International talent inflow and R&D investment: Firm-level evidence from China

PurposeThis study aims to investigate whether the characteristics of the chief financial officer (CFO) have an impact on the intensity of the corporate research and development (R&D) investment.Design/methodology/approachBased on hand-collected data for the CFOs of a sample of the largest European listed companies for the period 2013–2016, this study uses regression analyses to test empirically the association of CFO education, CFO gender and CFO age with R&D investment intensity.FindingsThe presence of female CFOs, CFOs with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree and older CFOs is positively associated with the intensity of R&D investment.Research limitations/implicationsThis study relies on some observable characteristics of CFOs and focuses on large listed companies.Practical implicationsThe results of this study may help investors, stakeholders and practitioners to understand better which type of CFO characteristics are more likely to result in higher firm-level R&D investment intensity.Originality/valueThis study offers the first insights into the impact of CFOs, as the most prominent C-suite executives, on the level of corporate investments in R&D activity.

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The heterogeneous competitive effects of trade and foreign direct investment: Firm-level evidence for European countries

World Economy ◽

10.1111/twec.12590 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 801-830

Author(s):

John P. Weche

Keyword(s):

Foreign Direct Investment ◽

Direct Investment ◽

European Countries ◽

Firm Level ◽

Competitive Effects ◽

Investment Firm

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Do State-Owned Enterprises Crowd Out Private Investment? Firm Level Evidence from Malaysia

Southeast Asian Economies ◽

10.1355/ae34-3e ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 507-522 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jayant Menon ◽

Thiam Hee Ng ◽

Keyword(s):

Private Investment ◽

Firm Level ◽

Crowd Out ◽

Investment Firm

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Export activity, R&D investment, and foreign ownership: does it matter for productivity?

International Marketing Review ◽

10.1108/imr-03-2020-0045 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Carlos M.P. Sousa ◽

Ji Yan ◽

Emanuel Gomes ◽

Jorge Lengler

Keyword(s):

Emerging Market ◽

Time Lag ◽

Foreign Ownership ◽

National Bureau ◽

Firm Level ◽

Content Type ◽

Export Activity ◽

Learning By Exporting ◽

The Impact ◽

D Investment

PurposeThe paper examines the impact of export activity on productivity and how this effect is moderated by R&D investment and foreign ownership.Design/methodology/approachA time-lag effect is taken into account when examining the proposed model. Data are collected from the Annual Industrial Survey of the National Bureau of Statistics of China. A dataset containing 117,340 firms across the sample period (2001–2007) are used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicate that while R&D investment plays a significant role in strengthening the positive effect of export activity on a firm's productivity, foreign ownership surprisingly has a negative moderating role.Originality/valueScholarly interest in the links between export activity and productivity is on the rise. However, the bulk of research has been focused on understanding the effects of export activity on productivity at the country or industry level. Little has been done at the firm level. Another gap in the literature is that the mechanism through which the impact of export activity can be leveraged to enhance the firm's productivity has been largely ignored. To address these issues, the study adopts the learning-by-exporting theory to examine the relationship between export and productivity at the firm-level and how R&D investment and foreign ownership may explain how learning can be leveraged to enhance the firm's productivity. Finally, these relationships are examined in the context of firms from an emerging market, China, which is especially relevant for the learning-by-exporting argument used in this study.

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