Executives’ academic experience and corporate ESG performance: evidence from Chinese listed firms

Against the backdrop of increasingly demanding requirements for corporate sustainability, ESG has become an important dimension for assessing the level of high-quality corporate development. By shaping cognition, values, and decision-making capabilities, executives’ academic experience exerts a profound influence on corporate management and socioeconomic development. This study applies upper echelons theory and imprinting theory to a research sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2018 to 2023. It examines the relationship between executives’ academic experience and corporate ESG performance, as well as the mediating role of green technological innovation. The results suggest that executives’ academic experience is positively associated with corporate ESG performance. Green technological innovation mediates the relationship between academic experience and corporate ESG performance. This positive association is stronger in the environmental and social dimensions, and weaker in the governance dimension. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this association is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises and heavily polluting firms. This study provides new empirical evidence for understanding the relationship between executive characteristics and corporate sustainability. It offers valuable empirical support and policy implications for corporate talent management strategies as well as government innovation support policies.