Does Entrepreneurs’ Military Experience Promote Corporate Environmental Investment? Evidence from Chinese Private Firms

Abstract

Although it is well established that the military experience of top executives has a profound influence on firms’ decisions, empirical evidence on how military experience matters to corporate environmental investment has been scarce. Drawn on imprinting theory and upper echelon theory, this study examines the impact of entrepreneurs’ military experience on corporate environmental investment. Using a nationwide survey of Chinese private firms, we find that entrepreneurs’ military experience significantly promotes corporate environmental investment. Further, the positive effect is more pronounced for firms with entrepreneurs who have experienced a wartime atmosphere and those located in regions with more minor public environmental concerns. Our study extends the literature on the determinants of corporate environmental investment and the economic consequences of individual military experience. Moreover, this also provides practical insights for policymakers on how to implement environmental governance and promote ecological construction.

Directors' and officers' liability insurance and corporate environmental investment: empirical evidence from the most polluting Chinese listed firms

“…Second, this paper enriches the growing literature on the determinants of corporate environmental policy. Recent studies have found several factors that may affect corporate D&O insurance and environmental investment environmental responsibility, including institutional shareholders (Kim et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2020), top executives' experience (Hong et al, 2022) and firm-level characteristic (Abeysekera and Fernando, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Tian et al, 2021). We document that D&O insurance significantly affects firms' environmental investment, adding to this stream of literature to some extent.…”

“…Some research examines the effects of factors such as firm-level characteristics and the external environment on environmental investment. For example, it's found the level of environmental investment is higher in cross-shareholding firms (Tian et al, 2021) and firms whose top executives have military experience (Hong et al, 2022). But firms invest less in environmental projects when local officials under high pressure of economic growth target relax environmental regulation intensity (Zhong et al, 2022).…”

“…For example, it's found the level of environmental investment is higher in cross-shareholding firms (Tian et al. , 2021) and firms whose top executives have military experience (Hong et al. , 2022).…”

“…, 2019; Chen et al. , 2020), top executives' experience (Hong et al. , 2022) and firm-level characteristic (Abeysekera and Fernando, 2020; Li et al.…”

Executive Hometown Identity and Green Innovation in Enterprises of Heavy Polluting Industries—A Dual Perspective Based on Conscious Motivation and Resource Access

“…According to upper echelons theory, it has been found that corporate behavior relies to some extent on managers' subjective decision deployment [6,7]. Based on a cognitive structure perspective, heterogeneous characteristics of executives map out differentiated green value preferences, which in turn influence corporate green innovation decisions and behaviors [8]. However, the existing studies are one-sided in that they only look at the heterogeneous characteristics of executives from the perspective of cognitive structure to inspire green innovation.…”