Abstract: Chinese family firms lack incentives to innovate. According to data published in the China family business health index report of 2016, among the 39.9% of firms that disclose R&D data, only 37% had a proportion of R&D investment greater than 5%. As one of the important factors either stimulating or restraining technological innovation, family control intensity includes ownership and management, which affects the orientation and management resource of innovation respectively. Therefore, it is significance to study how family control intensity impacts technological innovation within Chinese family firms with highly concentrated ownership and management. However, only a few scholars have studied the impact of family control intensity on activities related to the technological innovation of firms, and the conclusions are controversial. From the perspective of ownership intensity, Donckels et al. (1991) believed that family firms were reluctant to engage in technological innovation because of the high concentration of equity, which made it difficult to disperse investment risks. Donckels' conclusion was proved empirically by Munari et al. (2010). However, Sharma et al. (2005) believed that family businesses have a longer-term vision and tend to pursue more innovative investment strategies. From the perspective of management intensity, Massis et al. (2013) believed that the professional ability of family managers was limited and therefore not conducive to technological innovation. However, Yan et al. (2014) found that the convergence of interests between family managers and owners can alleviate agency problems, improve management resource constraints, and promote technological innovation within firms. This paper postulates the previous controversy was due to the different risks at different stages of technological innovation. Before the R&D achievements are obtained, Chinese family firms, which generally have a small business volume, are unable to withstand the short-term losses caused by continuous investment, resulting in a higher level of risk being associated with innovation. Once R&D achievements are successfully established, however, such risks are reduced, due to a reduction in R&D uncertainty. Finally, the family makes different risk decisions according to the different stages of technological innovation, and affects the firm technological innovation through the allocation of control rights. The data of Chinese family listed firms from 2007 - 2016 is applied for the empirical tests. The test results are as follows: (1) The intensity of family management and ownership are important factors in both stimulating and restraining technological innovation within the firm; (2) At the R&D investment stage, different control intensities reduce the impact of R&D investment in promoting sustainable innovation; (3) In the result application stage, different control intensities increase the impact of R&D achievements in promoting the value of the firm; (4) Furthermore, the family management intensity has a more significant impact on technological innovation within the firm. Based on the above conclusions, this paper offers the following suggestions: (1) The government should strengthen financial support for R&D investment through tax incentives. The fiscal and tax policies have less attention on the incentive of R&D investment, which is an important reason for the lack of R&D investment in family firms. Therefore, the government should improve the system of tax incentives and subsidies, especially regarding support for the R&D investment stage, so as o solve the innovation problems of Chinese family firms; (2) The government should strengthen legal support for R&D investment. Against the background of the low level of social trust and imperfect market system in China, family firms will have a strong sense of insecurity and defensive characteristics when undertaking R&D investment. Therefore, the government should strengthen the legal system and property rights protection, and encourage family firms to establish an awareness of security and a long-term vision for investment.

Key words: family firm, family control intensity, technological innovation, R&D investment, result application