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<p>This study, grounded in Upper Echelons Theory and Strategic Cognition Theory, investigates the impact of Chinese executives’ green cognition on corporate performance from a geographic differentiation perspective by analyzing environmental terminology frequency in annual reports of listed companies (2010–2021). The article adopts the green patent analysis method and text mining method we use to evaluate the ESG performance of enterprises with the CSI ESG score, and uses the Cobb–Douglas production function to calculate the total factor productivity (TFP) as an operational performance metric. The findings demonstrate that executives’ green cognition positively enhances both commercial performance and ESG outcomes in Chinese enterprises, yet exhibits heterogeneous effects across four major city clusters of Jingjinji Megaregion, Yangtze River Delta Megaregion, Greater Bay Area, and Chengyu Megaregion. Mechanism analysis reveals that green technological innovation significantly moderates the relationship between executives’ ecological orientation and organizational success. Moderating effect tests indicate that in enterprises with higher proportions of environmentally experienced executives, green cognition exerts substantially stronger influence on ESG performance than its relatively limited effect on operational efficiency. Paradoxically, executives in highly polluting industries demonstrate diminished economic performance when possessing elevated environmental awareness. Heterogeneity analysis across corporate ownership types and green performance levels further shows differentiated impacts of executives’ green cognition on both ESG and operational performance metrics.</p>

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Executive green perceptions and enterprise performance from the perspective of geographical differences: evidence from China's four major urban agglomerations

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年7月19日

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  • Chenlin Zhao,
  • Fanhong Kong

摘要

This study, grounded in Upper Echelons Theory and Strategic Cognition Theory, investigates the impact of Chinese executives’ green cognition on corporate performance from a geographic differentiation perspective by analyzing environmental terminology frequency in annual reports of listed companies (2010–2021). The article adopts the green patent analysis method and text mining method we use to evaluate the ESG performance of enterprises with the CSI ESG score, and uses the Cobb–Douglas production function to calculate the total factor productivity (TFP) as an operational performance metric. The findings demonstrate that executives’ green cognition positively enhances both commercial performance and ESG outcomes in Chinese enterprises, yet exhibits heterogeneous effects across four major city clusters of Jingjinji Megaregion, Yangtze River Delta Megaregion, Greater Bay Area, and Chengyu Megaregion. Mechanism analysis reveals that green technological innovation significantly moderates the relationship between executives’ ecological orientation and organizational success. Moderating effect tests indicate that in enterprises with higher proportions of environmentally experienced executives, green cognition exerts substantially stronger influence on ESG performance than its relatively limited effect on operational efficiency. Paradoxically, executives in highly polluting industries demonstrate diminished economic performance when possessing elevated environmental awareness. Heterogeneity analysis across corporate ownership types and green performance levels further shows differentiated impacts of executives’ green cognition on both ESG and operational performance metrics.