How Does Executive Environmental Background Enhance Corporate Total Factor Productivity? Empirical Evidence from Chinese A-Share Listed Companies

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_86How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Executive environmental background; Total factor productivity; Green innovation; Financing constraints

Abstract

Based on the upper echelons theory, this study investigates how executives’ environmental backgrounds influence corporate total factor productivity (TFP) and explores the underlying mechanisms. Utilizing a comprehensive sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2023, we construct a two-way fixed effects model for our empirical analysis. The core findings reveal that the presence of executives with environmental backgrounds significantly enhances corporate TFP. This positive effect remains highly robust even after conducting a series of rigorous robustness checks and addressing potential endogeneity issues. Furthermore, our mechanism analysis indicates that this productivity enhancement is driven by three primary mediating pathways: the promotion of green technological innovation, the alleviation of corporate financing constraints, and the optimization of the internal labor structure. Subsequent heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the productivity-enhancing effect of environmentally conscious executives is particularly pronounced within labor-intensive firms and state-owned enterprises. Ultimately, this paper expands the existing literature on the micro-determinants of corporate productivity by highlighting the critical role of executive characteristics. The findings provide valuable empirical evidence and managerial insights for advancing the high-quality development and sustainable growth of enterprises amid the ongoing global green economic transition.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Xiru Xu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
TI  - How Does Executive Environmental Background Enhance Corporate Total Factor Productivity? Empirical Evidence from Chinese A-Share Listed Companies
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 8th International Conference on Economic Management and Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 847
EP  - 858
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_86
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_86
ID  - Xu2026
ER  -