4. Empirical analysis and resultsWe

4. Empirical analysis and resultsWe use the Arellano-Bond robust GMM estimator to test the hypotheses. Table 3 presents the results. H1 proposes that with increasing R&D volatility, a higher level of corporate governance will have a positive association with firm growth. As Column 2 of Table 3 shows that the interaction between the corporate governance index and R&D volatility has a statistically significant coefficient of 0.0735 (p < 0.05),H1 is supported. Fig. 1(a) shows that, under increasing R&D volatility, a firm's performance improves with a higher corporate governance index but declines with a lower index.H2 proposes that PPE volatility strengthens the R&D volatility and performance association. Column 3 of Table 3 shows a statistically significant estimate of 0.4547 (p < 0.001) on the interaction between PPE volatility and R&D, which supports H2. Fig. 1(b) shows that with increasing R&D volatility, a higher level of PPE volatility improves performance. The estimates support the assertion that PPE volatility strengthens the association between R&D volatility and sales growth.H3 proposes that intangible asset volatility strengthens the R&D volatility and performance association. However, this hypothesis is not supported (Table 3, column 4: β = 0.1032, p > 0.10). Finally, in the full model (Table 3, column 5), we find support for H1 and H2 but not for H3.