Countering Involution: The Multiple Effects of Government R&D Subsidies on Corporate Innovation

Against the backdrop of intensifying “involution” across industries, exploring whether government R&D subsidies can effectively incentive corporate innovation and curb innovation involution holds significant practical importance. This study analyzes the multiple effects of R&D subsidies and their impact mechanisms on corporate innovation behavior, based on the theory of superior good characteristics of basic R&D. Through a full-sample empirical analysis of 655 listed companies on the STAR Market, the findings are as follows: Government R&D subsidies are not a direct cause of innovation involution; rather, they significantly impact innovation output by inducing R&D intensity. This conclusion is supported by multi-dimensional heterogeneity analysis and robustness tests using year as a moderating variable. The results also indicate that R&D subsidies simultaneously exhibit a resource effect and a crowding-out effect, with the resource effect being dominant. The study's conclusions provide a theoretical basis and practical reference for optimizing innovation policies, fostering a hard & core technology industrial ecosystem, and developing new quality productive forces.