An Empirical Study on the Impact of R&D Investment and Industry-University-Research Synergy on Innovation of Chinese Listed Companies

Abstract

Innovation serves as the core driving force for the sustainable development of enterprises, and the strategic integration of internal R&D and external innovation resources constitutes a critical foundation for enterprises to enhance their innovation capabilities. This study aims to reveal the interactive mechanism between internal R&D investment and external industry-university-research (IUR) cooperation within enterprises, clarify the path through which the synergy between the two affects innovation output, explore the differential performance of various types of enterprises, and provide theoretical and practical references for the optimization of enterprise innovation strategies and policy formulation. Taking Chinese A-share listed companies from 2015 to 2020 as the research sample, this study constructs a multiple linear regression model to analyze the impact of their synergy effect on innovation output, and introduces enterprise scale and property right nature to conduct heterogeneity tests. The empirical results show that the synergy between increased R&D investment and deepened IUR cooperation exerts a significant positive promoting effect on innovation output, and the integration of the two can amplify the marginal benefit of innovation investment. Moreover, this effect exhibits heterogeneity: large-scale enterprises, relying on their resource integration advantages, and state-owned enterprises, by virtue of policy support and resource endowments, have achieved more substantial innovation improvement through the coordinated interaction of the two. The research indicates that internal R&D and external IUR cooperation are the dual core driving forces for enterprise innovation. Enterprises should expand their IUR cooperation networks and establish a sustainable growth mechanism for R&D investment. At the policy level, it is necessary to take into account the heterogeneous characteristics of enterprises, formulate differentiated support policies, and promote the efficient allocation of innovation resources and the optimization of the innovation ecosystem.