Corporate social responsibility and collaborative innovation: The role of government support

Recent literature argues that corporate social responsibility (CSR), especially the social-oriented type, may enhance collaborative innovation. However, these studies overlook other CSR dimensions that may also benefit collaborative innovation; in addition, they mainly study these activities in developed economies, few has considered those in developing countries, where CSR might affect collaborative innovation through a different mechanism. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring the impacts of different CSR dimensions (i.e., environmental CSR, social CSR, and corporate governance) on collaborative innovation. It also reveals the mechanism through which CSR affects collaborative innovation in developing countries by exploring the moderating effects of government support (i.e., direct and indirect government support) on these relationships. Based on a panel data analysis covering the period 2008 to 2016 in China, our findings indicate that social CSR may not enhance collaborative innovation in developing countries, which contrasts findings from developed countries; moreover, both direct and indirect government support could enhance the positive effect of environmental CSR on collaborative innovation, while the indirect one could also promote the positive effect of corporate governance on collaborative innovation. The findings provide theoretical and practical implications for the understanding of whether firms can improve collaborative innovation through socially responsible manners. [Display omitted] •Social CSR is not able to enhance collaborative innovation.•Environmental CSR positively affects collaborative innovation.•Corporate governance positively impacts collaborative innovation.•Direct government support enhances environmental CSR and collaborative innovation linkage.•Indirect government support enhances environmental CSR and collaborative innovation linkage.•Indirect government support enhances corporate governance and collaborative innovation linkage.