How companies embrace goodness: An examination based on the academic background of professional managers

Diverging from the profit-centric ethos of CEOs emerging from China's early-market reform era, contemporary leaders increasingly embody academic backgrounds that may recalibrate corporate priorities toward societal stewardship. Grounded in imprinting theory, upper echelons theory, and organizational learning frameworks, this study analyzes panel data from China's A-share listed firms (2013–2022) to reveal that academically trained CEOs systematically elevate corporate social friendliness, as evidenced by enhanced ESG performance ratings. The positive association amplifies under heightened media monitoring and when CEOs concurrently hold chairperson roles or possess hybrid academic-financial expertise, reflecting power-contingent synergy between ethical imprints and resource orchestration capabilities. Mechanism tests identify green technological innovation as the pivotal channel through which academic experience translates values into practice – environmentally and socially oriented patents operationalize responsibility commitments into enforceable technical standards. Cross-dimensional heterogeneity analyses further demonstrate that academic CEOs disproportionately strengthen environmental and social outcomes relative to governance metrics, suggesting technical solutions face weaker institutional resistance than power-structure reforms. These findings withstand robustness checks including instrumental variable approaches and alternative ESG scoring methodologies, affirming the transformative potential of academic leadership in aligning profit motives with planetary boundaries. • Academic CEOs amplify ESG performance via green technological innovation-driven ethical codification. • Media scrutiny and dual leadership roles accelerate value-to-practice translation in sustainability agendas. • Environmental/social outcomes surpass governance reforms due to lower institutional inertia for technical solutions. • Hybrid academic-financial expertise unlocks power-resource synergies for ESG institutionalization. • Chinese corporate governance evolution reflects academic leaders' growing stewardship over profit-planetary balance.