R&D Subsidies, Organizational Life-cycle and the Usage of Novel Knowledge

In the research and development process, there may be two types of behaviors: purely pursuing the number of patent application without applying new knowledge, and trying to introduce novel knowledge into the technology portfolio of patent application. What is the impact of public R&D subsidy on these two kinds of firms’ behaviors at different stages of the organizational life cycle; and whether there are differences in the impact of different forms of public R&D subsidy, these problems are lacking relevant research. Through the empirical analysis of panel data of a group of renewable energy technology manufacturing firms in Jiangsu Province from 2010 to 2014, we find that direct R&D grants significantly promote patent application volume of firms in the growth and decline period; R&D subsidized loans have a significant positive impact on patent application volume of firms in the maturity stage; regardless of the forms of public R&D subsidies, no significant impact is detected on the new knowledge utilization behavior of renewable energy manufacturing firms. Yet, direct R&D grants significantly inhibit firms at decline stage from using new knowledge to innovate.