The impact of accounting information quality and financing constraints on innovation input of Chinese private enterprises

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-3364181/v1

With the advancement of economic globalization and the gradual intensification of competition in international market, enterprises need to constantly enhance their comprehensive strength to consolidate market position and improve the internal innovation ability, which is also a new mission given to enterprises under the new era. At present, the innovation activities of Chinese enterprises are faced with many difficulties, such as long investment cycle time, too much investment capital, high risk, short-term income is not obvious, and so on. However, if enterprises use agents to promote enterprise innovation, the financing constraints caused by the current market agency costs and internal and external information asymmetry greatly hinder the process of independent innovation of private enterprises. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the influencing factors of private enterprises' input in indigenous innovation to improve their independent innovation ability and promote their further development.

Other Business

private enterprise

quality of accounting information

financing constraints

At present, China's international status is rising, and the competition of trade with other countries is also gradually increasing, enterprise innovation has become a big problem for Chinese enterprises. Based on this, China has formulated the CPC Central Committee's Proposal on Formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and 2035 Vision Goals for better and faster development of enterprises, insisting that innovation should be at the core of China's modernization drive, encouraging enterprises to actively increase self-innovation efforts and invest more energy and funds in R&D and innovation. However, enterprises have different interpretations of the meaning of innovation, and there are many problems in the process of development, which form a certain obstacle for enterprises. First of all, the enterprise innovation research and development and innovation project activities take a long time. Since the impact of COVID-19 in 2020, it is difficult for private enterprises to maintain R&D investment. In order to avoid the impact of short-term performance on corporate finance, enterprise managers try to reduce the investment in independent innovation and prefer self-preservation. Secondly, innovation project activities are risky, and there is great uncertainty about the short-term return of corporate funds and future earnings. Corporate shareholders will give up innovation activities more decisively for their own interests.

Accounting information is the most important way for enterprise stakeholders to understand the true financial and operating conditions, and the quality of accounting information reflects the management level and operation of enterprise managers to a large extent, and is also one of the important reference indicators for venture capitalists to make investment decisions in enterprises. The quality of accounting information can bring more investment to enterprises. It can also avoid a series of consequences caused by the unfamiliarity of enterprise managers with the actual situation of enterprises, alleviate the constraints of private enterprises in innovation research, and guarantee the continued investment of private enterprises in innovation research. Therefore, we choose accounting information quality and enterprise innovation input as the research object, and on this basis, study the moderating effect of financing constraints on the two, which is of great significance for alleviating the innovation financing constraints of private enterprises and improving the ability of independent innovation to promote their high-quality development.

2.1 Accounting information reliability and enterprise innovation input

Innovation is an important way for enterprises to gain long-term competitive advantage. Increasing innovation investment can help enterprises improve their core competitiveness, and sufficient cash flow is a necessary condition for enterprises to continue to promote innovation. Based on the assumption of rational investors, the interests of external investors will encourage investors to avoid high-risk projects. Since enterprise innovation is characterized by long cycle, large investment, high risk and not obvious short-term returns, investors will often adopt stricter loan conditions without adequate information, which further increases the financing cost of enterprises. Restrict the development of enterprise innovation activities. Research shows that the improvement of accounting information quality can reduce the financing constraints faced by enterprises and promote enterprise innovation.

The reliability of accounting information requires enterprises to confirm, measure and report on the basis of actual transactions or events to ensure that the content of accounting information is true and reliable. Accounting information reliability is a factor that information users attach great importance to. The impact of accounting information reliability on innovation input is mainly manifested in the following three aspects: First, corporate innovation causes the mismatch between income and expenditure in time, and managers may reduce innovation input for short-term performance. If accounting information is true and reliable, shareholders can accurately analyze financial statements and find that the decline in profits or performance is mainly due to the implementation of innovation activities, rather than the negligence of managers. The objective evaluation of shareholders helps to mobilize the enthusiasm of management to innovate. Secondly, the reliable accounting information of enterprises indicates that the internal control system of enterprises is sound, the financial management activities are standardized, and the internal fund management is scientific. Enterprises will have more surplus funds for their own innovation and development, which ensures the sustainability of innovation investment to a certain extent. Third, accounting information is an important measure for external investors to evaluate enterprises, and an important data resource for investors to predict the future development of enterprises and make reasonable investment decisions. Investors can use real data to evaluate enterprise innovation activities more objectively, which is conducive to enhancing investors' investment confidence, effectively easing the external financing constraints of enterprises, and ensuring the implementation of enterprises' independent innovation activities. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: Accounting information reliability plays a positive role in promoting enterprise innovation input.

