Rural roots, green shoots: do entrepreneur rural experience boost corporate environmental investment?

Lin Zhang, Zepeng Sun and Chenlv Zeng

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 2025, vol. 17, issue 2, 565-589

Abstract: PurposeThis paper aims to explore whether entrepreneurs’ rural experiences can influence corporate environmental investment.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses data from a survey of Chinese privately-owned enterprises from 2006 to 2014. The authors use regression analysis, the Heckman two-stage model and propensity score matching (PSM) to test research hypotheses and address endogeneity issues as well as unobserved heterogeneity.FindingsThe results show that entrepreneurs’ rural experiences are positively associated with corporate environmental investment. Furthermore, the authors investigate boundary conditions, finding that urban green space rate and regional environmental regulation intensity strengthen this positive relationship. This effect is most pronounced in enterprises in the eastern region and those with strong financial performance.Practical implicationsThe findings have significant implications for policymakers and corporate managers in understanding the drivers of corporate environmental protection. The results suggest that companies should organize rural hiking and nature immersion activities, and governments should implement relevant policies to better leverage the pro-environmental values of entrepreneurs with rural experiences.Social implicationsThe results provide new strategies for encouraging sustainable development and corporate environmental investment.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to discuss the association between entrepreneurs’ rural experiences and corporate environmental investment. Moreover, the conclusions contribute to the literature on the imprinting theory and antecedents of corporate environmental investment. Finally, this study identifies two important contingent factors that strengthen the effect of entrepreneurs’ rural experiences on corporate environmental investment decisions.

Keywords: Rural experience; Corporate environmental investment; Imprinting theory; Pro-environmental value; Sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:sampjp:sampj-11-2024-1207

DOI: 10.1108/SAMPJ-11-2024-1207

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