Boosting Green Returns: How Board Environmental Expertise Background Strengthens the Innovation–Value Link in Chinese Forestry

ABSTRACT The study focuses on the relationship between green technological innovation and corporate financial performance in the Chinese forestry industry, with an emphasis on the moderating role of board environmental expertise. Based on Upper Echelons Theory and Resource Orchestration Theory, board environmental expertise is considered to be a corporate governance ability to help firms better identify, allocate, and use green resources. Empirical evidence obtained by using panel data from Chinese listed forestry and related firms from 2010 to 2023 tends to show that green technological innovation has a significant positive impact on corporate financial performance. This finding reveals that board environmental expertise can also play an important role in improving the association between green technological innovation and corporate financial performance. We find that among the different types of board environmental expertise, the environmental expertise of the chairman has the highest moderating effect. In contrast, the environmental expertise of the overall board is relatively weak, and the environmental expertise of independent directors does not have a significant effect. This study makes contributions to the literature by pointing out that board environmental expertise is an important corporate governance ability to realize the value of green innovation.