Relationship between R&D subsidies and R&D collaboration in promoting firm innovation

As the innovation process becomes more complex, both R&D subsidies and R&D collaboration have gained importance in recent years. This study aims to reveal the relationship between R&D subsidy and R&D collaboration in promoting firm innovation. Based on the panel data of Chinese listed firms from 2015 to 2020, this study jointly uses the supermodularity test, the matching approach, and the inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) method to address the research question in-depth. Results show that R&D subsidies and R&D collaboration are substitutive in static terms but complementary in dynamic terms. In addition, the robustness tests further prove that the interactive effect of R&D subsidy and R&D collaboration is mainly manifested in firms with stronger absorptive capacity and higher financial constraints. These findings are instructive for firms’ strategic choices under the background of open innovation and have manifold policy implications for stimulating firm innovation.