Do Government R&D Subsidies Cultivate Enterprises’ Voluntary National/Industry Standard-Setting for Sustainable Development?

Xun Zhang, Meng Shi and Biao Xu
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Xun Zhang: Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
Meng Shi: Government School, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Biao Xu: Government School, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: This study investigates the effects of government subsidies for R&D on resource and environmental enterprises’ voluntary national/industry standard- (N/IS-) setting, which is critical to sustainable development. Based on innovation motivation and capability theory, we propose a research framework and hypothesis, using a panel dataset on 11,556 Chinese resource and environmental enterprises from 2011 to 2013 to test our hypotheses. We find that government subsidies for R&D have a U-shaped relationship with N/IS-setting for sustainable development. Moreover, we also find that state ownership, position in industry, and patent properties are contingency factors suggesting that non-state-owned enterprises, industry-following enterprises, or enterprises with more patents come up with N/IS-settings of significantly greater value than state-owned enterprises, leading enterprises, or enterprises with fewer patents. Endogeneity issues are addressed by utilizing two-stage estimations with instrumental variables (IVs).

Keywords: government R&D subsidies; national/industry standard (N/IS); standard-setting; state-owned enterprise; position in industry; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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