IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0305813.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Executives’ academic experience and corporate social responsibility: A case study in China

Author

Listed:
  • XiFeng Yang
  • MeiHui Qi

Abstract

Fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR) is crucial for society’s sustainable development. Executives’ academic experience significantly affects their awareness of social responsibility, value orientation, professional ability, and network resources. Thus, it is critical in CSR-related corporate decision-making. This paper explores the impact of executives’ academic experience on the fulfillment of CSR. It focuses on non-financial, Special treatment enterprises (ST), and ST* enterprises listed in the A-share market from 2012 to 2021. It utilizes a fixed-effects analysis model to examine the relationship between executives’ academic experience and CSR fulfillment. The CSR score and executives’ academic experience were positively correlated. This paper also explores the intermediary role of compensation incentives and the moderating effect of marketization level. Both compensation incentives and the level of marketization positively moderated the relationship between executives’ academic experience and CSR fulfillment. Meanwhile, the robustness results showed that the experimental findings still held after replacing the explained and explanatory variables. This paper contributes to the advancement of the Upper Echelons Theory and provides empirical evidence for the society’s sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • XiFeng Yang & MeiHui Qi, 2024. "Executives’ academic experience and corporate social responsibility: A case study in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(6), pages 1-17, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0305813
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305813
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0305813
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0305813&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0305813?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jie Zhou & Shanyue Jin, 2023. "Corporate Environmental Protection Behavior and Sustainable Development: The Moderating Role of Green Investors and Green Executive Cognition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, February.
    2. Yingjie Sun & Lvyujia Zhao & Chun Lin, 2023. "The Impacts of Executive Equity on Green Corporate Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-24, June.
    3. Xiyan Bai & Chan Lyu, 2023. "Executive’s Environmental Protection Background and Corporate Green Innovation: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-20, February.
    4. Yujuan Wu & Jacquline Tham, 2023. "The Impact of Executive Green Incentives and Top Management Team Characteristics on Corporate Value in China: The Mediating Role of Environment, Social and Government Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-23, August.
    5. Naoki Watanabel & Shohei Yamauchi & Hideaki Sakawa, 2022. "The Board Structure and Performance in IPO Firms: Evidence from Stakeholder-Oriented Corporate Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-15, July.
    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. Ying Shu & Xiaobin Zhuang & Rui Ying & Guanghua Xu, 2024. "Formal Institutional Pressure and the Integration of Corporate Environmental and Financial Performance: Empirical Evidence from Listed Companies in Heavily Polluting Industries in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-20, March.
    2. Yu Yanxia, 2024. "Carbon Taxes and CO2 Emissions: A Replication of Andersson (American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2019)," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 1-19.
    3. Cui Luansong & Zhao Jing & Zhao Lijuan & Hu Pan, 2024. "Top Executives’ Overseas Background on Corporate Green Innovation Output: The Mediating Role of Risk Preference," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 1-19.
    4. Fan, Yiyi & Li, Shanshan & Yang, WenQi, 2024. "The impact of the percentage of female directors on corporate ESG score," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    5. Khalil Nimer & Muath Abdelqader & Cemil Kuzey & Ali Uyar, 2024. "Emission targeting and carbon emissions: The moderating effect of female directors," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3480-3504, May.
    6. Jiaran Li & Haslindar Ibrahim, 2024. "Executive Green Perception and Green Innovation Improve New Quality Productivity in Chinese Listed Firms," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-29, October.
    7. Muhammad Kamran Nawaz & Ahmed Eltweri & Khalid Abbas & Wa’el Al-Karaki & Farag Edghiem & Scott Foster & Munir Adali, 2025. "Public Sector Transformation in Emerging Economies: Factors Affecting Change Adoption in Pakistan," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-27, March.
    8. Da Gao & Xiaotian Zhou & Jing Wan, 2024. "Unlocking sustainability potential: The impact of green finance reform on corporate ESG performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 4211-4226, September.
    9. Nam Nguyen-Dinh & Heng Zhang, 2025. "How Landscape Preferences and Emotions Shape Environmental Awareness: Perspectives from University Experiences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-23, April.
    10. Fang Sun & Jia Li, 2022. "Research on the Development Mechanism of Rural E-Commerce Based on Rooted Theory: A Co-Benefit-Oriented Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-15, October.
    11. Xiao Guan & Chunli Yao & Weimin Zhang, 2023. "Sustainability of Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Study on the Impact Path of Corporate Social Responsibility Based on Internal Control," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-17, August.
    12. Obey Dzomonda, 2022. "Environmental Sustainability Commitment and Access to Finance by Small and Medium Enterprises: The Role of Financial Performance and Corporate Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-20, July.
    13. POPESCU Consuela-Elena & PENTESCU Alma & SHIVAROV Aleksandar, 2023. "Sustainability, ESG Ratings and Corporate Performance in the Manufacturing Sector: A Research Review," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 02, June.
    14. Yijing Li & Yannan Li, 2025. "Enhancing Pro-Environmental Behavior Through Green HRM: Mediating Roles of Green Mindfulness and Knowledge Sharing for Sustainable Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-20, March.
    15. Caterina Morelli & Simone Boccaletti & Paolo Maranzano & Philipp Otto, 2025. "Multidimensional Spatiotemporal Clustering – An Application to Environmental Sustainability Scores in Europe," Environmetrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), March.
    16. Kun Luo & Ke Zhang, 2024. "Executive's environmental background and sustainable development: Evidence from substantial green innovation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 4812-4828, October.
    17. Xingwei Li & Yuhong Yao & Qiong Shen, 2025. "From dilemma to breakthrough: fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of green development behavior pathways in construction materials enterprises," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    18. Yujia Liu & Ligang Liu & Ying Li, 2023. "Executive Hometown Identity and Green Innovation in Enterprises of Heavy Polluting Industries—A Dual Perspective Based on Conscious Motivation and Resource Access," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-20, April.
    19. Nasareldeen Hamed Ahmed Alnor, 2024. "Corporate Governance Characteristics and Environmental Sustainability Affect the Business Performance among Listed Saudi Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-19, September.
    20. Bing Fu & Suhaiza Zailani, 2025. "Factors Influencing Circular Carbon Economy Readiness Among Heavy Industries in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-30, January.

    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:plo:pone00:0305813. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.