국내 애널리스트의 커버리지와 상장사 R&D 활동의 관계 검증

The purpose of this study is to verify the effects of analysts’ coverage on the R&D activities of the companies. This article is of great significance in that it is the first empirical study on such a causal relationship in Korea. We show that the empirical results are slightly different from those of U.S. cases due to the economic and financial structural differences. We find that the analyst’s coverage has an aspect that promotes some of the R&D activities. Based on previous literature studies, the influence of analysts is quantified by the number of reports related to listed companies and the number of patents granted for innovation by companies. This study uses FnGuide’s domestic analyst’s coverage data (2003～2013) and domestic patent data (2003～2013) provided by the patent information net Cyprice. With a fixed effect panel data model, a positive and meaningful relationship was drawn between the analyst’s coverage and the number of company patents. Meanwhile, in order to solve the endogenous problem of the two main indicators, an analysis using an instrumental variable was added. Unlike He and Tian (2013)’s findings on the US cases, we report a positive causal relationship between the two variables, which, we believe, may stem from the fact that shareholders in Korea are less influential and M&A risk is lower than the US market. Moreover, since Korean analysts mostly reports buying calls, Korean companies may pay more attention to R&D rather than restrict themselves to short term performances. We hope that the logical verification of the R&D investment-related management’s decision-making will be added, expanding to follow-up research that identifies the causal relationship between analysts and corporate innovation.