IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/buseth/v35y2026i2p717-743.html

CEO's Demographic, Governance, and Career Factors in Environmental and Sustainable Performance: Evidence From China M&A Cases

Author

Listed:
  • Dan Li
  • Umer Sahil Maqsood

Abstract

This study aims to assess the influence of CEO demographic, governance, and career‐related factors on the environmental sustainable performance (ESP) of corporations in the post‐merger era of Chinese M&A, spanning the years 2008–2022. We evaluate firms' overall ESP by considering both environmental and sustainability outcomes. Additionally, the ownership structure is examined by comparing state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). The findings reveal that certain CEO demographic traits, such as education, age, and gender, exert a positive and significant influence on firms' ESP. This suggests that gender diversity, experienced leadership, and highly educated CEOs contribute to enhanced ESP in M&A contexts. Among CEO governance and career factors, only CEO tenure positively impacts corporate ESP, as longer tenured CEOs are more likely to implement and sustain long‐term sustainable practices within M&A firms. Interestingly, while ownership structure remains consistent across SOEs and POEs, CEO career factors, particularly retired CEOs and CEO tenure, show significant effects only in POEs. Overall, our findings provide valuable insights for future research and policy development to promote improved ESP in the evolving landscape of Chinese M&A.

Suggested Citation

  • Dan Li & Umer Sahil Maqsood, 2026. "CEO's Demographic, Governance, and Career Factors in Environmental and Sustainable Performance: Evidence From China M&A Cases," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 717-743, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:buseth:v:35:y:2026:i:2:p:717-743
    DOI: 10.1111/beer.12814
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12814
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/beer.12814?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
    ---><---

    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:wly:buseth:v:35:y:2026:i:2:p:717-743. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/26946424 .

    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.