Overseas imprints reflected at home: returnee CEOs and corporate green innovation

Drawing on imprinting theory and upper echelons theory, this study addresses how enterprises in emerging economies overcome low heterogeneity in ethical and causal cognitions through CEOs’ cross-border mobility to accelerate corporate green innovation. Using longitudinal data from 1270 Chinese publicly listed industrial companies from 2009 to 2018, we find that returnee CEOs (CEOs with foreign experience) positively affect corporate green innovation. This correlation is stronger for CEOs with deeper imprints from their overseas experience (i.e., going abroad for work instead of study and staying abroad in countries with high environmental awareness) and for CEOs with high managerial discretion (i.e., those with CEO duality or in highly competitive industries). Our research sheds light on how executives reestablish their ethical and causal cognitions through overseas experiences and the conditions under which the reestablished cognitions are greatly reflected in firm strategic choices for green innovation in emerging countries.