diff --git a/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string.cc b/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string.cc
index 3f63bf2c405..dbacb6bb96f 100644
--- a/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string.cc
+++ b/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string.cc
@@ -3587,10 +3587,12 @@ void AddBinaryJoin(FunctionRegistry* registry) {
         "binary_join_element_wise", Arity::VarArgs(/*min_args=*/1),
         &binary_join_element_wise_doc, &kDefaultJoinOptions);
     for (const auto& ty : BaseBinaryTypes()) {
-      DCHECK_OK(
-          func->AddKernel({InputType(ty)}, ty,
+      ScalarKernel kernel{KernelSignature::Make({InputType(ty)}, ty, /*is_varargs=*/true),
                           GenerateTypeAgnosticVarBinaryBase<BinaryJoinElementWise>(ty),
-                          BinaryJoinElementWiseState::Init));
+                          BinaryJoinElementWiseState::Init};
+      kernel.null_handling = NullHandling::COMPUTED_NO_PREALLOCATE;
+      kernel.mem_allocation = MemAllocation::NO_PREALLOCATE;
+      DCHECK_OK(func->AddKernel(std::move(kernel)));
     }
     DCHECK_OK(registry->AddFunction(std::move(func)));
   }
diff --git a/r/NAMESPACE b/r/NAMESPACE
index f298ba905ee..ab45aa9985e 100644
--- a/r/NAMESPACE
+++ b/r/NAMESPACE
@@ -153,6 +153,7 @@ export(MessageReader)
 export(MessageType)
 export(MetadataVersion)
 export(NullEncodingBehavior)
+export(NullHandlingBehavior)
 export(ParquetArrowReaderProperties)
 export(ParquetFileFormat)
 export(ParquetFileReader)
diff --git a/r/R/dplyr-functions.R b/r/R/dplyr-functions.R
index 91d1b21ad88..1cf6fabebee 100644
--- a/r/R/dplyr-functions.R
+++ b/r/R/dplyr-functions.R
@@ -215,6 +215,61 @@ nse_funcs$nchar <- function(x, type = "chars", allowNA = FALSE, keepNA = NA) {
   }
 }
 
+nse_funcs$paste <- function(..., sep = " ", collapse = NULL, recycle0 = FALSE) {
+  assert_that(
+    is.null(collapse),
+    msg = "paste() with the collapse argument is not yet supported in Arrow"
+  )
+  if (!inherits(sep, "Expression")) {
+    assert_that(!is.na(sep), msg = "Invalid separator")
+  }
+  arrow_string_join_function(NullHandlingBehavior$REPLACE, "NA")(..., sep)
+}
+
+nse_funcs$paste0 <- function(..., collapse = NULL, recycle0 = FALSE) {
+  assert_that(
+    is.null(collapse),
+    msg = "paste0() with the collapse argument is not yet supported in Arrow"
+  )
+  arrow_string_join_function(NullHandlingBehavior$REPLACE, "NA")(..., "")
+}
+
+nse_funcs$str_c <- function(..., sep = "", collapse = NULL) {
+  assert_that(
+    is.null(collapse),
+    msg = "str_c() with the collapse argument is not yet supported in Arrow"
+  )
+  arrow_string_join_function(NullHandlingBehavior$EMIT_NULL)(..., sep)
+}
+
+arrow_string_join_function <- function(null_handling, null_replacement = NULL) {
+  # the `binary_join_element_wise` Arrow C++ compute kernel takes the separator
+  # as the last argument, so pass `sep` as the last dots arg to this function
+  function(...) {
+    args <- lapply(list(...), function(arg) {
+      # handle scalar literal args, and cast all args to string for
+      # consistency with base::paste(), base::paste0(), and stringr::str_c()
+      if (!inherits(arg, "Expression")) {
+        assert_that(
+          length(arg) == 1,
+          msg = "Literal vectors of length != 1 not supported in string concatenation"
+        )
+        Expression$scalar(as.character(arg))
+      } else {
+        nse_funcs$as.character(arg)
+      }
+    })
+    Expression$create(
+      "binary_join_element_wise",
+      args = args,
+      options = list(
+        null_handling = null_handling,
+        null_replacement = null_replacement
+      )
+    )
+  }
+}
+
 nse_funcs$str_trim <- function(string, side = c("both", "left", "right")) {
   side <- match.arg(side)
   trim_fun <- switch(side,
diff --git a/r/R/enums.R b/r/R/enums.R
index 4271f2ad138..8a5bf7366a9 100644
--- a/r/R/enums.R
+++ b/r/R/enums.R
@@ -140,3 +140,9 @@ QuantileInterpolation <- enum("QuantileInterpolation",
 NullEncodingBehavior <- enum("NullEncodingBehavior",
   ENCODE = 0L, MASK = 1L
 )
+
+#' @export
+#' @rdname enums
+NullHandlingBehavior <- enum("NullHandlingBehavior",
+  EMIT_NULL = 0L, SKIP = 1L, REPLACE = 2L
+)
diff --git a/r/man/enums.Rd b/r/man/enums.Rd
index b871516def8..57ec3ba115e 100644
--- a/r/man/enums.Rd
+++ b/r/man/enums.Rd
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 \alias{MetadataVersion}
 \alias{QuantileInterpolation}
 \alias{NullEncodingBehavior}
+\alias{NullHandlingBehavior}
 \title{Arrow enums}
 \format{
 An object of class \code{TimeUnit::type} (inherits from \code{arrow-enum}) of length 4.
@@ -40,6 +41,8 @@ An object of class \code{MetadataVersion} (inherits from \code{arrow-enum}) of l
 An object of class \code{QuantileInterpolation} (inherits from \code{arrow-enum}) of length 5.
 
