TITLE:
The Impact of Debt Leverage on Corporate Innovation Resilience: An Empirical Study Based on the Internet Industry
AUTHORS:
Lu Jin, Min Li
KEYWORDS:
Debt Leverage, Innovation Resilience, Internet Industry, R&D Investment, Capital Structure
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.16 No.5,
May
21,
2026
ABSTRACT: Taking A-share listed Internet and related digital service enterprises as the research objects, this paper uses financial and R&D data from 25 listed companies over 2021-2025. Since IR and Growth are measured by growth rates requiring prior-year values, the final regression sample covers fiscal years 2022-2025, generating 100 firm-year observations. Corporate innovation resilience is measured by the growth rate of R&D expenses, debt leverage is measured by the asset-liability ratio, and firm size, profitability, and growth ability are controlled for. The results show that debt leverage is negatively associated with corporate innovation resilience, indicating that a higher debt level may exert pressure on enterprises’ continuous R&D investment. However, this effect does not show stable statistical significance in the sample. By contrast, corporate growth ability and firm size have a more pronounced effect on innovation resilience. The study suggests that Internet enterprises should reasonably control debt scale, optimize financing structure, and improve business growth ability and R&D investment efficiency in the process of enhancing innovation resilience.