Supplier innovativeness, supplier relationships, and enterprises' finance constraints

Abstract In this study, we adopt the perspective of supplier innovation and manually collect samples of enterprises and their suppliers listed on China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A‐shares markets from 2008 to 2021 to investigate whether supplier innovativeness affects enterprises' financing constraints. We find that supplier innovativeness can significantly alleviate enterprises' financing constraints; this effect is more significant when the relationship between enterprises and suppliers is more stable and their economic dependence is higher. The analysis of the mechanism of action reveals that supplier innovativeness can alleviate enterprises' financing constraints by enhancing their innovativeness. The heterogeneity analysis finds that the alleviation effect of supplier innovativeness on enterprises' financing constraints is more significant in nonstate‐owned enterprises. We examine the factors influencing enterprises' financing constraints from the unique perspective of supplier innovativeness, enrich the literature on financing constraints and provide new ideas for enterprise managers and policymakers.