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This paper adopts the two-way fixed effect model to analyze the listed enterprises on the New Third Board (NEEQ) from 2014 to 2021. In the process of analysis, to ensure the rationality of the regression results, the missing core data and related data of financial enterprises are excluded. Through empirical analysis, this paper draws the following conclusions: (1) Tax incentives can promote enterprise innovation. (2) Internal and external financing constraints inhibit enterprise innovation. (3) Internal and external financing constraints play an intermediary role in tax incentives and enterprise innovation. (4) The intermediary effect of internal financing constraints is significant in both the fundamental layer and the innovation layer, while the external financing constraints are only significant in the fundamental layer. (5) Compared with state-owned enterprises, the intermediary effect of internal and external financing constraints is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises.

Using the index of the degree of digital transformation of enterprises constructed based on text analysis, and combining the data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2020, a panel data model was established to empirically study the impact of digital transformation on green technology innovation and the mechanism of action and to further analyze the impact of heterogeneity. The results show that digital transformation can significantly promote green technology innovation, and its internal mechanism is that digital transformation can improve the level of green technology innovation by alleviating financing constraints and attracting government subsidies. Compared with nonstate-owned enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, digital transformation plays a more significant role in promoting green technology innovation in state-owned enterprises and large-scale enterprises. Therefore, the government should regulate the market order and formulate reasonable financial policies to provide policy and financial support for enterprises to carry out digital transformation, mobilize the willingness of enterprises to carry out green technology innovation and improve the level of green technology innovation in China.

A constrained access to external financing has a negative effect on firm growth. This is even more problematic for SMEs, as smaller firms are more prone to having financing constraints. Drawing on the resource dependence theory, we argue that firms with constrained access to external financing seek to become less dependent on their access to external financing. Firms can introduce cost-saving management innovations, which are innovations in the form of new organizational processes, practices and structures with the goal of reducing the firm’s costs and increasing its efficiency. Relying on survey data of 2,973 observations of SMEs among 34 European countries, our results show that SMEs with constrained access to external financing are indeed more likely to introduce such cost-saving management innovations. We also find evidence that cost-saving management innovations positively affect firm growth. Hence, we find a positive indirect effect of constrained access to external financing on SME revenue growth through cost-saving management innovations. This positive indirect effect suppresses the negative direct effect of constrained access to financing on revenue growth, pointing to a potentially important role of cost-saving management innovations as a coping strategy for constrained access to external financing for SMEs.Plain English SummaryAlthough constrained access to external financing is a well-known barrier to innovation and growth, we find that constrained access to external financing induces cost-saving management innovations that subsequently stimulate SME growth. SMEs seek to reduce their dependence on external capital when they hold no power over external capital providers. Among our sample of 2,973 observations of European SMEs, a quarter of SMEs introduced cost-saving management innovations, which increased to one-third if the firm perceived its access to external financing as its most important problem. These innovations consequently increased revenue growth and suppressed the negative effect of a constrained access to external financing on growth. This is an important insight for managers in SMEs who seek to stimulate firm growth even when dealing with financing constraints. Policymakers may note that not all SMEs are affected equally negative by financing constraints.

In the carbon neutrality strategy, understanding the effects of green finance on green technology innovation is conductive to promoting the green transformation of the economy. Based on the micro-level and provincial panel data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2019, this study explored the impact of green financial development on the enterprises’ green technology innovation. Both mediating effect and moderating effect models were employed to determine the impact of green finance on green technological innovation. It was found that green finance significantly improved the enterprises’ green technology innovation, despite sufficient incentives for “quantity” and relatively insufficient motivation for “quality”. The mechanistic tests demonstrated that the green finance could encourage enterprises to improve green technology innovation by alleviating corporate financing constraints. The green innovation effect of green finance was gradually increased when the regional intellectual property protection was improved. The heterogeneity test indicated that the incentive effect of green financial development on green technology innovation was more evident in state-owned enterprises, enterprises with good internal control quality, and enterprises in the growth period. If only enterprises in the recession stage received green financial support, a “green innovation bubble” might occur. The research conclusions enrich the theories on the driving factors of enterprise green innovation and provide empirical evidence for enhancing the competitiveness of enterprise green innovation and achieving carbon neutrality.