2.2 Accounting information timeliness and enterprise innovation input

The timeliness of accounting information is one of the important characteristics of the quality of accounting information, which means that enterprises can publish accounting information within the specified time or the time required by users. Timely transmission of assets, financial performance, cash flow and other information in the capital market is conducive to the expansion of corporate influence.

First of all, the initial contact of enterprise accounting information is internal managers, and external investors are in a weak position, so they can not timely and effectively understand the business situation of enterprises, which increases the risk of enterprise decision-making. Therefore, the timeliness of accounting information can help external information users quickly and effectively understand the specific situation of enterprises, alleviate their vulnerable position, reduce enterprise investment risks, and win more external financial support for enterprises to carry out independent innovation. Secondly, the value of enterprise accounting information is positively correlated with time. The faster investors can get their accounting information, it will help enterprises to improve their reputation, reduce investor acquisition costs and reduce financing costs. Third, according to Chinese laws and regulations, the annual report of listed enterprises in the following year within 4 months of disclosure, such a broad time is easy to cause corporate financial fraud, so timely and effective accounting information can enhance the influence of the enterprise itself. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2: The timeliness of accounting information plays a positive role in promoting enterprise innovation input.

2.3 Accounting information relevance and enterprise innovation input

The relevance of accounting information means that enterprises fully consider the needs of the users of accounting information and provide accounting information and financial accounting reports related to the users' economic decisions. The separation of the two rights of modern enterprises and the agency conflict caused by the principal-agent relationship will aggravate the degree of information asymmetry. The relevance of accounting information is helpful to solve the problem of information asymmetry and agency conflict, promote the enterprise to optimize the governance structure, and alleviate the concerns of investors.

For investors, the stronger the accounting relevance of an enterprise, the more beneficial it is for them to obtain more effective information, so as to objectively evaluate the enterprise's past financial performance and predict its future financial situation and business performance.

For creditors, the strength of enterprise accounting relevance will directly affect their concerns about enterprise risks. When enterprise accounting relevance is weak, enterprises' independent innovation activities with high risk are still adopted, which will aggravate the difficulty of creditors' approval of enterprise loans, increase the financing constraints of enterprises, and not conducive to enterprise innovation input. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H3: Accounting information relevance plays a positive role in promoting enterprise innovation input.

2.4 Accounting information prudence and firm innovation input

Under the principle of prudence, there is a certain time difference in the recognition of revenues and expenses of enterprises. The timely and delayed recognition of losses will lead to the underestimation of corporate profits, and it is difficult to reach the expected profits of investors. Therefore, enterprise managers tend to be more inclined to short-term investment and give up long-term enterprise innovation activities for the sake of enterprise performance. Moreover, since the salaries of enterprise managers mostly depend on enterprise operation conditions, the loss and income of operating profits will have a great impact on the personal income of enterprise managers. Based on the principle of prudence, enterprise managers will try their best to avoid the research and development of high-risk innovation projects, and reduce the investment ratio of enterprise innovation and inhibit enterprise innovation, so as to improve the short-term profits of enterprises. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H4: Accounting information prudence has an inhibitory effect on enterprise innovation input.

2.5 Accounting information comparability and firm innovation input

Enterprise innovation essentially belongs to enterprise investment behavior, which is affected by the quality of accounting information. The comparability of accounting information is an important component of accounting information, which can make each enterprise similar to the project and different project differences, and also enable external investors to compare the key indicators of the enterprise's financial condition, operating performance, cash flow, etc., deepen the external investors' understanding of the enterprise's operating status, reduce the investors' vigilance, and effectively link the financing constraints of enterprises. Corporate managers basically carry out corporate operation and management activities in accordance with shareholders' consciousness and objectives. Under certain circumstances, shareholders and managers can easily form a situation of inconsistency due to the difference in equity distribution, and corporate managers may damage corporate value due to their personal interests. For enterprise innovation behavior, the income obtained by enterprise managers is not proportional to the energy invested, resulting in the low enthusiasm of managers for enterprise innovation. The horizontal comparison of accounting information makes it possible for enterprises to adopt the relative performance evaluation method. Clear performance standards increase the stable behavior cost of managers and promote managers to carry out innovation. Therefore, the comparability of accounting information helps to ensure the sustainability of enterprises' innovation input. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H5: Accounting information comparability plays a positive role in promoting enterprise innovation input.

