Financial slack, institutional shareholding and enterprise innovation investment: evidence from China

This study examines how institutional shareholding affects the relationship between financial slack and corporate investment in innovation for Chinese A-share listed companies. We find that financial slack significantly increases corporate innovation investment. Pressure-resistant institutions do not moderate the relation but pressure-sensitive institutions do moderate the relation negatively. We further find that financial slack affects beneficially results because of the employment of slack resources after an exogenous negative shock like COVID-19/Global Financial Crisis. Our findings contribute to the literature on the cross-sectional variation on the relationship between companies' strategies and accounting choices in China.