Executives’ carbon cognition and corporate carbon performance: The mediating role of corporate low-carbon actions and the moderating role of firm size

Executives' carbon cognition (ECC) is an important driving factor for enterprises to achieve carbon performance (CP) through low-carbon actions, but the existing research has not explored the mechanism between them. Based on the data of 440 Chinese listed companies from 2012 to 2021, we used text mining method to construct the index of ECC, and obtained noteworthy results through regression analysis. The results indicated that ECC has a significant positive impact on corporate low-carbon actions (CLA); CLA has a significant positive impact on CP; CLA plays a mediating role in the relationship between ECC and CP; in addition, firm size negatively moderates the positive impact of ECC on CLA; firm size negatively moderates the mediating effect of CLA on the relationship between ECC and CP. The research conclusions deepen the understanding of the relationship between ECC and CP in the context of carbon neutrality era, and provide theoretical guidance for guiding companies to actively implement low-carbon actions. At the same time, this study introduces the text mining method into the research of ECC, which provides a reference for future research in this field.