2.6 The moderating effect of financing constraints

Financing constraints will directly affect the production and operation of enterprises, and enterprise innovation needs a lot of human resources and financial support. The stronger the financing constraints of enterprises, the higher the risk of enterprise innovation they face, and the lower the sustainability. Therefore, the higher the reliability of accounting information, reflects the enterprise internal control is more standardized, scientific fund management. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H6: The stronger the financing constraint, the weaker the promoting effect of accounting information reliability on enterprise innovation input.

Innovation research and development results are the core secrets of enterprises. In order to prevent leaks as much as possible, enterprises are reluctant to disclose innovative information to the market. External investors will analyze the accounting information of enterprises before investment, and the hidden data of enterprises will lead to large capital consumption in data collection. As for enterprises, the higher the financing constraints they are under, the more urgent it will be for them to acquire funds to alleviate their survival problems. Therefore, even if they receive financial support from investors, they will not be optimistic about the utilization of corporate innovation. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H7: The stronger the financing constraint, the weaker the promoting effect of timeliness of accounting information on enterprise innovation input.

H8: The stronger the financing constraint, the weaker the promoting effect of accounting information correlation on enterprise innovation input.

H9: The stronger the financing constraint, the stronger the restraint of accounting information prudence on enterprise innovation input.

The comparable performance of accounting information can promote enterprise R&D innovation by easing financing constraints. The higher the financing constraints, the more obvious the promoting effect of comparability. However, if there is no restriction on enterprise financing, the comparability space of colleagues who have a lot of funds will be compressed. Therefore, higher comparability of accounting information alleviates the concerns of external investors and enables enterprises to obtain funds for R&D innovation at a lower cost. Based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H10: The stronger the financing constraint, the stronger the promoting effect of accounting information comparability on enterprise innovation input.

3.1 Research model

In order to study the relationship between accounting information quality and enterprise innovation input, hypotheses 1 to 5 are verified, with innovation input as the explained variable and accounting information quality as the explanatory variable. Five types of accounting information quality requirements including reliability, timeliness, relevance, prudence and comparability of accounting information are selected for empirical research, and model (1) is constructed:

$$Rd={\alpha }_{0}+{\alpha }_{1}Quality({x}_{1},{x}_{2},{x}_{3},{x}_{4},{x}_{5})+{\alpha }_{2}Size+{\alpha }_{3}Lev+{\alpha }_{4}Roa+{\alpha }_{5}Growtℎ$$

$+{\alpha }_{6}First+\sum Year+\epsilon$ (3 − 1)

In order to verify the moderating effect of financing constraints on accounting information quality and enterprise innovation input, (3 − 2) is constructed on the basis of (3 − 1) :

$$Rd={\alpha }_{0}+{\alpha }_{1}Quality({x}_{1},{x}_{2},{x}_{3},{x}_{4},{x}_{5})+{\alpha }_{2}Fc+{\alpha }_{3}Quality({x}_{1},{x}_{2},{x}_{3},{x}_{4},{x}_{5})\ast Fc$$

$+{\alpha }_{4}Size+{\alpha }_{5}Lev+{\alpha }_{6}Roa+{\alpha }_{7}Growtℎ+{\alpha }_{8}First+\sum Year+\epsilon$ (3 − 2)

3.2 Quantitative definition and description

Table 3-1

Quantitative definition and description
Variable type	Variable name	Variable specification
Interpreted Variable	Innovation input	R&d investment/total assets
Interpreted Variable	Reliability	When the audit opinion is a standard unqualified opinion, X1 = 1; Otherwise X1 is equal to 0.
Explaining Variable	Timeliness	The actual calendar days between the actual disclosure date of the annual report and the end date of the previous fiscal year during the reporting period
	Correlation	Return on equity/risk-free return
	Prudence	Standard deviation of EBIT/total beginning assets
	Comparability	Formula to calculate: 4−3${Comp}_{ijt}=-\frac{1}{4}\times \sum _{t-3}^{t}E\left({Earnings}_{iit}\right)$ $-E\left({Earnings}_{iit}\right)$ 4–4$E\left({Earnings}_{iit}\right)={\alpha }_{i}^{\wedge }+{\beta }_{i}^{\wedge }\times {return}_{it}$ 4–5${Earnings}_{it}={\alpha }_{i}+{\beta }_{i}\times {return}_{it}+{\epsilon }_{it}$
Regulating variable	Financing constraint	SA Index
	Enterprise scale	In (Total assets)
	Asset-liability ratio	Total liabilities/total assets
Control variable	Net interest rate on total assets	Net profit/average total assets
	Revenue growth rate	Revenue growth/last year's revenue
	Ownership concentration	Shareholding ratio of the largest shareholder
	Year	Dummy variable

