The moderating effect of research and development costs on the relationship between environmental performance and financial performance Tehran Stock Exchange companies

From a systems perspective, the issue of environmental protection requires an environmental management system that can be implemented in an integrated manner with other management systems. The existence of an independent unit as research and development (R$D) in any organization is very important. Therefore, the present study evaluates the impact of R$D on the relationship between environmental performance and earnings per share this year and next year.

This research is descriptive and correlational. In order to investigate this issue, research hypotheses have been analyzed using structural equation modeling and based on information about 120 companies during the years 2012 to 2018.

The results show that there is no significant relationship between environmental performance and earnings per share this year, but there is a positive and significant relationship between environmental performance and earnings per share next year. Also, R$D have a moderating effect on the relationship between environmental performance and earnings per share this year and earnings per share next year. This effect is negative and significant.

The results of this study, in addition to developing the literature on research and development costs and environmental costs, help all stakeholders and users to assess the extent to which companies pay attention to R&D and environmental issues.