Effect of R&D Subsidies on External Collaborative Networks and the Sustainable Innovation Performance of Strategic Emerging Enterprises: Evidence from China

Building external collaboration networks is key to the sustainable innovation performance of strategic emerging industries (SEIs) in the context of open innovation. R&D subsidy policies in China are typically designed to support R&D investment, though the question remains whether this policy tool can stimulate sustainable innovation performance by building external collaborative networks for enterprises. At present, few studies discuss the behavioral additionality of subsidies in the context of emerging economies, and relevant studies are mainly conducted from the single perspective of input additionality. This paper integrates the input, output, and behavioral additionality of R&D subsidies into the same framework and investigates the relationships among R&D subsidies, external collaborative networks, R&D investment, and the sustainable innovation performance of strategic emerging enterprises (SEEs) among Chinese SEIs listed enterprises in 2010–2019, mainly using the panel fixed effects regression model. The results show that R&D subsidies in China promote sustainable innovation performance and that this effect is mediated by external collaborative networks and R&D investment. Additionally, R&D subsidies negatively moderate the indirect effect of external collaborative networks on sustainable innovation performance, and the moderating effects of R&D subsidies under heterogeneous samples differ in sign, statistical significance, and impact magnitude. Based on the conclusions, policy-makers must comprehensively consider the multiple effects of R&D subsidies, develop more sophisticated policy tools for network coordination, and implement differentiated subsidy policies to align with open innovation in the future