This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of ESG-related disclosure behavior under dynamic governance conditions and offers insights into how leadership transitions can serve as critical junctures for improving corporate transparency and accountability. The findings reveal that the ESG APG has a significant negative impact on corporate greenhushing, while CEO succession amplifies the negative impact of ESG aspiration performance gaps on greenhushing. This conclusion remains robust across a series of endogeneity checks. Mechanism analyses indicate that the inhibitory effect of CEO succession through reputation mechanism and competition mechanism. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that this effect is more pronounced among firms subject to greater media and analyst scrutiny.
Liu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.