 An object of class \code{NullEncodingBehavior} (inherits from \code{arrow-enum}) of length 2.
+
+An object of class \code{NullHandlingBehavior} (inherits from \code{arrow-enum}) of length 3.
 }
 \usage{
 TimeUnit
@@ -65,6 +68,8 @@ MetadataVersion
 QuantileInterpolation
 
 NullEncodingBehavior
+
+NullHandlingBehavior
 }
 \description{
 Arrow enums
diff --git a/r/src/compute.cpp b/r/src/compute.cpp
index eab9db54134..3d322ab6c71 100644
--- a/r/src/compute.cpp
+++ b/r/src/compute.cpp
@@ -218,6 +218,20 @@ std::shared_ptr<arrow::compute::FunctionOptions> make_compute_options(
     return make_cast_options(options);
   }
 
+  if (func_name == "binary_join_element_wise") {
+    using Options = arrow::compute::JoinOptions;
+    auto out = std::make_shared<Options>(Options::Defaults());
+    if (!Rf_isNull(options["null_handling"])) {
+      out->null_handling =
+          cpp11::as_cpp<enum arrow::compute::JoinOptions::NullHandlingBehavior>(
+              options["null_handling"]);
+    }
+    if (!Rf_isNull(options["null_replacement"])) {
+      out->null_replacement = cpp11::as_cpp<std::string>(options["null_replacement"]);
+    }
+    return out;
+  }
+
   if (func_name == "match_substring" || func_name == "match_substring_regex") {
     using Options = arrow::compute::MatchSubstringOptions;
     bool ignore_case = false;
diff --git a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-string-functions.R b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-string-functions.R
index ea27aa14777..4afb88e5732 100644
--- a/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-string-functions.R
+++ b/r/tests/testthat/test-dplyr-string-functions.R
@@ -21,6 +21,162 @@ skip_if_not_available("utf8proc")
 library(dplyr)
 library(stringr)
 
+test_that("paste, paste0, and str_c", {
+  df <- tibble(
+    v = c("A", "B", "C"),
+    w = c("a", "b", "c"),
+    x = c("d", NA_character_, "f"),
+    y = c(NA_character_, "h", "i"),
+    z = c(1.1, 2.2, NA)
+  )
+  x <- Expression$field_ref("x")
+  y <- Expression$field_ref("y")
+
+  # no NAs in data
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(paste(v, w)) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(paste(v, w, sep = "-")) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(paste0(v, w)) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(str_c(v, w)) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(str_c(v, w, sep = "+")) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+
+  # NAs in data
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(paste(x, y)) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(paste(x, y, sep = "-")) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(str_c(x, y)) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+
+  # non-character column in dots
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(paste0(x, y, z)) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+
+  # literal string in dots
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(paste(x, "foo", y)) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+
+  # literal NA in dots
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(paste(x, NA, y)) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+
+  # expressions in dots
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(paste0(x, toupper(y), as.character(z))) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+
+  # sep is literal NA
+  # errors in paste() (consistent with base::paste())
+  expect_error(
+    nse_funcs$paste(x, y, sep = NA_character_),
+    "Invalid separator"
+  )
+  # emits null in str_c() (consistent with stringr::str_c())
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(str_c(x, y, sep = NA_character_)) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+
+  # sep passed in dots to paste0 (which doesn't take a sep argument)
+  expect_dplyr_equal(
+    input %>%
+      transmute(paste0(x, y, sep = "-")) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df
+  )
+
+  # known differences
+
+  # arrow allows the separator to be an array
+  expect_equal(
+    df %>%
+      Table$create() %>%
+      transmute(result = paste(x, y, sep = w)) %>%
+      collect(),
+    df %>%
+      transmute(result = paste(x, w, y, sep = ""))
+  )
+
+  # expected errors
+
+  # collapse argument not supported
+  expect_error(
+    nse_funcs$paste(x, y, collapse = ""),
+    "collapse"
+  )
+  expect_error(
+    nse_funcs$paste0(x, y, collapse = ""),
+    "collapse"
+  )
+  expect_error(
+    nse_funcs$str_c(x, y, collapse = ""),
+    "collapse"
+  )
+
+  # literal vectors of length != 1 not supported
+  expect_error(
+    nse_funcs$paste(x, character(0), y),
+    "Literal vectors of length != 1 not supported in string concatenation"
+  )
+  expect_error(
+    nse_funcs$paste(x, c(",", ";"), y),
+    "Literal vectors of length != 1 not supported in string concatenation"
+  )
+})
+
 test_that("grepl with ignore.case = FALSE and fixed = TRUE", {
   df <- tibble(x = c("Foo", "bar"))
   expect_dplyr_equal(