Analysis on the impact and asymmetric characteristics of top management teams’ environmental attention on breakthrough green innovation boundaries in energy enterprises

Purpose This study aims to explore the direct impact, asymmetric characteristics and mechanism of top management teams’ environmental attention (EA) on breakthrough green innovation boundaries (GIB) in energy enterprises, and to address the deficiencies in existing research regarding GIB and the role of executive decision-making subjects. Design/methodology/approach Patent information is used to define GIB from three dimensions: breadth, depth and width. Text analysis is employed to measure EA. The study examines the relationship, asymmetric characteristics, mechanism and moderating effect through empirical analysis. Findings EA significantly expands the breadth, depth and width of GIB. The impact of EA on GIB has asymmetric characteristics: EA exerts a weaker promoting effect on GIB for enterprises at the lower end of the conditional distribution, while it strengthens more prominently for those at the upper end, showing an increasing trend. Meanwhile, EA exacerbates the differentiation of GIB among enterprises, leading to more obvious discrete and right-skewed characteristics in the distribution of GIB among enterprises, and intensifying the “Matthew effect” where the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker. Mechanism analysis shows that EA can expand GIB through two paths: alleviating external environmental public opinion pressure and reducing internal green agency costs. CEOs’ academic experience plays a positive moderating role. Originality/value This study reveals the micro-cognitive mechanism of firms’ green innovation, enriches research related to green innovation and top management characteristics, provides theoretical support and practical suggestions for firms to improve their green innovation capabilities and makes up for the deficiencies of existing research in terms of GIB and the role of top management decision-making subjects.