Research, innovation, and bankruptcy: evidence from European manufacturing firms

Abstract

Abstract This paper investigates the effects of R&D and innovation activities of firms on the risk of bankruptcy. The analysis is carried out on data drawn from the EU-EFIGE Survey and Amadeus Database (Bureau Van Dijk) on European manufacturing firms over the years 2009–2014. The empirical evidence shows that default probability is increasing in R&D investments and decreasing in innovation and productivity of research, measured by the ratio of innovation revenues to R&D outlays. In addition, to disentangle the influence of different innovation strategies (product, process, and patenting), 16 different firm profiles are compared. Firms carrying out R&D, adopting process innovation, and filing for patents are found to show the lowest probability of default. Sensitivity checks indicate that research and innovation do not affect the risk of financial distress events short of default (such as reorganization or application for insolvency procedure). Our findings are robust to potential endogeneity and hence allow for causal inference about the relationship between research and innovation and corporate bankruptcy.