Executives' overseas background and corporate green innovation

In: Corporate social responsibility and environmental management, Band 30, Heft 1, S. 165-179

Abstract

AbstractThis study examines the impact of executives' overseas background on corporate green innovation and the possible adverse selection problem in attracting overseas‐returned executives to high‐polluted cities. Based on the data from Chinese listed companies between 2002 and 2018, we empirically find that executives' overseas background has a significantly positive impact on corporate green innovation. In addition, it is found that air pollution results in the loss of overseas‐returned executives, while the effect of executives' overseas background in stimulating corporate green innovation is more prominent in high‐polluted cities, indicating that high‐polluted cities should make more efforts to attract returnees. Therefore, we further explore the policy influence of executives' excess compensation and find that excess compensation in high‐polluted cities weakens the positive impact of executives' overseas background, although it increases the effectiveness of importing overseas‐returned executives, which means that the adverse selection caused by excess compensation in high‐polluted cities is non‐negligible.