Science Research Management

Science Research Management ›› 2021, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (7): 179-188.

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A study of the transmission path of enterprise innovation investment behavior under the peer effect

Song Guangrui, Ma Chun′ai, Xiao Rong   

  1. School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Beijing 102249, China
  • Received:2020-09-19 Revised:2021-03-26 Online:2021-07-20 Published:2021-07-19

Abstract:      The 2019 Report on the Work of the Government stressed the importance of innovation-led development. To implement the innovation-driven development strategy, we should not only encourage enterprises to follow the path of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics, but also pay full attention to the mutual influence and drive of innovation among enterprises. The innovation-driven development strategy is an inevitable choice for China to grasp the autonomy in development and improve the core competitiveness. It is important to organize and coordinate innovation elements scientifically and effectively. Among the elements of innovation, innovation investment, as a direct driving factor of technological progress and technological innovation, is more and more important. As the main force of innovation, enterprises are not only the main promoter of innovation investment activities, but also the direct beneficiaries. Therefore, this paper examines whether there is an interaction among the innovation investment behavior of enterprises and what the specific interdependence is.
    Peer effect refers to that when individuals in the same group interact with each other due to various social relations, an individual′s behavior and result will be affected by its peers′ behavior and result. The innovation investment behavior of enterprises has a strong sociality, and the innovation achievements have a strong spillover effect. Therefore, in this paper, a structural equation model is constructed to study the interaction and path of the innovation investment behavior of enterprises from the perspective of peer effect. The result shows that peer effect exists in the innovation investment behavior of enterprises. What′s more, we find that the behavioral intention of managers in followers plays an important intermediary role in innovation investment behavior transmission. We further test the differences in the response of heterogeneous enterprises to the innovation investment behavior of peer enterprises, and find that enterprises with scale advantage and higher R&D level are less affected by peer enterprises, while those with lack of scale advantage and lower R&D level are more likely to be affected.
    Based on the previous research, the innovation and contribution of this paper is mainly reflected in three aspects. Firstly, existing research mainly focuses on the influencing factors of innovation investment behavior from the perspective of the internal or external macro environment of enterprises. This paper takes peer effect as the starting point and pays attention to the special factor of peer enterprises, expanding and deepening the research in the field of innovation investment behavior. Secondly, this paper explores the direct and indirect paths of innovation investment behavior transmission among peer enterprises, shows the degree of mutual influence, and clarifies the logic of transmission. Our findings enlighten government administrative departments to give full play to the mutual driving effect of enterprises′ innovative investment behavior. Through "the point to drive surface", "the big to drive small" and "the high to drive low", it not only helps to stimulate the regional or social scope of innovation investment linkage, but also is expected to achieve a powerful boosting effect in the enterprise innovation investment behavior guidance. Finally, behavioral finance, social psychology and other theories are included into the scope of this research. This paper focuses on the key role of managers in the process of innovation investment behavior transmission, which provides a new theoretical perspective for understanding innovation investment behavior.

Key words: innovation investment behavior, peer effect, path, behavioral intention of manager