3.3 Sample description and data sources

The research object of this paper is A private enterprise listed in Shenzhen Stock Market. According to the information disclosure of enterprise R&D, the data from 2017 to 2021 is selected as the sample period. Data were analyzed and sorted according to the following criteria:

(1) If ST and ST* listed enterprises are excluded, related enterprises are faced with the possibility of delisting, and the financial data lacks authenticity.

(2) Excluding all financial enterprises, the accounting treatment of relevant enterprises is quite different from that of other industries, and the financial data is not comparable.

(3) Enterprises listed in the first year and those with missing data and different observed values are excluded.

After the above data screening and adjustment, 788 enterprises with a total of 3940 annual sample observed values were obtained. The sample data involved in the study were mainly from CSMAR database and Jutide Information network, and the data processing software was Excel 2010 and Stata16.0.

4.1 Descriptive analysis

Descriptive statistics are helpful to better understand the basic characteristics of samples. The results are shown in Table 4 − 1:

Table 4-1

Descriptive statistics of variables
Variable name	Variable symbol	Average value	Standard deviation	Coefficient of standard deviation	Minimum value	Median	Maximum value
Innovation input	Rd	0.025	0.018	0.720	0.000	0.021	0.186
Reliability	X₁	0.971	0.169	0.174	0.000	1.000	1.000
Timeliness	X₂	102.879	18.577	0.181	17.000	110.000	182.000
Correlation	X₃	0.566	0.708	1.251	0.000	0.000	2.000
Prudence	X₄	0.063	0.116	1.841	0.003	0.033	3.496
Comparability	X₅	−0.003	0.003	−1.000	−0.023	−0.002	−0.001
Financing constraint	Fc	−3.781	0.210	0.056	−4.802	−3.766	−3.098
Enterprise scale	Size	22.016	0.922	0.042	19.025	21.936	26.434
Asset-liability ratio	Lev	0.368	0.199	0.541	0.017	0.354	4.596
Net interest rate on total assets	Roa	0.037	0.092	2.486	−1.859	0.042	0.675
Revenue growth rate	Growth	0.276	1.988	7.203	−0.913	0.135	84.992
Ownership concentration	First	0.302	0.126	0.417	0.053	0.286	0.769

Through descriptive analysis statistics, we can know that the minimum value of innovation input is 0, the maximum value is 0.186, and the average value is 0.025, indicating that Chinese listed private enterprises have obvious differences in innovation input. For the reliability data of accounting information, the mean value is 0.971, the maximum value is 1, and the median value is 1, indicating that the accounting information of enterprises is relatively reliable during 2017–2021. In terms of the timeliness of accounting information, the mean value is 103.879 and the standard deviation is 0.181, indicating that there is a small difference in the timing of accounting information disclosure of listed private enterprises. In the correlation of the average value of 0.566 accounting information shows that the listed private enterprises in China are poor, have certain room for improvement; In the data of accounting information prudence and comparability, it shows that there is no unified standard in the enterprise innovation of Chinese listed private enterprises, and the importance of accounting information prudence is different. According to financing constraint data, there are corresponding problems in listed private enterprises in China.

For the control variables, according to the standard deviation of 0.042 of enterprise size data, the volume gap between Chinese listed private enterprises is small and the scale is close. In addition to some anomalies in the asset-liability ratio, the debt ratio of the sample companies is concentrated and high; The revenue growth rate and total assets data show that the revenue capacity of each enterprise varies, but the situation is all in a good state; In terms of ownership concentration, Chinese listed private enterprises have a high concentration of ownership, with the maximum value being 76.9%, indicating a large difference in distribution ratio.

4.2 Analysis of regression results

1. Analysis of main test results

The explained variable of this analysis is innovation input, and the explanatory variable is 5 accounting information quality requirements. The fixed-effect model is adopted to explore the influence of accounting information quality on enterprise innovation input. The results of the main test regression are shown in Table 4-2.1.

