Corporate Governance and Enterprise Innovation: Enhancing Firm Performance in China’s Energy Sector

This study examines the relationship between corporate governance, enterprise innovation, and firm performance, with a focus on the energy industry.The objective is to explore how corporate governance influences innovation and how innovation impacts overall performance.Data were collected from energy firms represented by 128 executives through a structured questionnaire and analyzed using partial least squaresstructural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).The findings reveal that corporate governance positively affects both enterprise innovation and firm performance, and that enterprise innovation mediates the relationship between governance and performance.The implications for management practices and future research are discussed, highlighting the critical role of innovation in leveraging governance for better firm performance.