , vol. 35(8), pages 4049-4082, December.
    9. Zhuang, Yuan & Nie, Jing & Wu, Weixing, 2022. "Peer influence and the value of cash holdings," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 265-284.
    10. Gyimah, Daniel & Machokoto, Michael & Sikochi, Anywhere (Siko), 2020. "Peer influence on trade credit," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Machokoto, Michael & Chipeta, Chimwemwe & Ibeji, Ngozi, 2021. "The institutional determinants of peer effects on corporate cash holdings," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    12. Xian Qin & Shiqiang Zhang & Xianchun Liao & Haitao Niu & Antony Dnes, 2023. "The peer contagion effects and firms' innovation: Evidence from China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(2), pages 1004-1019, March.
    13. Chen, Mingqin & Xie, Jing & Li, Yue, 2022. "Heterogeneity of dividend smoothing: A strategic response to peer competition in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Hsu, Yuan-Teng & Huang, Chia-Wei & Koedijk, Kees G., 2023. "Unintended consequences of compensation peer groups on corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Su, Zhifang & Wang, Luhan & Liao, Jing & Cui, Xin, 2023. "Peer effects in corporate advertisement expenditure: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    16. M. Cecilia Bustamante & Laurent Frésard, 2021. "Does Firm Investment Respond to Peers’ Investment?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(8), pages 4703-4724, August.
    17. Liang, Quanxi & Li, Qiumei & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2021. "Industry and geographic peer effects on corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    18. Liu, Qigui & Wang, Junyi & Chi, Wenqiang, 2022. "The spillover effects of innovation content disclosure in MD&A," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    19. Hui Zhao & Ao Lei & Yuhui Li & Dingjun Hong, 2023. "The Sectoral and Regional Peer Influences on Heavy-Pollution Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-42, August.
    20. Khoo, Joye & Cheung, Adrian (Wai Kong), 2024. "Firms' organisation capital: Do peers matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

    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:ecolet:v:248:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525000576. 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/ecolet .

    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.