Substantial innovation or strategic innovation? The impact of government venture capital guidance funds on corporate innovation

Abstract Based on a dual‐differential model of the number of patent applications issued by A‐share enterprises from 2014 to 2019, this article analyzes impact of Venture Capital (VC) guided by government on company's innovation and their internal mechanisms. The results show that the number of patent applications increases after enterprises are invested directly or indirectly by the government guiding fund, indicating that this kind of VC has a positive guidance on enterprise innovation. However, after further studying by subdividing patent types, it is found that enterprises pay less attention to invention patents, which hold higher technical requirements, and focus on “quantity” rather than “quality” in patent applications. This result also reflects that the investment of VC guided by government promotes the overall enterprise innovation, but the positive effect on the innovation quality is not significant. Our article not only affirms the positive influence of VC guided by government on enterprise innovation, but also puts forward some suggestions on the management of government guiding fund.