Exploring the impact of government subsidy and R&D investment on financial competitiveness of China’s new energy listed companies: An empirical study

In the environment where the traditional energy industry is declining and the new energy industry is developing rapidly, we collected the data from 98 new energy companies listed in China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2012 to 2016 to conduct an empirical study to understand the relationship between their R&D investment intensity and their corporate financial competitiveness. In addition, we looked at an issue of how the relationship is impacted by government subsidies. The research results show that the R&D investment intensity has a significant positive correlation with the financial competitiveness of China’s new energy listed companies, and it has a lag effect. The current government subsidies have no significant moderating effect on the relationship between R&D investment and financial competitiveness. Based on the empirical study conducted, we propose that China’s new energy listed companies should increase R&D investment, strengthen the long-term budget management of R&D investment, and increase government support and supervision in order to enhance financial competitiveness.