We study the feasibility and optimal design of presale crowdfunding contracts where participating consumers pay a premium above the future expected spot price and financially constrained entrepreneurs balance the potential product–market distortions introduced through presale crowdfunding against the cost of traditional external financing. Our analysis shows how such crowdfunding contracts enable the execution of projects that could not be otherwise undertaken and highlights novel interactions between the cost of capital, demand uncertainty, and production. Tighter financing constraints reduce the ability of the monopolist to extract surplus but, contrary to the usual result, may increase production. We evaluate how uncertainty and market size reduce the price-discriminating power of the monopolist and affect the optimal contract regime. Nevertheless, we show how such presale price-discriminating contracts are implementable even when the number of potential consumers is relatively high and their individual demand is stochastic. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance.

This paper evaluates the importance of combining digital finance with conventional finance and information technology (IT) to bring new opportunities for green technology innovation and transformation within polluting industries. This study builds a theoretical framework “digital finance → financing constraints → R&D investment → green technology innovation” to demonstrate the causal mechanism between digital finance and firms’ green innovation by using the serial two-mediator model. The study shows that digital finance could reduce financial constraints and increase R&D investments, thereby improving enterprises’ green technology innovation in the long run. Moreover, based on the moderating effect model, we find that digital transformation in a polluting firm tends to strengthen the linkage between digital finance and green technology innovation through supervising the use of loans, reviewing green technology innovation projects, and reducing managers’ short-sighted behaviors to avoid agency problems. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis shows that the effects of digital finance on green innovation are more apparent in state-owned enterprises and the regions with lower financial development and with higher financial supervision.

In recent years, the value of green innovation in achieving high-quality development in China has been increasingly recognized. However, studies on different types of green innovation under various environmental regulations have not established a systematic framework; especially, those considering external financing constraints are lacking. This study subdivides both environmental regulation and green innovation. Specifically, environmental regulation is divided into command-and-control regulation, market-incentive regulation, and public-participation regulation. Green technology innovation is divided into cleaner production technology innovation and end-of-pipe technology innovation. Moreover, this study explores whether and how environmental regulation affects green technology innovation, and investigates the moderating effect of external financing constraints, by matching the data from China Environmental Yearbook and China Industrial Enterprise Database. The results show that both command-and-control regulation and market-incentive regulation have the U-shaped relationship with cleaner production technology innovation. Meanwhile, public-participation environmental regulation significantly and positively affects cleaner production technology innovation, whereas market-incentive regulation and public-participation regulation have the inverted U-shaped relationship with end-of-pipe technology innovation. In addition, the external financing constraints have a moderating effect on the relationship between environmental regulation and cleaner production technology innovation.

Mounting evidence indicates that firms, particularly SMEs, suffered from a significant credit crunch during this crisis. We analyze for the first time whether trade credit provided an alternative source of external finance to SMEs during the crisis. Using firm-level Spanish data we find that credit constrained SMEs depend on trade credit, but not bank loans, and that the intensity of this dependence increased during the financial crisis. Unconstrained firms, in contrast, are dependent on bank loans but not on trade credit.

Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and of climate neutrality by 2050 in the European Union will require mobilizing financial investments towards clean energy innovation. This study examines the role of internal finance (cash flows and cash holdings) and financing constraints for innovation in energy technologies. We construct a dataset for 1,300 European firms combining balance-sheet information and patenting activities in renewable (REN) and fossil-fuel (FF) technologies and estimate the sensitivity of patenting activities to firms’ internal finance. We use count estimation techniques and control for a large set of firm-specific characteristics and market developments in REN and FF technologies. We find that patenting activities of firms specialized in REN innovation are significantly more sensitive to a shock in cash flows than firms specializing in FF innovation. Hence, our results emphasize that innovative firms in clean energy may be particularly vulnerable to financing constraints. We discuss the implications of these results for energy transition policies aiming to redirect finance towards clean energy R&D.

This study investigates the impact of fintech development on corporate investment efficiency from the dual perspectives of financial constraints and agency conflicts, based on data from Chinese A-share listed corporations and 293 cities' fintech development levels from 2011 to 2020. The results of the study show that fintech makes corporate investments more efficient and that this beneficial impact is long-term; as fintech develops, it plays a greater role in increasing corporate investment efficiency. Based on heterogeneity research, the effect of fintech in boosting corporate investment efficiency is more pronounced in non-states, growth periods, and corporations with weaker internal and external governance. From both aspects of inefficient investment, fintech alleviates under-investment and inhibits over-investment, with a higher inhibitory effect on over-investment. Through a mechanism analysis, we found that fintech has a stronger mitigating effect on under-investment in corporations with higher financing constraints and a stronger inhibiting effect on over-investment in corporations with larger agency conflicts. The conclusions of this study provide critical information for promoting fintech adaptation to corporate needs and high-quality economic development.