Bank–Firm Common Ownership and Corporate Innovation Diffusion: Evidence from Risk-Buffering and Information-Risk Channels

Against the backdrop of China’s innovation-driven development strategy, innovation diffusion is a key stage through which firm-level innovation outcomes generate broader economic value. However, this process is often constrained by financing pressure, information asymmetry, and uncertainty in external evaluation. This study examines whether and how bank–firm common ownership, as an ownership-based financial linkage between banks and firms, affects corporate innovation diffusion. Using data on Chinese A-share non-financial listed companies from 2010 to 2023, this paper finds that bank–firm common ownership significantly promotes corporate innovation diffusion. The results remain robust after alternative variable measurements, a higher identification threshold for bank–firm common ownership, lagged explanatory variables, instrumental-variable estimation and propensity score matching. Further mechanism tests show that bank–firm common ownership promotes innovation diffusion mainly through two risk-related channels: liquidity-risk buffering and information-risk reduction. First, it improves firms’ access to commercial credit financing, thereby strengthening their liquidity-risk buffering capacity and helping them withstand financing pressure during the innovation diffusion process. Second, it improves firms’ information disclosure, thereby reducing information asymmetry and external evaluation uncertainty surrounding innovation activities. Further analysis shows that the positive effect of bank–firm common ownership on innovation diffusion is more pronounced among state-owned enterprises and firms with stronger market positions. This study enriches the literature on financial linkages and corporate innovation diffusion, and provides evidence on how bank–firm ownership ties can support innovation diffusion through liquidity-risk buffering and information-risk reduction.