CEO educational attainment, green innovation, and enterprise performance: Evidence from China’s heavy-polluting enterprises

Abstract

Our study explores how CEOs’ educational attainment affects green innovation at the enterprise level and whether CEO educational attainment and green innovation can improve enterprise performance. To date, few studies have used environmental patents of listed companies to measure green innovation at the micro-level. Furthermore, existing studies have rarely considered the heterogeneity of the enterprise type or social responsibility and institutional intervention. Thus, by using a fixed-effects model, we argue that there is a positive relationship between CEO educational attainment and green innovation. Additionally, CEO education level significantly improves enterprise performance which leads to more sustainable green patent output by influencing green innovation based on data from listed companies in heavily polluting industries in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2018. Moreover, the result is still held after controlling for companies’ fixed effects and using the propensity score matching method (PSM) to eliminate endogenous and sample selection bias. Specifically, we demonstrate the following findings: 1) the positive influence of CEOs’ educational attainment on green innovation behavior is more significant in private enterprises and enterprises with higher social responsibility. 2) Strict environmental legislation can make a positive impact in regions with heavy environmental pollution. 3) Enterprises’ performance and sustainable environmental innovation are promoted by the positive mechanism. Our results not only enrich the literature on the relationship between education and innovation in terms of heterogeneity but also have significance in determining how to reduce pollution from the perspective of environmental governance and enterprise management.

Impact of internal factors on product innovation: Empirical Evidence from Vietnamese textile and garment firms

“…Specifically, business owners with a university degree have a product innovation probability of 33.8%, which is higher than that of those without formal training at 11.8%. Similar conclusions have been drawn in several studies conducted in different countries, indicating that businesses owned by individuals with higher levels of education have a greater potential for innovative and creative advancements [33].…”

Multiple shareholding institutional investors and green governance of heavy‐polluting industries

“…Exploring the multifaceted roles of MSII in the green governance of heavily polluting industries is vital, particularly when addressing the trifecta of challenges these industries face: inadequate environmental investment resources, governance motivation deficits, and technological and innovation obstacles (Du et al, 2023; Guo et al, 2023; Zhang, Li, et al, 2022). The influence of MSII on these areas is crucial to determining its potential for environmental impact.…”

“…Research offers two perspectives on MSII's governance effects on environmental performance. Positively, from the diminishing marginal cost of governance viewpoint, MSII can supervise and incentivize management, curtailing the tunneling activities of major shareholders and resolving the issues of resource scarcity and motivational inadequacies in green governance, thereby enhancing environmental outcomes (Tang et al, 2023; Zhang, Li, et al, 2022). Additionally, leveraging its social network, MSII may facilitate the dissemination of innovative knowledge, helping to overcome the technical barriers in green governance (Du et al, 2023).…”

“…Existing literature points out at least three challenges in the green governance of enterprises in heavy‐polluting industries, including lack of resources for environmental investment, insufficient motivation for governance, and the existence of technology and innovation barriers (Du et al, 2023; Guo et al, 2023; Zhang, Li, et al, 2022). Specifically, we argue that MSII may achieve the green transformation of heavy‐polluting industries in the following ways (Kang et al, 2018; Li, Liu, & Taylor, 2023; Ramalingegowda et al, 2021).…”

Environmental backgrounds of CEOs and corporate environmental management information disclosure: The mediating effects of financing constraints and media attention

“…The background characteristics of CEOs deeply affect the disclosure of the environmental management information of heavily polluting enterprises. It was found that CEOs’ education significantly influenced the environmental management information disclosure of the firm and significantly improved the firm's performance (C. Zhang, Li, Gou, et al, 2022). CEOs’ overseas experience had a significant positive effect on environmental management information disclosure, more significantly in state‐owned heavily polluting firms (Hussain et al, 2022).…”