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This paper aims to examine the behavioral determinants of firm research and development (R&D) investment in China by looking into the interaction between performance aspiration and industrial search.

The author argues that the performance aspiration effect is strengthened in R&D-intensive industries based on the isomorphism rationale, whereas it is weakened by high industry R&D intensity owing to the differentiation rationale. Deriving from the isomorphism and differentiation rationales, the author developed a set of competitive hypotheses and empirically tested them by using a large panel data of 6,539 company-years from China for the period 2001-2003.

First, R&D intensity is positively related to the deviation of firm performance from aspiration. Second, industry R&D intensity negatively moderates the relationship between performance aspiration and firm R&D intensity for firms performing above aspiration. Therefore, the results provide support for the differentiation rationale.

The study contributes to the ongoing research that provides and tests the behavioral explanations for R&D and innovation. By delving into the moderating role of industry R&D intensity, the author advocate the need for contextualizing performance aspiration in industrial environments. The study informs policymakers and business leaders about the interaction between the external environment and internal decision process in R&D investment decision.

Drawing on the related insights from the upper echelon perspective, modern cognitive theory and path dependence theory, this paper aims to first integrate top management teams (TMTs) overseas experiences, research and development (R&D) strategic decision-making and innovation performance into a uniform theoretical framework and try to understand TMTs’ overseas experiences accounting for both the direct and indirect mechanisms of the variables involved within the transition economy of China.

The paper adopts research sample from the listed companies on the Growth Enterprises Market Board (GEMB) of Shenzhen Stock Exchange of China due to their stronger innovation consciousness. The research data are mainly from the WIND database of China, as the data issued in this database must be checked and approved by China’s legal institutions including China Securities Regulatory Commission and its authorized agencies. The samples cover different types of ownership and the vast majority of industries of China, which makes the objects a wide range of coverage and representativeness. In addition, according to suggestions of Podsakoff et al. (2003), the authors design the controlling measures from two aspects of data collection and statistical analysis to reduce the homologous error as much as possible.

Empirical results show that innovation performance is positively affected by the centrality overseas functional experience and industrial experience but negatively affected by the heterogeneity of overseas functional experience of TMT. Meanwhile, R&D intensity and modes play partially mediating effect in the relationship between TMTs’ overseas functional experience centrality and industrial experience heterogeneity and innovation performance, but for the relationship between overseas functional experience heterogeneity and innovation performance, R&D intensity leads to fully mediating effect.

This study contributes toward filling the gaps by elucidating the effect of TMTs’ overseas experiences on the innovation performance, identifying the mediating role of R&D strategic decision-makings in this relationship and empirically examining the acting mechanisms and paths of the variables involved in the Chinese context. In addition, practitioners could use these findings to improve their selection and training processes regarding both the top management members and the designing of the R&D strategies.

Firms that pursue invention face special conditions that heighten the potential conflict between managers and shareholders. High R&D spending increases the information asymmetry between managers and shareholders because the invention process is rooted in tacit knowledge. Because tacit knowledge is difficult to communicate to external parties, shareholders will have problems monitoring whether managers are spending R&D in a manner that maximizes firm value.

Using agency theory, it is argued that managerial ownership is one solution to this problem and that high levels of R&D intensity will necessitate high levels of managerial ownership to counteract agency problems. However, it is also argued based on signaling theory that a firm's patenting activity reduces ownership requirement as well as moderating the managerial ownership‐R&D relationship.

Using a sample of firms from the knowledge‐intensive biotechnology industry, a positive relationship was found between R&D spending and managerial ownership. It was also found that this relationship is most strongly moderated by patenting activity.

The findings would be strengthened by replication using samples from other knowledge‐intensive industries. Future research should examine how the critical determinants of success in other industries affect managerial ownership of firms in those industries.

The study shows that top managers have some control over the contracting environment. By aggressively pursuing patents managers can reduce their level of ownership in the firm.

The study finds evidence that in order to prevent agency problems firms undertaking inventive activity may require their managers to take larger ownership or aggressively pursue patents. High managerial ownership levels and patents can provide a signal to shareholders about the growth potential of the firm.

This study aims to investigate the impact of ownership structure and board structure on risk-taking as measured by research and development (R&D) Intensity in OECD countries.

A panel data of 300 companies from Anglo American and European countries between 2010 and 2016 were used. The ordinary least square multiple regression analysis procedure is used to examine the relationships. The findings are robust to alternative measures and endogeneities.

The results show that institutional ownership, board size, independent directors and board diversity are negatively related to risk-taking, with greater significance among Anglo American countries than among Continental European countries. In contrast, the results show that director ownership is statistically insignificant.

This study extends and contributes to the extant corporate governance (CG) literature, by offering new evidence on the effect of ownership and board structure on risk-taking between two different traditions. The findings will help regulators and policy-makers in the OECD countries in evaluating the adequacy of the current CG reforms to prevent management misconduct and scandals. These findings are relevant for companies aiming to adopt the most suitable governance mechanisms to pursue their R&D objectives and for policymakers interested in promoting R&D investment.

