When nationalism meets environmentalism: an inverted U-curve linking national sentiment to carbon emission intensity through an institutional lens

Against the backdrop of rising corporate carbon emissions, managerial attributes are garnering increasing scholarly scrutiny. Utilizing a panel dataset from China’s A-share market between 2010 and 2023, this paper employs an institutional theory perspective to examine the relationship between national sentiment and carbon emission intensity. We reveal a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between national sentiment and carbon emission intensity. Meanwhile, we also find that market competition, emission reduction target constrains and environmental penalties positively moderate the relationship between national sentiment and carbon emission intensity. Moreover, corporate social responsibility and green investment act as significant mediating channels in this relationship. Furthermore, national sentiment significantly influences enterprises characterized by high pollution, low subsidies, or low R&D intensity, and its impact on green patent, encompassing both green invention and green utility models, still exhibits a significant inverted U-shaped relationship. We further analyzed the effect of macro-environmental changes on this inverted U-shaped relationship.