CEO Experience and Enterprise Environment, Social and Governance Performance: Evidence from China

Shuairan Sang, Aiguo Yan () and Mahmood Ahmad
Additional contact information
Shuairan Sang: Business School, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, China
Aiguo Yan: Business School, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, China
Mahmood Ahmad: Business School, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 11, 1-20

Abstract: Practicing ESG concepts is considered a viable way to achieve sustainable development for enterprises and is an important contributor to realizing high-quality economic development. This paper builds on the upper echelons theory, which posits that a company’s strategic decisions are influenced by the cognitive perceptions and values of its CEO. Based on the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2021, this paper empirically examines the impact of CEOs’ green, academic, and political experiences on corporate ESG performance through multiple regression analysis. This study found that CEO experience has a significant impact on corporate ESG performance: rich green, academic, and political experience promotes corporate ESG performance. A stepwise regression test found that CEO experience drives corporate ESG performance by improving corporate green innovation and alleviating financing constraints. Further analysis showed that the contribution of CEO experience to ESG performance is more pronounced for firms with younger CEOs, non-state-owned enterprises, and high-polluting industries, although CEO gender is insignificant. The findings of this study provide important policy implications to improve ESG responsibility.

Keywords: CEO experience; ESG; CEO power; green innovation; financing constraint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4403/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4403/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4403-:d:1399978

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().