Corporate charitable donations under different motivations will have different effects on innovation investment through different action paths, which provides a new perspective to solve the inconsistency of existing research results. Based on the resource-dependent and principal-agent theories, this paper compares and discusses the relationship between charitable donations and innovation investment under different motivations. Using 2008 ~2019 relevant data of listed companies as research samples, a mixed regression model is established for the hypothesis test, and further examines the state-ownership of its moderating role. The results show that the altruistic motivation-oriented corporate donations have a significant inverted u-shaped effect on innovation investment. The tool motivation-oriented corporate donations have a significant U-shaped effect on innovation investment. Moreover, it is further found that for ST (Special Treatment) corporates with the risk of delisting in the tool motivation-oriented charitable donations type, the corporate charitable donations have a significant negative effect on innovation investment. State-ownership can enhance the inverted U-shaped relationship between altruistic motivation-oriented corporate donations and innovation investment but weaken the U-shaped relationship between tool motivation-oriented corporate donations and innovation investment.
