Intellectual property protection, digital economy development, and corporate green innovation

This study examines the complex interactions among intellectual property protection (IPP), digital economy development, and corporate green innovation using panel data from Chinese listed firms (2014-2022). Employing threshold regression models and moderated regression analysis, we identify significant nonlinear relationships and regulatory mechanisms. Results reveal a U-shaped relationship between IPP and the quantity of green innovation, with identifiable threshold effects across multiple protection regimes. However, IPP exhibits predominantly negative effects on innovation quality across protection levels, with varying intensities observed in different regimes (zones 1-4). Digital economy development demonstrates dimension-specific moderating effects, significantly amplifying the promotional effect on innovation quantity (coefficient 0.711**) but showing minimal impact on innovation quality (-0.085, insignificant), functioning as an “efficiency amplifier” rather than a “quality enhancer.” Green agency costs exhibit complex regulatory mechanisms that vary across institutional regimes, resulting in compensatory effects in weak protection environments and triggering institutional overload in strong protection contexts. These findings challenge the linear “more protection equals more innovation” assumption and highlight fundamental distinctions in how technological and institutional drivers affect different dimensions of green innovation. The results have crucial implications for policymakers in designing differentiated IPP regimes and targeted digital economy policies optimized for specific development stages.