Impact of the Top Management Teams’ Environmental Attention on Dual Green Innovation in Chinese Enterprises: The Context of Government Environmental Regulation and Absorptive Capacity

Green innovation (GI) is a key measure for enterprises to realize green transformation and sustainable development. Top management teams’ environmental attention (TMTEA) plays a critical role in shaping organizational strategic direction, value orientation, management mode, and behavioral patterns, serving as a micro-foundation for GI. Based on exploring the relationship between TMTEA and GI, this study adopts the ambidexterity theory to categorize dual green innovation (Dual_GI) into breakthrough green innovation (BGI) and progressive green innovation (PGI), and examines the impact of TMTEA on Dual_GI from the perspectives of external government environmental regulation (GER) and internal absorptive capacity (AC). Drawing on the attention-based view (ABV), this study uses data samples of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2022 and establishes a fixed-effect model to empirically test this relationship. The results show the following: (1) TMTEA has a positive impact on corporate Dual_GI, and the promotion effect on PGI is more significant. (2) Both GER and AC can positively moderate the impact of TMTEA on Dual_GI, and both have a stronger moderating effect on TMTEA on PGI. (3) Further analysis shows that this driving effect is more obvious in state-owned enterprises, non-heavy polluting enterprises and enterprise maturity, and TMTEA can also drive Dual_GI to improve sustainable development performance. This study deepens the research scope and boundary conditions of TMT’s micro-psychological cognition and GI. It provides new insights for managers in emerging economies to rebalance their companies’ economic benefits and environmental transformation.