IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/maorev/v22y2026i2p380-426_8.html

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: CEO Temporal Focus and Firms’ ESG Investments

Author

Listed:
  • Zhao, Jianyu
  • Wang, Xinru
  • Yao, Xinlin

Abstract

As CEOs play pivotal roles in shaping environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies, existing studies have explored the influence of CEOs’ demographic and professional traits while acknowledging the impact of their cognitive characteristics. However, an overlooked aspect in these investigations is the role of CEOs’ time perspective. To address these gaps, this study investigates the relationship between CEOs’ temporal focus, a key executive perception in strategic contexts, and three dimensions across ESG investments. Utilizing data of Chinese listed firms between 2009 and 2021, we find that CEOs with past-oriented or present-oriented temporal focus exert suppressive effects on environmental and social investments, whereas CEOs with future-oriented temporal focus significantly enhance such sustainability initiatives. Present-focused CEOs are more likely to champion governance investments while both past-focused and future-focused tend to restrict them. Notably, these relationships are further moderated by CEO wealth sensitivity. Our findings illuminate the considerable influence of executive temporal perceptions on ESG investment heterogeneity, offering valuable implications for both research and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhao, Jianyu & Wang, Xinru & Yao, Xinlin, 2026. "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: CEO Temporal Focus and Firms’ ESG Investments," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(2), pages 380-426, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:maorev:v:22:y:2026:i:2:p:380-426_8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S174087762510079X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:maorev:v:22:y:2026:i:2:p:380-426_8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/mor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.