Keywords
Equity incentives
Listed companies
R&D investment
Submitted : 2025-11-15
Accepted : 2025-11-30
Published : 2025-12-15
Abstract
The existing competitive market environment emphasizes the important role of innovation capability, and listed companies basically consider research and development (R&D) activities as the central route for value creation. The R&D process exhibits the dual characteristics of long cycles and high risks; at the same time, the professional managers who highly regarded R&D emphasize short-term performance criteria. The equity incentive system chains the motivations of managers to the long-term interests of the company through property rights ties. In theory, this mechanism could reduce principal-agent conflicts and foster an organization culture centered on entrepreneurship and innovation. Whether this institutional arrangement produces R&D investment to translate to actual improvement in performance is a real issue worthy of study.
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