Table 4-2

Descriptive statistics of variables
Explaining Variable	Innovation input
Explaining Variable	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
X₁	0.0023** (2.57)
X₂		-0.0005 (-0.68)
X₃			0.0008*** (2.62)
X₄				-0.0006*** (-2.78)
X₅					0.0047 (0.26)
Size	-0.0056*** (-11.59)	-0.0055*** (-11.32)	-0.0055*** (-11.34)	-0.0067*** (-10.63)	-0.0056*** (-11.46)
Lev	-0.0035*** (-2.83)	-0.0038*** (-3.05)	-0.0043*** (-3.41)	-0.0031** (-2.40)	-0.0038*** (-3.04)
Roa	-0.0062*** (-3.29)	-0.0055*** (-2.95)	-0.0075*** (-3.71)	-0.0049*** (-2.60)	-0.0054*** (-2.89)
Growth	-0.0002*** (2.88)	0.0002*** (2.87)	0.0002*** (2.68)	0.0002** (2.40)	0.0002*** (2.86)
First	-0.0092** (-2.47)	-0.0091** (-2.44)	-0.0089** (-2.39)	-0.0099*** (-2.65)	-0.0090** (-2.42)
cons	0.1480*** (13.84)	0.1504*** (13.77)	0.1474*** (13.78)	0.1735*** (12.50)	0.1490*** (13.92)
Year	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control
N	3940	3940	3940	3940	3940
R²	0.1289	0.1272	0.129	0.1292	0.1271
F值	26.41	26.32	25.73	26.44	26.2
Note: * means relevant at 1% level, means relevant at 5% level, * means relevant at 10% level.

Model 1 examines the impact of accounting information reliability on enterprise innovation input. According to the results, the reliability coefficient is positive at 5%, so it has a positive influence, and hypothesis H1 can be verified. The higher the reliability of accounting information, the healthier the enterprise finance, the better the enterprise will get investment and internal innovation input.

Model 2 examines the influence of timeliness of accounting information on innovation input. Time delay coefficient is -0.0005, and timeliness is positively correlated with innovation input, but the relationship is not obvious. There is little correlation between the timeliness of accounting information and innovation input because there is little difference between accounting information disclosure time of each enterprise.

Model 3 examines the influence of accounting information relevance on enterprise innovation input. According to the results, the correlation coefficient is positive at 1%, so it has a positive influence, and hypothesis H3 can be verified. The higher the relevance of accounting information is, the higher the possibility of investment will be, and the smaller the financing constraints will be.

Model 4 examines the influence of accounting information prudence on innovation input. According to the results, the caution coefficient is negative at 1%, so it has a negative effect. Caution prevents enterprises from further investment in innovation, and hypothesis H4 can be verified.

Model 5 examines the impact of accounting information comparability on firms' innovation input. As shown by the regression coefficient of 0.0047, there is a positive correlation between comparability and innovation input, but the relationship is not obvious. The higher the comparability of the accounting information of enterprises, the external investors can compare the business performance of enterprises with other areas of external enterprises. However, the short-term situation of some enterprise managers will lead to the increase of performance competition pressure faced by enterprises. If investors pay more attention to tangible asset investment behavior, enterprise managers may pay more attention to such investment behavior, which will have a negative impact on enterprise innovation input.

2. Analysis of the test results of the moderating effect of financing constraints

Since the comparability and timeliness of accounting information may not have an obvious relationship with innovation input of enterprises, based on this, this analysis further studies the moderating effects of financing constraints on reliability, prudence and relevance and innovation input.

Table 4-3

Test results of the moderating effect of financing constraints
Explaining Variable	Innovation input
Explaining Variable	Model 6	Model 7	Model 8
X₁	0.0027*** (2.96)
X₁*Fc	-0.0010** (-2.41)
X₃		0.0008*** (2.87)
X₃*Fc		-0.0004*** (-3.74)
X₄			-0.0058*** (-2.68)
X₄*Fc			0.0013** (2.35)
Fc	0.0010** (2.38)	0.0002** (2.19)	-0.0001 (-1.02)
Size	-0.0057*** (-11.65)	-0.0055*** (-11.35)	-0.0067*** (-10.60)
Lev	-0.0035*** (-2.79)	-0.0044*** (-3.48)	-0.0031** (-2.43)
Roa	-0.0063*** (-3.33)	-0.0075*** (-3.71)	-0.0049*** (-2.59)
Growth	0.0002*** (2.93)	0.0002*** (2.65)	0.0002** (2.38)
First	-0.0092** (-2.48)	-0.0087** (-2.33)	-0.0103*** (-2.76)
cons	0.1483*** (13.88)	0.1472*** (13.79)	0.1732*** (12.48)
Year	Control	Control	Control
N	3940	3940	3940
R²	0.1305	0.1328	0.1307
F值	26.45	25.83	26.48
Note: * means relevant at 1% level, means relevant at 5% level, * means relevant at 10% level.

