Research on the Impact of Executives' Environmental Protection Background on Enterprises' Green Perception

Against the backdrop of global green transformation driven by carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, the impact of executives' environmental experience on corporate environmental awareness warrants investigation.Analyzing A-share listed Chinese firms(2014-2023), this study examines how executives' environmental backgrounds shape corporate green perception. Results reveal that such backgrounds significantly enhance green awareness by fostering strategic prioritization of sustainability and improving resource allocation toward eco-innovation. However, this effect differs markedly between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs, reflecting SOEs' inherent policy-driven environmental mandates versus non-SOEs' greater reliance on leadership initiative.Critically, environmental regulations exert a positive moderating effect: stringent policies amplify the positive influence of executives' environmental backgrounds on green perception, particularly within non-SOEs, where regulatory pressure compensates for weaker institutional incentives. The study further identifies knowledge transfer and stakeholder legitimacy as key mediating channels linking executive experience to corporate cognition. This research not only expands the theoretical study on the influencing factors of enterprises' green cognition by integrating upper echelons theory with institutional logic, but also provides practical inspiration for enterprises of different ownerships to strengthen green management through targeted leadership development and for the government to refine regulatory tiers and enforcement mechanisms to improve environmental regulation policies.