An Empirical Study On The Effect Of TMT Academic Experience On Corporate Environmental Strategic Orientation

Scholars going into business(“Wenren Xiahai”)is a unique phenomenon that emerged in China after its reform and opening up.With the integration of industry,research and education,more scholars are joining enterprises or starting businesses.Academic experience has a dual impact on top management teams.On the one hand,it shapes their cognitive imprint by fostering a heightened sense of social responsibility and morality,on the other hand,it instills forward thinking,information processing skills,and good communication abilities that influence their cognition,values,and behaviors.As environmental issues become more pressing,enterprises play a crucial role in the environmental governance system.Corporate environmental strategic orientation reflects a company’s commitment and values towards environmental protection and serves as its strategic direction and guiding principle.Exploring the driving factors of corporate environmental strategic orientation from the perspective of top management teams’ characteristics has significant practical implications.Based on the upper echelon and imprinting theory,this study employs panel data from Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies between 2010 and 2019.A twoway fixed-effect model is used to investigate the impact of TMT academic experience on corporate environmental strategic orientation.By considering the moderating effects of internal and external factors,we identify the boundary conditions under which academic experience plays a more significant role in corporate environmental strategic orientation.Empirical findings indicate that:(1)the academic experience of top management teams promotes the corporate environmental strategic orientation,with a higher proportion of academically experienced executives correlating to stronger environmental strategic orientation;(2)the promotion effect is more potent in companies with lower internal control quality compared to those with higher internal control quality;(3)the promotion effect is more substantial in areas with looser environmental regulations compared to those with stricter regulations.This study’s innovations include: firstly,by examining the perspective of TMT academic experience,it expands the research on the motivation behind corporate environmental strategic orientation and supplements the relevant literature on corporate environmental strategy.Corporate environmental strategic orientation can explain the behavioral differences among enterprises facing environmental protection issues within the same environment.Focusing on the early stages of corporate environmental strategy helps deepen our understanding of its implementation process.Secondly,this study connects the unique Chinese phenomenon of scholars going into business(“Wenren Xiahai”)with the social context of high-quality green development,broadening research on TMT academic experience and enterprises’ non-market strategies.Thirdly,it supplements the boundary conditions of TMT academic experience’s influence on corporate environmental strategic orientation.In contexts with relatively weak internal and external governance,TMT academic experience can serve as a self-restraint mechanism,playing a substitutive role.This finding offers a novel approach to encourage enterprises to proactively implement environmental strategies.