Abstract:

   Consumption is an important engine for building a new dual circulation development pattern. In 2020, the contribution rate to China′s GDP will reach 54.3%, but China′s protection of consumer rights is relatively lagging behind. In real economic activities, the infringement of consumers′ rights and interests by enterprises will reduce the willingness to consume and accelerate the outflow of consumption. To this end, the Chinese government is vigorously strengthening the protection of consumers′ rights and interests. At the same time, in order to ensure the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy and meet the needs of consumption upgrading, the government has also issued a series of policies to enhance the innovation capabilities of enterprises. We are curious about whether the strengthening of consumer rights protection will affect the investment in innovation of Chinese enterprises when the innovation capability of Chinese enterprises still needs to be improved and the innovation resources are obviously insufficient.

      The existing literature mainly examines the impact of direct innovation promotion policies on enterprise innovation from the aspects of performance appraisal system, environmental regulation, tax incentives, etc., but the relationship between the pressure to increase consumer protection and enterprise innovation has not been fully tested. The Consumer Protection Law is the basic law of the consumer rights protection policy, which aims to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and improve the consumption level of residents. The theory of government regulation believes that the regulatory measures implemented by the government to protect the rights and interests of consumers will affect the behavior of enterprises. Using the data of private listed companies in the manufacturing industry from 2009 to 2016, this paper takes the substantial revision of the Consumer Protection Law in 2013 as a quasi-natural experiment to strengthen consumer rights protection for the first time, and uses a difference-in-difference method to explore the impact of the protection of consumers′ rights and interests on investment in the innovation of enterprises. We describe the strengthening of consumer rights protection with the revision of the Consumer Protection Law, which can alleviate the endogeneity problem among variables, ensure the reliability of the research results to the greatest extent, and provide a useful reference for subsequent empirical research.

     The study found that the enhancement of consumer rights protection characterized by the revision of the Consumer Protection Law did not bring positive CSR activities of enterprises, but it could enhance the social attention of consumer goods enterprises, and promote the investment in innovation of consumer goods enterprises by alleviating information asymmetry. We also use heterogeneity analysis to explore the effect of strengthening consumer protection on corporate innovation under different circumstances. The results show that for enterprises in cities with healthy government-business relations and low level of intellectual property protection, strengthening consumer rights protection has a stronger role in promoting investment in the innovation of enterprises. In addition, strengthening the protection of consumer rights will also better promote the investment in innovation of enterprises in the mature stage and with a low proportion of technical executives. And further research found that strengthening the protection of consumer rights can increase the proportion of R&D personnel and technical personnel in enterprises, and promote the advanced human capital structure of enterprises. It can also promote the implicit innovation of enterprises, improve the total factor productivity of enterprises, and provide an important impetus for enterprise upgrading.

    Based on the above research conclusions, this paper draws inspiration. The consumer rights protection system should be further improved, the adjustment scope of the Consumer Protection Law should be broadened, the channels for consumer rights protection should be unblocked, and the establishment of a rights protection system consisting of negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation that is interlinked and clearly divided into labor should be promoted. Moreover, attention should also be paid to the signaling effect of enhanced protection of consumer rights and interests conveyed by the revision of the Consumer Protection Law, and information disclosure by enterprises to fulfill their consumer responsibilities and even their social responsibilities should be strengthened, so as to alleviate the degree of information asymmetry between enterprises and investors. The government should further promote a new type of cordial and clean relationship between government and business, improve the government-business relationship policy system, clarify the scope of government governance and power boundaries, optimize the business environment, and promote the implementation of consumer rights protection policies. Local governments should also implement differentiated specific models of consumer rights protection, increase policy incentives for human capital, and give full play to the innovation and promotion effect of consumer rights protection.

Key words: protection of consumers′ rights and interests, revision of Consumer Protection Law, investment in the innovation of enterprises, difference-in-difference