Model 6 examines the moderating effect of financing constraints on accounting information reliability and firm innovation input. As shown in the data results, X1*Fc coefficient is negative, indicating that the smaller the constraint of financing constraints on enterprises, the higher the innovation input of enterprises, which has a negative correlation promoting effect, and H6 can be verified.

Model 7 examines the moderating effect of financing constraints on accounting information relevance and firm innovation input. As shown in the data results, X3*Fc coefficient is negative, indicating that the stronger the constraint of financing constraints on enterprises, the weaker the innovation input of enterprises, with negative correlation and negative effect, H8 can be verified.

Model 8 examines the moderating effect of financing constraints on accounting information prudence and firm innovation input. According to the data results, X4*Fc coefficient is positive, which indicates that financing constraints inhibit enterprise innovation input, contrary to hypothesis H9. The reasons may lie in: The lower the financing constraint, the higher the degree of capital control of enterprises, and will reduce unnecessary expenditure, improve the utilization rate of innovation resources, reduce long-term R&D innovation, transfer limited innovation resources to short-term advantageous projects, reduce the investment risk and internal pressure of enterprise managers, reduce their short-term behavior, so as to reduce the inhibition effect of accounting information prudence on enterprise innovation input.

4.3 Robustness test

In order to prove the correctness of the experimental results, the sample data are further expanded to the A-share private enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets, and the results are shown in Table <link rid="tb6">4</link>–4.

Table 4-4

Robustness test of main effect
Explaining Variable	Innovation input
Explaining Variable	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
X₁	0.0024*** (3.12)
X₂		-0.0006 (-0.97)
X₃			0.0009*** (3.72)
X₄				-0.0049*** (-2.74)
X₅					0.0020 (0.12)
Size	-0.0052*** (-12.02)	-0.0050*** (-11.68)	-0.0050*** (-11.79)	-0.0061*** (-10.76)	-0.0050*** (-11.45)
Lev	-0.0035*** (-2.99)	-0.0037*** (-3.16)	-0.0043*** (-3.63)	-0.0030** (-2.52)	-0.0037*** (-3.09)
Roa	-0.0075*** (-4.22)	-0.0068*** (-3.86)	-0.0095*** (-4.98)	-0.0062*** (-3.56)	-0.0071*** (-3.97)
Growth	0.0000 (1.31)	0.0000 (1.25)	0.0000 (1.11)	0.0000 (0.97)	0.0000 (1.26)
First	-0.0051 (-1.55)	-0.0050 (-1.54)	-0.0049 (-1.51)	-0.0060* (-1.83)	-0.0060* (-1.75)
cons	0.1361*** (14.38)	0.1385*** (14.31)	0.1357*** (14.35)	0.1591*** (12.68)	0.1365*** (14.05)
Year	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control
N	4980	4980	4980	4980	4980
R²	0.1229	0.1209	0.1238	0.1224	0.122
F值	34.61	34.42	33.68	34.59	34.6
Note: * means relevant at 1% level, means relevant at 5% level, * means relevant at 10% level.

According to the data in Table <link rid="tb6">4</link>–4, the reliability, relevance and caution of accounting information are still consistent with the coefficient values in Table 4 − 2 after the expansion of sample data. Therefore, the timeliness and comparability of accounting information are not correlated with innovation input, which is consistent with the conclusion of the coefficient values in Table 4 − 2. This analysis passes the test.

