IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i20p13331-d944360.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovation of Family-Owned Enterprises and Government Subsidies: From A Policy-Oriented Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Kai Zhao

    (School of Economics, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China)

  • Wanshu Wu

    (College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao 266033, China)

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence effects of government subsidies on the innovation of family-owned enterprises in China through a panel data model and Heckman two-stage model, and explores the possible influence mechanisms of government subsidies on different innovation behaviors of family-owned enterprises through a mediation analysis method. It is found that government subsidies play a significant role in promoting innovation input, innovation quantity and innovation quality of family-owned enterprises. From the perspective of innovation quality, government subsidies are more beneficial to family-owned enterprises without “two jobs in one” or “2nd generation succession”. Compared with family-owned enterprises that have completed intergenerational inheritance, government subsidies are more conducive to enhancing the innovation quantity of family-owned enterprises that have not achieved “2nd generation succession”. We find also that government subsidies can indirectly improve the innovation quality of family-owned enterprises by increasing the proportion of state-owned shares and easing the financing constraints. By organically integrating two relatively independent research fields (effectiveness of government subsidy and innovation of family businesses), this paper opens up a new way of thinking for exploring the sustainability of family businesses.

Suggested Citation

  • Kai Zhao & Wanshu Wu, 2022. "Innovation of Family-Owned Enterprises and Government Subsidies: From A Policy-Oriented Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:20:p:13331-:d:944360
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13331/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13331/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kimberly A. Eddleston & Franz Willi Kellermanns & Ravi Sarathy, 2008. "Resource Configuration in Family Firms: Linking Resources, Strategic Planning and Technological Opportunities to Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 26-50, January.
    2. Min, Byung S. & Smyth, Russell, 2014. "Corporate governance, globalization and firm productivity," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 372-385.
    3. Carlo Russo & Rachael E. Goodhue & Richard J. Sexton, 2011. "Agricultural Support Policies in Imperfectly Competitive Markets: Why Market Power Matters in Policy Design," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1328-1340.
    4. Alecke Björn & Reinkowski Janina & Mitze Timo & Untiedt Gerhard, 2012. "Does Firm Size make a Difference? Analysing the Effectiveness of R&D Subsidies in East Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 174-195, May.
    5. Feldman, Maryann P. & Kelley, Maryellen R., 2006. "The ex ante assessment of knowledge spillovers: Government R&D policy, economic incentives and private firm behavior," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1509-1521, December.
    6. Catozzella, Alessandra & Vivarelli, Marco, 2011. "Beyond Additionality: Are Innovation Subsidies Counterproductive?," IZA Discussion Papers 5746, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Dietmar Roessl & Matthias Fink & Sascha Kraus, 2010. "Are family firms fit for innovation? Towards an agenda for empirical research," International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(3/4), pages 366-380.
    8. Bronzini, Raffaello & Piselli, Paolo, 2016. "The impact of R&D subsidies on firm innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 442-457.
    9. Lerner, Josh, 1999. "The Government as Venture Capitalist: The Long-Run Impact of the SBIR Program," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(3), pages 285-318, July.
    10. Mabel D. Costa & Ahsan Habib & Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan, 2021. "Financial constraints and asymmetric cost behavior," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 33-83, March.
    11. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon & Lang, Larry H. P., 2000. "The separation of ownership and control in East Asian Corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 81-112.
    12. James Heckman, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    13. Vincent Y.S. Chen & Shou-Min Tsao & Guang-Zheng Chen, 2013. "Founding family ownership and innovation," Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 429-456, December.
    14. Cheng, Chen & Li, Siming & Liu, Shali & Zhang, Suge, 2022. "Origin matters: The institution imprint effect and green innovation in family businesses," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    15. Guo, Di & Guo, Yan & Jiang, Kun, 2016. "Government-subsidized R&D and firm innovation: Evidence from China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1129-1144.
    16. Cornaggia, Jess & Mao, Yifei & Tian, Xuan & Wolfe, Brian, 2015. "Does banking competition affect innovation?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 189-209.
    17. Steven C. Michael & John A. Pearce, 2009. "The need for innovation as a rationale for government involvement in entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 285-302, May.
    18. Vivian W. Fang & Xuan Tian & Sheri Tice, 2014. "Does Stock Liquidity Enhance or Impede Firm Innovation?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2085-2125, October.
    19. Morris, Michael H. & Williams, Roy O. & Allen, Jeffrey A. & Avila, Ramon A., 1997. "Correlates of success in family business transitions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 385-401, September.
    20. Adelaide Wilcox King & Carl P. Zeithaml, 2001. "Competencies and firm performance: examining the causal ambiguity paradox," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 75-99, January.
    21. Dai, Xiaoyong & Cheng, Liwei, 2015. "The effect of public subsidies on corporate R&D investment: An application of the generalized propensity score," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 90(PB), pages 410-419.
    22. Yang, Xiaolei & He, Lingyun & Xia, Yufei & Chen, Yufeng, 2019. "Effect of government subsidies on renewable energy investments: The threshold effect," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 156-166.
    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. Bo Yao & Fangbin Qiao, 2023. "The Heterogeneous Effects of Central and Local Subsidies on Firms’ Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-15, January.
    2. Huasheng Zhu & Ruobin Liu & Bo Chen, 2023. "The Rise of Specialized and Innovative Little Giant Enterprises under China’s ‘Dual Circulation’ Development Pattern: An Analysis of Spatial Patterns and Determinants," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, January.

