Effects of financing behavior on the innovation performance of new energy firms

The new energy industry is becoming increasingly important, and its sustainable development requires continuous innovation, not least because large capital investments are necessary for such innovation. Studying the impact of different financing behaviors on the innovation performance of new energy firms is thus of great significance. Using data from 128 A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2021, this paper adopts a negative binomial regression model and classifies financing behavior into government subsidies, internal financing, equity financing, and debt financing. The impact of different financing behaviors on the innovation performance of new energy firms is then quantitatively analyzed. The findings indicate that government subsidies and internal financing significantly enhance the innovation performance of new energy firms, whereas equity financing has a significant negative effect and debt financing has no significant effect. Research and development (R&D) investment and the number of R&D personnel mediate the effect of financing behavior on innovation performance. This paper also classifies new energy firms into four major categories for subgroup regression and makes recommendations to support their innovation development.