Influence of Corporate Environmental Responsibility on R&D Investment: Dual Moderating Effects of Public Attention and Intellectual Property Protection

As the subject of pollutant emissions, enterprises play an important role in environmental governance and should consciously fulfil their environmental responsibility. So, can the enterprise perform environmental responsibility to increase their investment in research and development (R&D)? Based on the data from China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed enterprises in 2011–2019, this paper explores the relationship between corporate environmental responsibility and R&D investment and examines the dual moderating effects of public attention and intellectual property protection. It is found that the implementation of corporate environmental responsibility can promote R&D investment. Public attention moderates the positive relationship between corporate environmental responsibility and R&D investment; it seeks that the positive relationship becomes higher with public attention. With higher regional intellectual property protection levels, the moderating effect of public attention on corporate environmental responsibility and R&D investment will be more obviously higher. This research provides theoretical support for enterprises to fulfil their environmental responsibilities and a new perspective for revealing the factors of enterprises’ R&D investment, which can offer a foundation for future research and practices.