Does chief executive officer turnover affect green innovation quality and quantity? Evidence from China’s manufacturing enterprises

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 30; no. 34; pp. 81760 - 81782
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yuming, Liu, Han, Li, Menghan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Carbon; Carbon neutrality; Chief executive officers; China; Commerce; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental conditions; Environmental Health; Environmental regulations; Environmental science; False information; Greenwashing; Health Facilities; Hypothesis testing; Innovations; Low Emission Development Strategies and Sustainable Development Goals; Manufacturing; Manufacturing industry; Media coverage; Personnel Turnover; Sustainable development; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; China; CEO turnover; Environmental regulation; Sustainable development; China; Green innovation; Media coverage
• ISSN: 1614-7499; 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-20365-0

In the context of sustainability and carbon neutrality, green innovation has become a focus of China’s manufacturing enterprises. However, how a new chief executive officer (CEO) reacts to this situation is less discussed. This paper relies on agency conflicts, employing upper echelons theory and institutional literature to examine the effects of CEO turnover on green innovation. By using a sample of 1,915 listed manufacturing firms in China, we find that CEO turnover leads to greater green innovation quantity but not lower innovation quality. This result does not verify the greenwashing perspective and shows that CEO turnover is a promoter of green innovation. In addition, we observed that formal and informal factors (represented by environmental regulation and media coverage) have different moderating impacts on the quality and quantity of green innovation. This study provides new insight into green innovation governance mechanisms.