**5. Implications**

This study makes several contributions to the academic literature and has managerial implications. First, this article investigates the impact of financial leverage on R&D investments from a new perspective. The previous literature explored the effect of financial leverage on R&D expenditure from the perspectives of transaction cost [7,14,23], agency theory [18,26], information asymmetry [19], and so forth. We adopted a theoretical view of the competitive behavior in the product market to re-examine the puzzle. This is the first time that this unique perspective has been considered in the academic literature.

Second, the prior literature mostly concentrated on the "static" relationship between the level of financial leverage and the level of R&D expenditure [20,42]. We provided the "dynamic" change value of these two variables. Our results show that firms successfully launch cross-listing to enhance debt financing for R&D funding compared with the period before cross-listing. This finding inspires the firms to be eager for R&D investment in a new viable path.

Finally, we analyzed this issue by using a unique sample: international businesses cross-listing in the U.S. stock market. Previous studies thought that firms make crosslistings to obtain more financial resources [4,27,28]. This research finds that cross-listing activities can positively improve the growth and value of firms. Particularly, it considers that under the strict regulation of the SEC, a successful cross-listing can significantly raise a firm's reputation and provide a way to approach the stock market in the U.S. [12,13]. Thus, it can improve shareholder protection and liquidity so that firms can develop their debt capacity. This means firms can increase debt financing and leverage to increase R&D investments.
