IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v18y2025i11p619-d1787718.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

R&D Investment, Skill-Based Wage Gap, and Firm Innovation Performance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Author

Listed:
  • He Tong

    (Faculty of Business, Economics, and Accountancy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu 88400, Malaysia)

  • Saizal Pinjaman

    (Faculty of Business, Economics, and Accountancy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu 88400, Malaysia)

  • Debbra Toria Nipo

    (Faculty of Business, Economics, and Accountancy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu 88400, Malaysia)

Abstract

Against China’s innovation-driven strategy, this study explores the impact of R&D investment on firm innovation performance and the mediating role of the wage gap between high- and low-skilled labor (HLWG) using data from Chinese A-share non-financial listed firms spanning 2010–2022. Employing static panel regression, Bootstrap test, and instrumental variables (R&D investment deduction, college enrollment expansion), the study finds three key results. First, R&D investment positively affects both firm innovation performance and HLWG. Second, HLWG exerts a positive impact on firm innovation performance. Third, HLWG plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between R&D investment and firm innovation performance. Robustness tests and instrumental variable regression confirm the stability of these conclusions. This finding enriches the theoretical understanding of the R&D-innovation transmission mechanism, offers insights into enterprises to coordinate R&D investment and wage structure optimization, and provides policy references for refining innovation incentives and labor market policies.

Suggested Citation

  • He Tong & Saizal Pinjaman & Debbra Toria Nipo, 2025. "R&D Investment, Skill-Based Wage Gap, and Firm Innovation Performance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-24, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:18:y:2025:i:11:p:619-:d:1787718
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/18/11/619/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/18/11/619/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jjrfmx:v:18:y:2025:i:11:p:619-:d:1787718. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.