IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v85y2025ipcs1544612325013194.html

The impact of top management team leadership on corporate investment behavior: An analysis of the moderating effect of annual report sentiment

Author

Listed:
  • Du, Xiqiao
  • Yang, Bo

Abstract

This study uses data from Chinese listed companies (2012–2023) to examine how top management team leadership influences corporate investment behavior, with particular focus on the moderating effect of annual report sentiment within this dynamic relationship. The findings indicate that top management team leadership has a significant positive driving effect on corporate investment behavior; moreover, the enhancing effect of top management team leadership on corporate investment behavior exhibits heterogeneity across eastern, central, and western regions. As a key moderating variable, annual report sentiment significantly strengthens the association between top management team leadership and corporate investment behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Du, Xiqiao & Yang, Bo, 2025. "The impact of top management team leadership on corporate investment behavior: An analysis of the moderating effect of annual report sentiment," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PC).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:85:y:2025:i:pc:s1544612325013194
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.108073
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325013194
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.108073?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tan, Yafei & Zhu, Zhaohui, 2022. "The effect of ESG rating events on corporate green innovation in China: The mediating role of financial constraints and managers' environmental awareness," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Somendra Narayan & Jatinder S. Sidhu & Henk W. Volberda, 2021. "From Attention to Action: The Influence of Cognitive and Ideological Diversity in Top Management Teams on Business Model Innovation," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(8), pages 2082-2110, December.
    3. Phan, Dinh Hoang Bach & Tran, Vuong Thao & Ming, Tee Chwee & Le, Anh, 2022. "Carbon risk and corporate investment: A cross-country evidence," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    4. Gill, Balbinder Singh & Choi, Jongmoo Jay & John, Kose, 2024. "Firm leverage and employee pay: The moderating role of CEO leadership style," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    5. He, Feng & Ding, Cong & Yue, Wei & Liu, Guanchun, 2023. "ESG performance and corporate risk-taking: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. Steven Boivie & Michael C. Withers & Scott D. Graffin & Kevin G. Corley, 2021. "Corporate directors' implicit theories of the roles and duties of boards," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(9), pages 1662-1695, September.
    7. Soonchul Hyun & Jong Min Kim & Jeongsoo Han & Mark Anderson, 2022. "Female executive leadership and corporate social responsibility," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 3475-3511, September.
    8. Hu, Yan & Che, Dexin & Wu, Fei & Chang, Xi, 2023. "Corporate maturity mismatch and enterprise digital transformation: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    9. Xu, Shuai & Zhang, Suge & Cheng, Chen, 2025. "How does top management team recomposition affect corporate trade credit financing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    10. Zheng, Yu & Zheng, Mingnan & Zhang, Juan, 2024. "Executive educational background, corporate governance and corporate default risk," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    11. Deng, Bofu & Peng, Zhenge & Chan, Kam C. & Chen, Hongce, 2025. "Top management team stability and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    12. Toufiq Nazrul & Rania Mousa, 2025. "Executive Religiosity and Disclosure Tone Ambiguity of Annual Reports," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-19, January.
    13. Hadiqa Ahmad & Muhammad Yaqub & Seung Hwan Lee, 2024. "Environmental-, social-, and governance-related factors for business investment and sustainability: a scientometric review of global trends," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 2965-2987, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hao, Yun & Wu, Wenzhao, 2024. "Environment, social, and governance performance and corporate financing constraints," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    2. Feifei Li & Ruile Xue & Songying Wang & Mingyue Du, 2024. "Does the Expansion of Local Government Debt Affect the ESG Performance of Enterprises? Evidence From China," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(4), pages 21582440241, October.
    3. Wang, Menghan & Zhang, Yinglin & Gong, Xiaoxiao, 2025. "The impacts of social credit environment improvement on corporate ESG greenwashing: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    4. Zhan, Huawang & Shen, Huayu & Guo, Hui, 2025. "Research on the impact of ESG scores on corporate substantive and strategic green innovation," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 4(1).
    5. Zhang, Hua & Lai, Jie & Guo, Zheng, 2025. "When greenwashing meets ESG: Exploring the role of third-party ESG ratings in corporate greenwashing behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    6. Bai, Xiao & Zhao, Wenyao & Tian, Geran, 2024. "ESG certification, green innovation, and firm value: A quasi-natural experiment based on SynTao Green Finance's ESG ratings: A pre-registered report," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    7. Haibo Sun & Tonghuan Bai & Youqing Fan & Zhonglu Liu, 2024. "Environmental, social, and governance performance and enterprise sustainable green innovation: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 3633-3650, July.
    8. Fuxiu Jiang & Jia Ma & Xiaojia Zheng, 2025. "Multiple large shareholders and ESG performance: Evidence from the cost‐sharing and resource‐provision view," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 65(2), pages 1309-1346, June.
    9. Elen Cristina Bravos Giupponi & Maximilian Espuny & Camila Fabrício Poltronieri & Otávio José de Oliveira, 2026. "From ESG to Sustainable Development: A Path Designed for the Triple Helix Spheres," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(2), pages 1622-1647, April.
    10. Jiao, Yang & Tang, Hairong & Tu, Da & Liu, Hongli, 2025. "Market competition, environmental governance subsidies, and environmental penalty risks," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Wei Zhu & Wei‐jian Li & Lei Wang, 2024. "The impact of environmental, social, and governance ratings on corporate innovation: From the perspective of informal institutions," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(4), pages 2000-2022, June.
    12. Yan Zhang & Ziyuan Sun & Anqi Sheng & Longyu Zhang & Yiwen Kan, 2024. "Can green technology mergers and acquisitions enhance sustainable development? Evidence from ESG ratings," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 6072-6087, December.
    13. Yang, Zhonghai & Song, Pingting & Xu, Meng & Li, Yingmei, 2024. "Environmental, social and governance performance and equity mispricing: Does embedded information mediation matter?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    14. Song, Yunling & Wu, Hao & Ma, Yan, 2023. "Does ESG performance affect audit pricing? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    15. Wang, Yibo, 2025. "Institutional investors’ field research and corporate green innovation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    16. Bofu Deng & Zhenge Peng & Khaldoon Albitar & Li Ji, 2025. "Top management team stability and ESG greenwashing: Evidence from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 450-467, January.
    17. Zhen Wang, 2025. "Can ESG ratings drive digital innovation in enterprises? Exploring Porter's hypothesis in the digital era," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 945-964, January.
    18. Hua Tang, 2022. "The Effect of ESG Performance on Corporate Innovation in China: The Mediating Role of Financial Constraints and Agency Cost," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, March.
    19. Ha, Le Thanh, 2025. "From wars to dynamic waves: Scrutinizing connectedness between geopolitical risk index, green and non-green crypto volatility by quantile spillovers," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 679(C).
    20. Campbell, Robert J. & Short, Cole E. & Graffin, Scott D., 2025. "Balancing the radical and the incremental: CEO affiliative humor and organizational ambidexterity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:finlet:v:85:y:2025:i:pc:s1544612325013194. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.