Executive Hometown Identity and Green Innovation in Enterprises of Heavy Polluting Industries—A Dual Perspective Based on Conscious Motivation and Resource Access

Abstract

Green innovation is an important step for enterprises in heavy polluting industries to break through the original crude development model and make the leap to sustainable operation. As important decision makers, executives’ home country identification affects their environmental awareness motivation and resource access advantage. Based on the dual perspective of conscious motivation and resource access, this paper aims to investigate the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of executives’ hometown identity on green innovation of enterprises in heavy polluting industries. Using a sample of listed companies in the heavy polluting industry in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2013 to 2020, a theoretical exploration and an empirical analysis of this relationship is conducted based on the fusion of the framework of geographic dependency theory and social identity theory. This study finds that executive hometown identity promotes corporate green innovation and is more significant in private enterprises. The results of the mechanism test show that hometown identity mainly contributes to the implementation of green innovation in terms of both executive awareness motivation (environmental awareness) and corporate resource acquisition (government subsidies), but the latter is only significant in private enterprises. Further analysis reveals that the relationship between hometown identity and green innovation is weakened by executive corporate-associated capital, while government-associated capital shows an enhanced effect on the relationship, but only in the private enterprises; redundant resources play a positive moderating role in the relationship between executive hometown identity and corporate green innovation. The findings of this study provide a theoretical basis and managerial insights into the green innovation practices of firms in heavy polluting industries under the informal system.