Corporate Financing Constraints, Working Capital Management, and Corporate Investment—An Analysis Based on Manufacturing Industry Data of A-share Listed Companie

 The paper selects 11 years of data from A-share listed companies in China from 2001 to 2021 as the research sample, with a focus on the manufacturing industry. The aim is to analyze the relationship between financing constraints, working capital management, and corporate innovation activities, intending to explain the reasons for the continuous increase in innovation activities by Chinese companies from the end of the last century to the present. Due to the high adjustment costs and unstable financing sources restricting corporate innovation activities, this paper particularly examines the role of working capital in alleviating innovation constraints. The research reveals that working capital plays a significant role in buffering fluctuations in corporate innovation investments, and this effect is closely related to the degree of financing constraints faced by the companies.