Abstract:    In order to change the unfavorable situation of high-tech equipment manufacturing industry and upgrade China from a manufacturer of quantity to one of quality, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, the Ministry of Finance of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly launched the first set of major technical equipment insurance (FMTEI) aimed to encourage independent innovation for high-tech industry in China in 2015. Whether the FMTEI can effectively solve the sales problem of the first set of products, and then improve the enthusiasm of the insured enterprises for independent innovation is directly related to whether China can successfully realize the high-tech upgrade of the equipment manufacturing industry. Therefore, it is particularly important to study the incentive effect of the FMTEI on enterprise innovation.This paper examined the impact and mechanism of FMTEI on enterprise technological innovation, based on the A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010-2019. The results showed that the FMTEI significantly improves the technological innovation of enterprises, and the more products insured by FMTEI in the group, the stronger the technological innovation ability. In addition, after the enterprises participated in the FMTEI, it not only solves the problem of sales the first set of products, expanded the market sales of the first set of products, and enhanced the enthusiasm of the enterprises′ innovation; it also reduced the external risks faced by the enterprises, transferred the responsibility of the enterprises due to the defects of product quality, and thus improved the enterprises′ ability to bear the innovation risks and enhanced the technological innovation level of the participating enterprises. The level of technological innovation of the insured enterprises is also significantly improved. Furthermore, the FMTEI has a more significant incentive effect on enterprises in the eastern region and enterprises in more competitive markets.This paper has several policy implications: firstly, FMTEI has a significant incentive effect on the participating enterprises. Therefore, the equipment manufacturing industry should use them to manifest the sales of those product, which can be solve the external market risk, to achieve a virtuous cycle of "R&D innovation - new product sales - R&D innovation". Secondly, the government′s pilot project to promote the FMTEI has its policy effect, but the relevant departments should learn from the valuable experience of the pilot project to develop more effective first set of insurance products. In particular, the government in the central and western regions should be further improved to give full play to the incentive effect of the FMTEI. Thirdly, high-tech manufacturing enterprises should give full play to the role of the FMTEI risk underwriting in the face of the international complexity environment, which should verify the quality and innovation of the products through a more competitive market from the domestic market to the international market, and completely get rid of the constraints of technology in foreign developed countries.The enlightenments of this paper are as follows: Firstly, the first set of major technical equipment insurance (FMTEI) is the first long-term incentive mechanism for independent innovation in high-tech industries in China, which is also one of the specific insurances in China. This paper is the first of its kind to study the relationship between FMTEI and innovation, which is helpful assessment of the policy effect of the FMTEI. Secondly, the literature studies on insurance and corporate innovation have focused on directors′ and supervisors′ liability insurance, technology insurance, patent enforcement insurance, and product liability insurance, and little literature has yet discussed the relationship between FMTEI and corporate innovation. Therefore, this paper investigated the impact of FMTEI on corporate innovation, which is beneficial to enrich the research related to the field between insurance and financial management. Thirdly, this paper verified the incentive effect of FMTEI on enterprise innovation from the view of marketing and risk taking, which helps to clarify the path of the effect of FMTEI on enterprise innovation, thus providing empirical evidence to further enhance the enthusiasm of enterprise independent innovation and promote high-tech transformation of equipment manufacturing industry.

Key words: first set of major technical equipment insurance (FMTEI), enterprise innovation, marketing promotion, risk taking