Equity incentive characteristics, industry life cycle and corporate innovation

Taking the industry life cycle as a perspective, this paper selects A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2016 to 2022 as a sample to explore the impact of listed companies' equity incentive characteristics on the level of corporate innovation. It is found that: incentive characteristics have a significant impact on corporate innovation investment, and stock options promote R&D investment more obviously than restricted stocks; stock options promote corporate innovation investment level only in growing and mature industries; in the mature period of the industry, equity incentives of growing companies have a positive role in promoting innovation investment.