Abstract: In countries or regions with lagging financial development, financing heterogeneity has become an important problem restricting manufacturing enterprises from technological imitation to independent innovation. This paper uses the 2012 World Bank China Enterprise Survey data to study the impact of heterogeneity of financing constraints and financing structure on the choice of innovation mode. The results show that from the perspective of heterogeneity of financing constraints, strong financing constraints significantly inhibit the choice of independent innovation mode and force enterprises to choose imitation innovation. From the perspective of heterogeneity of financing structure, endogenous financing has a stronger promoting effect on enterprises′ independent innovation than imitative innovation, while debt financing has a stronger restraining effect;equity investment can promote the independent innovation of enterprises to some extent and is not conducive to the imitation innovation of enterprises;informal finance will restrain the independent innovation of enterprises. Further research shows that for enterprises with higher R&D input intensity or lower regional financial development level, their independent innovation is more negatively affected by financing constraints, and more dependent on endogenous financing and equity financing, and more inhibited by debt financing and informal finance. Therefore, it is necessary to further alleviate the financing constraints of enterprise innovation, expand the proportion of enterprise equity financing, reduce the proportion of debt financing and informal finance, and promote the choice of enterprise independent innovation mode.

Key words: financing heterogeneity, financing constraint, financing structure, enterprise innovation mode