For those interested in studying the effects of stakeholder theory on organizational performance, the establishment of measures that represent both explicit and implicit claims on the firm’s outputs is vital. While net organizational capital (NOC) has been shown to represent the value of the firm after honouring implicit claims of stakeholder groups, practical application requires the use of surrogates such as net intangible assets (NIA). Attempts to extend research in this area by establishing additional surrogates, segment sales (SS) and research and development intensity (RD), which can be easily calculated and reflect operating characteristics of the organization being observed. Concludes that RD is a reasonable indicator of the firm’s NIA for both bond upgrade and downgrade situations, but that SS can be viewed as a surrogate for NIA during upgrade situations. Both, however, can provide great insights to the researcher and can be used to assist in classifying firms with respect to stakeholder group influence.

We combine insights from the strategic management and international business literatures in order to explore the moderating role of business group characteristics on the link between innovation and internationalization in the context of the pharmaceutical sector in India. We test our three hypotheses on a sample of 219 Indian pharmaceutical firms affiliated with business groups, over a five-year period (2005–2010) in a panel of 1,096 firm-year observations. Results indicate that, contrary to our contention, research expenditure is negatively associated with export intensity, implying that firms in the Indian pharmaceutical sector may face a trade-off between investing in innovation and international expansion. As expected, business group characteristics significantly impact the strength of the relationship between innovation and internationalization. Theoretical and practitioner implications are discussed.

This study aims to examine the impact of board structure on risk-taking measured by research and development (R&D) intensity in OECD countries.

The study uses a panel data of 200 companies on Forbes global 2000 over the 2010-2014 period. It uses the ordinary least square multiple regression analysis techniques to examine the hypotheses.

The results show that the frequency of board meetings and board size are significantly and negatively related to risk-taking measured by R&D intensity, with a greater significance among Anglo-American countries than among Continental European countries. The rationale for this is that the legal and accounting systems in the Anglo American countries have greater protection through greater emphasis on compliance and disclosure, and therefore, allowing for less risk-taking.

Future research could investigate risk-taking using different arrangements, conducting face-to-face meetings with the firm’s directors and shareholders.

The results suggest that better-governed firms at the firm- or national-level have a high expectancy of less risk-taking. These results offer regulators a resilient incentive to pursue corporate governance (CG) and disclosure reforms officially and mutually with national-level governance. Thus, these results show the monitoring and legitimacy benefits of governance, resulting in less risk-taking. Finally, the findings offer investors the opportunity to build specific expectations about risk-taking behaviour in terms of R&D intensity in OECD countries.

This study extends and contributes to the extant CG literature, by offering new evidence on the effect of board structure on risk-taking. The findings will help policymakers in different countries in estimating the sufficiency of the available CG reforms to prevent management mishandle and disgrace.

Outlines the role of the conservatism inherent in generally accepted accounting principles in Ohlson’s (1995) and Feltham and Ohlson’s (1995) valuation models and compares it with other research findings. Identifies potential sources of conservatism (e.g. expensing advertising costs, providing for deferred tax etc.), develops a mathematical model and applies it to 1980‐1994 US data to examine their relative importance. Finds that intensity of R&D and age of fixed assets are the most significant and goes on to compare the effectiveness of the Feltham/Ohlson conservatism parameter in capturing this information. Shows that their linear information models seems to capture different aspects of the relationship between book and market values and calls for further research.

This paper aims to examine how foreign direct investment (FDI) and firm-specific advantages (FSAs) of US multinational enterprises (MNEs) majority-owned subsidiaries affect environmental pollution in host countries. The research results contribute to helping managers and policymakers understand the environmental impact of MNEs activities, and encourage these firms to develop environmentally responsible management (ERM) as an element of their corporate social responsibility practice.

Panel data consisting of developing and developed countries spanning the years 2004 through 2014 are used. The dynamic panel generalised method of moments technique is implemented. This method avoids common estimation bias, such as endogeneity, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation.

This paper finds that the direct environmental impacts of FDI vary significantly between the two groups of countries. The environmental benefits of FDI to the recipient country are achieved through capital and technology transfer. The study also reveals that R&D intensity moderates the relationship between FDI and environmental pollution in both developing and developed countries in such a way that environmental pollution decreases.

Future research could explore the environmental impact of MNEs on host countries by considering both equity and non-equity entry modes. The findings offer some support to host government policies offering generous incentive packages to attract R&D investment to improve environmental pollution. This research raises questions as to the reasons corporations operating in developing and developed countries should pursue their ERM practices.

This research examines both the direct effect of FDI and the moderating effects of FSAs on the relationship between FDI and the environment. Although previous studies have already looked at the relationship between FDI and the environment, the moderating effect of FSAs is very under-developed in this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of R&D intensity on the real earnings management index.

The authors proceed with dividing the full sample into two sub-samples, in accordance with the R&D associated intensity median. The final test sample proves to involve 73 firms along with 949 relating observations, while the control sample appears to enclose 65 firms and 845 relevant observations for the period 2000-2012.

The main finding of this study is the great influence of R&D intensity on the real earnings management index on the test sample. Accordingly, the proposed hypothesis stipulating that the innovative firms engage in upward real earnings management turns out to be strongly supported.

The study was conducted using robust methods to test the effect of R&D intensity on the real earnings management index. The generalized least squares method was used to fit panel data and overcome heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation problems. The aim of the study was to prove the great effect of R&D intensity on the real earnings management index. As this study was based on data from American companies, the results cannot be generalized to all contexts.

This paper differs from previous work and tests the effect of innovative firms, the market-to-book ratio on real earnings management. The findings of this study will enrich the literature on real earnings management by suggesting R&D intensity that can significantly enhance the real earnings management index. Therefore, these findings will be helpful to investors, managers and regulators because they have implications for the interactive decision-making process.