Table 4-5

Robustness test of the moderating effect of financing constraints
Explaining Variable	Innovation input
Explaining Variable	Model 6	Model 7	Model 8
X₁	0.0028*** (3.57)
X₁*Fc	0.0009** (-2.55)
X₃		0.0010*** (3.95)
X₃*Fc		0.0003*** (-3.11)
X₄			0.0055*** (-3.03)
X₄*Fc			0.0010* (1.94)
Fc	0.0009*** (2.64)	0.0002** (2.37)	0.0000 (-0.23)
Size	0.0052*** (-12.07)	0.0050*** (-11.79)	0.0061 (-10.85)
Lev	0.0034*** (-2.92)	0.0043*** (-3.67)	0.0030*** (-2.50)
Roa	0.0075*** (-4.23)	0.0095*** (-4.97)	0.0062*** (-3.52)
Growth	0.0000 (1.33)	0.0000 (1.09)	0.0000 (0.97)
First	0.0049 (-1.51)	0.0047 (-1.45)	0.0061* (-1.85)
cons	0.1360*** (14.38)	0.1355*** (14.35)	0.1604*** (12.76)
Year	Control	Control	Control
N	4980	4980	4980
R²	0.1244	0.126	0.1233
F值	34.64	33.72	34.59
Note: * means relevant at 1% level, means relevant at 5% level, * means relevant at 10% level.

As shown in the data in Table <link rid="tb6">4</link>–4, the reliability, relevance and caution of accounting information are still consistent with the coefficients in Table 4 − 3 after the expansion of sample data. Therefore, the reliability, relevance and caution of accounting information are correlated with innovation input, which is consistent with the conclusions of the coefficients in Table 4 − 3. This analysis passes the test.

5.1 Research Conclusions

Based on the theoretical basis, this paper uses A-share listed private enterprises in Shenzhen Stock Market from 2017 to 2021 as data samples to study the impact of enterprise accounting information quality and financing constraints on innovation input, and draws the following conclusions: First, the reliability of accounting information has A positive role in promoting enterprise innovation input. The higher the reliability of accounting information, the more perfect the financial data management of enterprises, the more likely enterprises to obtain external investment, and sufficient cash flow can provide absolute guarantee for enterprises' innovation activities. Secondly, the timeliness of accounting information plays a positive role in promoting enterprises' innovation input. The separation of the two rights of modern enterprises and the agency conflict caused by the principal-agent relationship will aggravate the degree of information asymmetry. The relevance of accounting information is helpful to solve the problem of information asymmetry and agency conflict, promote the enterprise to optimize the governance structure, and alleviate the concerns of investors. Third, accounting information prudence has an inhibitory effect on enterprise innovation input. For business performance, business managers tend to prefer short-term investment and give up long-term enterprise innovation activities. In addition, since the salaries of business managers mostly depend on the operating conditions of enterprises, the loss and income of business profits will have a great impact on the personal income of business managers. At the same time, enterprise managers will choose to reduce innovation input and inhibit enterprise innovation to improve short-term earnings. Fourth, financing constraints will weaken the relevance, reliability and prudence of accounting information. The higher the financing constraint, the more difficult it is for enterprises to continue to carry out innovation activities. Even if enterprises receive financial support from external investment, managers will give priority to investment in projects conducive to enterprise development.

5.2 Suggestions

(1) Government management level

We should improve the accounting standards, summarize and analyze the accounting information management cases of enterprises in the market, and develop a highly normative system suitable for the current market environment. At the same time, relevant laws and regulations should be improved, and effective supervision and management should be carried out to guarantee the protection of intellectual property derived from enterprise innovation input and other policies that can improve enterprise innovation input, so as to ensure the rational implementation of enterprise innovation input activities. Secondly, the demand for capital will continue to increase in the development process of enterprises. The government should expand the financing channels of enterprises, strengthen the guidance of banks to enterprises, encourage them to provide more suitable financing methods for enterprises, and provide comprehensive support for enterprises to innovate investment and alleviate financing constraints.

(2) Enterprise management level

We should pay attention to and improve the quality of accounting information, and increase the proportion of investment in innovation. We need to establish and improve the internal management process of enterprises to ensure the authenticity and reliability of accounting information. At the same time, enterprises should attach importance to accounting information disclosure, ensure the transparency of accounting information, so that enterprises can occupy a favorable position in the internal and external investment environment, and avoid the negative impact of financing constraints on enterprises. Secondly, enterprises also need to improve their financing capacity, strengthen systematic management of corporate funds, and improve corporate credibility to attract external investors and ensure the stability of their funds.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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The impact of accounting information quality and financing constraints on innovation input of Chinese private enterprises

Status:

Version 1

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. Research hypothesis