By using the panel data of China’s high-tech listed companies in 2013-2018, this paper shows common funds as active institutional investors significantly promotes firms’ R&D investment. For every 10 percentage point increase of common fund ownership rate, high-tech firms’ R & D expense ratio and R & D staff ratio would increase respectively by and percentage points. The impact is greater in more technology-intensive companies. But institutional investors have no influence on firms’ innovation productivity measured by the number of patents gained per million R & D expenses. Further research suggests institutional investors affect high-tech firms’ innovation through two channels. | How do institutional investors swell firm innovation: Evidence from China’s high-tech companies
