题目：Drinking More, Innovating More … But Less Innovative: A study of local drinking culture, government R&D subsidies, and firm patenting behavior in China
时间：2019年5月24日 13:30-15:00
地点：商学院武东路校区106
主讲人：Danqing Wang, Assistant Professor, University of Hong Kong
摘要：Prior studies on innovation activities in emerging economies have centered on institutional, governance and resource explanations, but less explored is how local culture shapes the way firms obtain innovation resources and produce innovation outputs. We hypothesize that local drinking culture, by influencing the granting of government subsidies on innovation and related firm incentives, may cause low efficiency in innovation in the context of China. We argue that the prevalence of a local drinking culture shapes government officials’ willingness to engage frequently and legitimately in informal networking occasions with firms, and also creates a path dependency for firms to rely on informal networking for gaining information and trust from officials. Hence firms located in regions with heavier drinking culture have higher probability of government approval of R&D subsidies. Nonetheless, firms immersed in a heavier drinking culture will file more patents that are less innovative (i.e., falling into the category of the “utility” as opposed to “inventions”), because the drinking culture promotes hedonism and short-termism, and prioritizes relationship-building, reducing firms’ incentives of engaging in true technological innovations.
We further show how such effects of the drinking culture vary by the region’s legal development, firm’s political connection, as well as its technological capabilities. This study contributes to the innovation literature by providing a culture-based explanation to account for the low efficiency of innovation in one of the largest emerging economies. We also discuss the implications of the impact of culture on business activities and the substitution effect between formal institutions and culture.
主讲人简介：Danqing is an assistant professor in Management and Strategy area at the University of Hong Kong, starting from Jul 2014. She obtained her Ph.D. in management from INSEAD, France. Her research focuses on state-firm interactions and firms’ non-market strategies in emerging economies. Her work is forthcoming at Administrative Science Quarterly, and has appeared at Academy of Management Journal. At HKU, she teaches China Business Environment to MBAs and undergraduates. She is currently serving on the editorial board of Administrative Science Quarterly and Management and Organization Review. She is the recipient of the WAIB emerging woman scholar award for 2018 and has also received the Faculty Outstanding Teacher award in 2018 at HKU.
