Research On The Impact Of Returned Executives On Green Technology Innovation

There are serious problems of environmental pollution and ecological destruction behind the rapid development of Chinese economy,and the quality of economic development needs to be upgraded urgently.As micro-production entities,enterprises are important carriers to promote green technology innovation and green economic development.Their production and operation behaviors are of great significance to ecological environmental governance and high-quality economic development,and are important factors for achieving coordinated and win-win results between environmental protection and economic development.The theory of high-level echelon points out that the cognitive style,risk preference and decision-making habits of top managers vary greatly due to their differences in gender,age and educational background.Overseas executives are likely to have a more international perspective,more advanced management thinking and more cutting-edge technical knowledge.So can senior executives of overseas returnees push enterprises to carry out green technology innovation more actively and promote high-quality development of enterprises? Therefore,this paper focuses on the group of senior executives who have returned from overseas and examines the mechanism of their effect on enterprise green technology innovation.The principal-agent theory points out that reasonable allocation of equity can not only alleviate agency conflicts and reduce agency costs,but also effectively restrict the management activities of senior executives.However,existing studies on the influence of shareholder governance on corporate strategic decision-making have not reached a unified conclusion.Is the equity arrangement of enterprises a factor affecting the relationship between senior executives of overseas returnees and corporate green technology innovation? Therefore,this paper introduces ownership concentration and clarifies the mechanism of its effect on the relationship between senior executives and green technology innovation from the perspective of major shareholder governance.Finally,the life cycle of enterprises is further introduced to analyze its second-order regulatory effect on the relationship between senior executives of overseas returnees and green technology innovation,and to clarify the regulatory effect boundary of ownership concentration.Based on the review and summary of relevant literature,this paper proposes a hypothesis on the relationship between senior executives returned from overseas,ownership concentration and green technology innovation,and introduces the life cycle of the enterprise,the property right of the enterprise and the nature of the industry as boundary conditions in the research framework.A total of 2,428 A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen were selected as research samples,with a window period from 2008 to 2021.At the same time,the definition of related variables and measurement methods are defined.The conclusions are as follows: First,senior executives of overseas returnees have a significant promoting effect on green technology innovation,that is,the more senior executives of overseas returnees exist,the better the performance of green technology innovation of enterprises.Overseas executives possess advanced technological experience and scarce knowledge,and their stronger risk appetite will make them pay more attention to the sustainable competitive advantage and growth of the enterprise,and they are more willing to pay for the sustainable benefits brought by green technology innovation.Second,ownership concentration has a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between senior executives of overseas returnees and corporate green technology innovation,that is,with the increase of ownership concentration,the positive relationship between senior executives of overseas returnees and green technology innovation is enhanced.The higher the ownership concentration of an enterprise,it means that the shareholders will have a greater say and can effectively play a "supervisory role" driven by the "owner consciousness".The more motivated they are to adopt strategies conducive to the improvement of enterprise value and long-term development,and ensure that the overseas executives can fully play the promoting effect of green technology innovation.Thirdly,in enterprises at different growth stages,the moderating boundary of ownership concentration is different: when enterprises are in the growth stage,ownership concentration has no significant moderating effect;When the enterprise is in the mature stage,ownership concentration has a significant positive adjustment effect;When the enterprise is in the recession period,ownership concentration has a significant positive adjustment effect.Moreover,the positive adjustment effect of ownership concentration is more significant in enterprises in the recession period.Fourth,there is significant property right heterogeneity in the moderating effect of ownership concentration.The details are as follows: in the state-owned enterprises,ownership concentration does not have a significant regulatory effect;In non-state-owned enterprises,ownership concentration has a significant positive moderating effect.Fifth,there is significant industry heterogeneity in the moderating effect of ownership concentration.The details are as follows: in the heavy pollution industry enterprises,ownership concentration does not have a significant regulatory effect;In non-heavy polluting industries,ownership concentration has a significant positive adjustment effect.The research contribution of this paper is as follows: First,it extends the research on the economic consequences of overseas executives to the field of green technology innovation,which enriches the relevant research on overseas executives.Based on the background of green development and aiming at the special executive group of overseas returnee,this paper proposes that overseas returnee executives participate in and influence the green technology innovation of enterprises.Second,from the perspective of major shareholder governance,this paper explores whether ownership concentration will have an impact on the relationship between senior executives of overseas returnees and corporate green technology innovation,further reveals the impact of major shareholders on corporate strategic decisions,and enrichis the research in the field of corporate ownership structure arrangement,behavioral decisions of senior executives of overseas returnees and their economic consequences.Thirdly,based on the relevant contents of the enterprise life cycle theory,this paper examines the heterogeneous influence of major shareholder governance on the relationship between overseas executives and green technology innovation in different growth stages of enterprises,enriches the research on the economic consequences of overseas executives from the perspective of the enterprise life cycle,and complements the relevant literature on the enterprise life cycle theory.Fourthly,this paper examines the heterogeneity of the adjustment effect from the two dimensions of property rights and industries,so as to provide relevant suggestions for enterprises’ personnel hiring and equity structure arrangement from the practical level.