The implications of debt heterogeneity for R&D investment and firm performance

An assumption in prior research is that debt is homogeneous and provides inappropriate governance for R&D investments. We argue that debt is heterogeneous: although transactional debt does indeed impose strict contractual constraints that provide inappropriate governance for R&D investments,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: DAVID, Parthiban, O'Brien, Jonathan P., YOSHIKAWA, Toru
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2008
Subjects:
US
Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/2909
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/3908/viewcontent/AMJ08.pdf
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Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
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Summary:An assumption in prior research is that debt is homogeneous and provides inappropriate governance for R&D investments. We argue that debt is heterogeneous: although transactional debt does indeed impose strict contractual constraints that provide inappropriate governance for R&D investments, relational debt has very different characteristics that provide more appropriate governance. Using a sample of Japanese firms, we find that firms that align their debt structures with their R&D investments perform better than those that are misaligned. Furthermore, firms tend to align their debt structure with R&D investments, but only after deregulation permits relatively free access to various types of debt.