The impact of big fund on the operational efficiency of semiconductor companies: Corporate social responsibility as a non-economic output

This study contributes to research on the total factor operational efficiency of the semiconductor company considering corporate social responsibility (CSR) by proposing a novel integer-valued nonparametric frontier method. This method adopts an endogenous directional distance function, which first selects the benchmark and then endogenously determines the directional vector. Avoiding the issue of non-integer slack adjustment increases the convenience of formulating incentive plans and calculating efficiency. We apply this method to the input–output data of 185 listed Chinese semiconductor companies from 2010 to 2022, considering integer-valued CSR as non-economic output. Global Malmquist productivity index analysis shows that the average total factor operational efficiency of companies that received investment from the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (Big Fund) increased by 6.9%. Using the econometric technique, we verify that the total factor operational efficiency of semiconductor companies receiving Big Fund investment increased by 0.084 compared to those without Big Fund investment. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the effect of Big Fund was more significant in improving the total factor operational efficiency of state-owned, new, and non-integrated circuit semiconductor companies, implying the necessity of purposeful investment policies for the Big Fund.