Abstract:  Family business is an important force in the development of China′s private economy. In the process of development, the influence of entrepreneurs on the R&D investment behavior of family business is a realistic and important issue related to the sustainable and steady development of family business and private economy. Based on this, this paper analyzes how entrepreneurs′ sense of identity to their own status affects enterprise R&D investment. The results show that the entrepreneurs′ sense of identity is the main driving force affecting the R&D investment, and with the strengthening of the entrepreneur′s sense of identity, the enterprises will improve their R&D investment level. This relationship will be affected by the political and commercial costs of maintenance and political ties. Specifically, the higher the political and commercial costs of maintenance, the more significant the positive relationship between entrepreneur status identification and firm R&D investment; In the entrepreneur group lacking political ties, the positive impact of entrepreneur status identification on firm R&D investment is more significant.The research contributions of this paper are shown in the following aspects: First, it is helpful to deepen the theoretical understanding of the pre-motivation of family firm R&D investment. This paper gives a new description of the dominant logic from "entrepreneur′s individual will" to "firm′s R&D behavior" from the perspective of theoretical frontier by combining higher-order theory and relative deprivation theory. Thus, it overcomes the problem of long causal chain and "black box of demographic background" caused by indirect measurement of potential psychological characteristic variables in previous studies. It provides a different deconstruction logic for the motivation of family business R&D investment, and also provides a new perspective and theoretical explanation for "understanding the decision-making behavior of family business from the perspective of individuals".Second, it enriches the relevant research on entrepreneur status identification. In this study, the discussion of entrepreneur status identification is to link entrepreneur status identification with R&D investment decisions, and to place the understanding of entrepreneur status identification in the interaction process between this group and political factors, revealing how entrepreneur status identification is affected by political and commercial costs and political ties. It not only can reflect the social transition of political factors influence on the micro individual behavior, also helps to identify and test the entrepreneur status identity context condition affecting enterprise development decision, help status identification problem for Chinese entrepreneurs, and even the long-term development of family business problem is given a micro-level annotation.Third, it complements the research literature on the personal traits of managers and further enriches and expands the research on the higher-order theory. Existing researches on the characteristics of managers ignoring managers′ identification perception of their own status. This study finds that entrepreneur status identification is an important factor affecting long-term decision-making behavior of enterprises, which helps to enrich and expand the research on "why" and "how" managers′ background characteristics influence enterprise decision-making, and thus helps to further enrich the research on higher-order theory.

Key words: status identification, political and commercial cost of maintenance, political tie, R&D investment