Natural resource dependence and government-guided social forces participation in R&D investment: An analysis of the resource curse hypothesis

The study investigates the relationship between government R&D subsidies, natural resource dependence, and intellectual property protection on social investment in R&D using data from 30 Chinese regions between 2009 and 2021. The results show that government R&D subsidies and intellectual property protection significantly inhibit the increase in social R&D investment. Likewise, the interaction term of the two can positively affect social R&D investment. Natural resource dependence positively moderates the impact of government R&D subsidies on social R&D investment, i.e., it exacerbates the inhibiting effect of government R&D subsidies on social R&D investment and thereby discards the “resource curse” hypothesis. Natural resource dependence does not affect the relationship between intellectual property protection and social R&D investment. The increase of government R&D subsidies in the eastern region has no significant effect on social R&D investment. In contrast, increasing government R&D subsidies in the central and western regions significantly inhibits social R&D investment. Intellectual property protection negatively affects social R&D investment across different regions, and this inhibitory effect is more significant in the eastern and central regions and negligible in the western region. The combined effect of government R&D subsidies and intellectual property protection on social R&D investment remains consistent with the national dimension in the Eastern and Western regions. In contrast, the reverse effect is observed in the central region. These findings offer valuable suggestions.