    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. Xing Shi & Yanrui Wu & Dahai Fu & Xiumei Guo & Huaqing Wu, 2019. "Effects of National Science and Technology Programs on Innovation in Chinese Firms," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 18(1), pages 207-236, Winter/Sp.
    2. Thomas H. W. Ziesemer, 2021. "The Effects of R&D Subsidies and Publicly Performed R&D on Business R&D: A Survey," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 236(1), pages 171-205, March.
    3. Licheng Zheng & Delong Luo & Ruiqing Jiang & Xiaoyong Lu, 2025. "The Strategy of Speculative Innovation: the Result of Capital Misallocation and Defective Incentive Policy," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(3), pages 12317-12363, September.
    4. Bellucci, Andrea & Pennacchio, Luca & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2023. "Debt financing of SMEs: The certification role of R&D Subsidies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Wang, Yanbo & Li, Jizhen & Furman, Jeffrey L., 2017. "Firm performance and state innovation funding: Evidence from China’s innofund program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1142-1161.
    6. Ren, Shenggang & Sun, Helin & Zhang, Tao, 2021. "Do environmental subsidies spur environmental innovation? Empirical evidence from Chinese listed firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    7. Kwangsoo Shin & Minkyung Choy & Chul Lee & Gunno Park, 2019. "Government R&D Subsidy and Additionality of Biotechnology Firms: The Case of the South Korean Biotechnology Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-22, March.
    8. Chen, Jin & Heng, Cheng Suang & Tan, Bernard C.Y. & Lin, Zhijie, 2018. "The distinct signaling effects of R&D subsidy and non-R&D subsidy on IPO performance of IT entrepreneurial firms in China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 108-120.
    9. Guerini, Massimiliano & Quas, Anita, 2016. "Governmental venture capital in Europe: Screening and certification," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 175-195.
    10. Hao, Jing & Lu, Yue & Zhang, Jing & Bai, Hengyu & Wu, Ji (George), 2024. "Does provincial gambling culture affect corporate innovation? Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    11. José Martí & Anita Quas, 2018. "A beacon in the night: government certification of SMEs towards banks," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 397-413, February.
    12. Lixia Liu & Yuanshi Huang & Xueli Zhan, 2019. "The Evolution of Collective Strategies in SMEs’ Innovation: A Tripartite Game Analysis and Application," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-15, October.
    13. Pang, Caiji & Wang, Ying, 2020. "Stock pledge, risk of losing control and corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    14. Sang Chang & Jie Wu & Muhammad Riaz & Zhizhong Hu, 2023. "How does equity restriction affect innovation quality? Evidence from listed manufacturing companies in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(12), pages 1-23, December.
    15. Liao, Woody M. & Lu, Chia-Chi & Wang, Hsuan, 2014. "Venture capital, corporate governance, and financial stability of IPO firms," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 19-33.
    16. Jiang, Weijie & Yu, Hui, 2025. "Confucian culture and corporate innovation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    17. Mei Feng & Ye Wang, 2023. "More Government Subsidies, More Innovation of New Energy Firms? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-23, May.
    18. Bianchi, Mattia & Murtinu, Samuele & Scalera, Vittoria G., 2019. "R&D Subsidies as Dual Signals in Technological Collaborations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    19. Chen Weijun, 2022. "The Impact of Government Support and Technological Innovation on Enterprise Performance: A Case Study of Guangdong Hi- tech Enterprises," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 14(1), pages 196-231.
    20. Kiman Kim & Sang Ok Choi & Sooyeon Lee, 2021. "The Effect of a Financial Support on Firm Innovation Collaboration and Output: Does Policy Work on the Diverse Nature of Firm Innovation?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(2), pages 645-675, June.

    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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:20:p:13331-:d:944360. 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: 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.