Abstract:Diversification at the business group level can alleviate the negative impact of diversification of independent enterprises, and thus may promote technological innovation of enterprises. Based on the data of A-share listed companies from 2006 to 2016, this paper studies the role of enterprise groups and diversification in enterprise innovation activities. The results show that: Firstly, the member companies of business group have stronger innovation ability than independent companies, while group diversification can further enhance the innovation ability of member enterprises by dispersing financial risks of member enterprises and sharing knowledge spillovers within the group; secondly, there are ownership differences in the impact of business group and their diversification on innovation, although innovation ability of private business group is inferior to that of the state-owned business group, but the effect of the private business group on improving the innovation ability of its member enterprises through diversification is significantly stronger than that of the state-owned business group.