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Innovation Vouchers and the Sustainable Growth of High-Tech SMEs: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Di Tian

    (School of Economics, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China)

  • Xiaohan Guo

    (School of Management, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China)

  • Peng Wang

    (Department of Accounting, Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK)

Abstract

Innovation has become an essential source of sustainable growth for most firms, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Governments around the world widely implement innovation vouchers to promote innovation in SMEs. This study empirically explores the effects of innovation vouchers in stimulating patentable innovation and ultimately enhancing firms’ financial performance. Using a panel of 1274 listed SMEs from the Small and Medium Enterprise Board (SMEB) and the Growth Enterprise Board (GEB), we find that innovation vouchers lead firms to utilize knowledge-intensive services and significantly increase their financial performance. We further document that patentable innovations mediate the relationship between innovation vouchers and firms’ financial performance. We report that the effects of innovation vouchers on financial performance are more prominent for SMEs with limited external informational resources. We believe that our study yields novel evidence and sheds further light on the important policy implications of innovation vouchers to facilitate the sustainable growth of SMEs.

Suggested Citation

  • Di Tian & Xiaohan Guo & Peng Wang, 2021. "Innovation Vouchers and the Sustainable Growth of High-Tech SMEs: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-17, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:20:p:11176-:d:653100
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    Cited by:

    1. Hongni Zhang & Xiangyi Xu, 2023. "Innovative Technology Method Based on Evolutionary Game Model of Enterprise Sustainable Development and CNN–GRU," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, February.

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