IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/glofin/v69y2026ics1044028325001516.html

Measuring climate attention from investor queries: How textual signals drive green innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Cheng
  • Li, Menghan
  • Yang, Zhuoer
  • Liu, Cheng

Abstract

This study examines how retail investors' climate attention influences corporate green innovation using data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2013 to 2023. We construct a novel measure of climate attention referencing investor interaction platforms and a climate-related dictionary, which captures firm-level retail investors' climate attention more precisely than existing search-based measures. Empirical results reveal that strong climate attention from investors considerably enhances the quantity and quality of corporate green innovation. The mechanism analysis reveals that this effect operates by boosting managerial awareness, media focus, and analyst coverage of climate-related issues. Notably, we further demonstrate that CEOs' green experience constitutes a key boundary condition. When CEOs lack such experience, investor attention has a more prominent influence on motivating green innovation. These findings demonstrate that retail investors are a unique monitoring force and they underscore the importance of managerial backgrounds in shaping firms' responses to climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Cheng & Li, Menghan & Yang, Zhuoer & Liu, Cheng, 2026. "Measuring climate attention from investor queries: How textual signals drive green innovation," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:glofin:v:69:y:2026:i:c:s1044028325001516
    DOI: 10.1016/j.gfj.2025.101224
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044028325001516
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.gfj.2025.101224?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.

    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:glofin:v:69:y:2026:i:c:s1044028325001516. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620162 .

    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.