The impact of R&D investment on the new orders received by the shipbuilding enterprises under the background of innovation-driven development

ABSTRACT

Using the panel data of listed shipbuilding enterprises from 2010 to 2021 all over the world, this paper empirically studies the impact of Research & Development investment on new orders received by shipbuilding enterprises using the panel fixed effect model and the threshold regression model. The results show that R&D investment has a positive impact on the new order of high-tech and high-value-added ships in shipbuilding enterprises. R&D investment has a time lag effect on the new orders and a non-linear relationship with the newly received orders. The 1-year lagged R&D investment has a single threshold effect on the newly received orders of liquid tankers. When the R&D investment intensity exceeds the threshold, the positive impact on the newly received orders is weakened. To be specific, when the excessive R&D investment intensity does not match the scientific research capacity of shipbuilding enterprises, enterprise resources will be mismatched. Therefore, shipbuilding enterprises should increase their investment in R&D if they want to build more high-tech and high-value-added ships. At the same time, enterprises should also pay attention not to blindly strengthen the R&D investment, but to keep it within a reasonable range, so that resources can be allocated appropriately.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 42176217], [grant number 71701127]

Notes on contributors

Yanhui Chen

Dr. Yanhui Chen obtained her Ph.D. in the Department of Management Sciences from the City University of Hong Kong. She is an associate professor in the School of Economics and Management at Shanghai Maritime University. Her research interests include financial time series analysis and shipping economics.

Mengmeng Ma

Mengmeng Ma is a postgraduate student in the School of Economics and Management at Shanghai Maritime University, majoring in shipping finance. Her research interest is shipping economics.

Jackson Jinhong Mi

Prof. Jackson Jinhong Mi is a Professor of Maritime Finance and doctoral supervisor in School of Economics and Management at the Shanghai Maritime University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Postdoc in Data Science from Fudan University. His teaching and research interests include the combination of Finance and Maritime Economics as well as structural equation modelling and machine learning.