Executive Hometown Identity and Green Innovation in Enterprises of Heavy Polluting Industries—A Dual Perspective Based on Conscious Motivation and Resource Access

Abstract

Green innovation is an important step for enterprises in heavy polluting industries to break through the original crude development model and make the leap to sustainable operation. As important decision makers, executives’ home country identification affects their environmental awareness motivation and resource access advantage. Based on the dual perspective of conscious motivation and resource access, this paper aims to investigate the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of executives’ hometown identity on green innovation of enterprises in heavy polluting industries. Using a sample of listed companies in the heavy polluting industry in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2013 to 2020, a theoretical exploration and an empirical analysis of this relationship is conducted based on the fusion of the framework of geographic dependency theory and social identity theory. This study finds that executive hometown identity promotes corporate green innovation and is more significant in private enterprises. The results of the mechanism test show that hometown identity mainly contributes to the implementation of green innovation in terms of both executive awareness motivation (environmental awareness) and corporate resource acquisition (government subsidies), but the latter is only significant in private enterprises. Further analysis reveals that the relationship between hometown identity and green innovation is weakened by executive corporate-associated capital, while government-associated capital shows an enhanced effect on the relationship, but only in the private enterprises; redundant resources play a positive moderating role in the relationship between executive hometown identity and corporate green innovation. The findings of this study provide a theoretical basis and managerial insights into the green innovation practices of firms in heavy polluting industries under the informal system.

1. Introduction

China has clearly put forward the goals of “carbon peaking” by 2030 and “carbon neutral” by 2060, and it has become a social consensus to focus on solving environmental problems such as high pollution and high energy consumption [1]. “The 14th Five-Year Plan” also further emphasizes the development of green innovation and the promotion of green transformation in key industries [2]. As the primary source of pollution, the traditional crude development mode of enterprises in heavy polluting industries undoubtedly brings a huge burden to the ecological environment. Green innovation is an important forward-looking initiative to help enterprises move towards “pollution-free” or “less polluting” production processes and products [3] and effectively achieve economic and environmental balance [4]. However, from a practical point of view, green innovation is characterized by high costs, high risks and the public goods nature of the innovation results. In addition to the weak technological foundation of enterprises, enterprises in the heavy polluting industry lack the motivation and ability to sustain innovation [5]. Therefore, it is worthwhile to pay attention to how to promote the active development of green innovation by enterprises in the heavy polluting industry, in order to meet the requirements of green economic development in the new era.

According to upper echelons theory, it has been found that corporate behavior relies to some extent on managers’ subjective decision deployment [6,7]. Based on a cognitive structure perspective, heterogeneous characteristics of executives map out differentiated green value preferences, which in turn influence corporate green innovation decisions and behaviors [8]. However, the existing studies are one-sided in that they only look at the heterogeneous characteristics of executives from the perspective of cognitive structure to inspire green innovation. The implementation of green innovation is not only dependent on the green value preferences of executives, but also on their ability to secure effective external innovation resources to support the enterprise, a condition that has been overlooked in existing studies. In a social context where Chinese hometown sentiment is highly valued, executive hometown identity is a more culturally representative executive characteristic [9]. Ren et al. showed that executive hometown identification can promote the value of seeking proactive green behavior in enterprises [10]. However, innovation resources are equally important for green innovation in firms in technology-poor, heavily polluted industries [11]. Without considering the resource condition, exploring the logical chain of green innovation with a single dimension of executives’ value orientation still has some room for expansion and lacks empirical support. In fact, hometown identification, in addition to stimulating value preferences in executives’ environmental awareness, may also influence the ease of access to external innovation resources in the local social network [12], playing an important role in the process of conducting and implementing corporate green innovation. Based on geographic dependency theory, hometown identity leads executives to develop strong emotional ties with the local natural environment, which leads them to be more environmentally conscious, more concerned about the negative externalities of technology, and more likely to see environmental issues as business opportunities in strategy formulation and to invest in green innovation [13]. Based on social identity theory, hometown identity leads to informal ties with social networks in the local geographic area, which gives executives an advantage in accessing information [14] and makes it easier to grasp local policies and obtain government subsidies [15], indirectly providing resources to support green innovation. However, it is not clear from the current research whether executive hometown identification can bridge the gap of insufficient corporate green innovation motivation and capability from both conscious motivation and resource acquisition perspectives, and this study aims to fill this gap.

In addition, the process of executives’ hometown identity influencing corporate green innovation is influenced by their own focus of attention and organizational resource base. Given the characteristics of China’s “human society”, the network relationships formed by executives’ social capital may have an important superposition effect with their hometown identity, which on the one hand determines the potential resources available to them and further strengthens the relationship between executives’ hometown identity and corporate green innovation, and on the other hand influences executives’ focus of attention and can change executives’ focus on the issue of negative ecological externalities in complex relationship networks. Those redundant organizational resources are also inevitably one of the consideration conditions for executives to make innovation decisions, largely providing the possibility of high-risk green innovation activities for enterprises. However, existing relevant studies have ignored the boundary role of executives’ social capital and redundant organizational resources.

In summary, research on the influence of executive characteristics on corporate decision making has received increased attention in the process of exploring the drivers of corporate green innovation. Executive hometown identity, as one of the more traditional and culturally representative executive characteristics in China, can cause cognitive and behavioral differences and influence corporate decision making. However, the relationship between executive hometown identity and corporate green innovation has not been studied in depth, and the research perspective is singular. Therefore, based on the fusion of geographic dependency theory and social identity theory, this paper hand-collects and collates data related to green innovation for empirical testing, using a sample of listed companies in the heavy polluting industry in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2013 to 2020, and attempts to answer the following questions: (1) Can executive hometown identity promote corporate green innovation? (2) Can executive hometown identity promote green innovation through two logical mechanisms: consciousness motivation and resource acquisition? (3) Do executive social capital and redundant resources play a moderating role between executive hometown identity and corporate green innovation?

This study found that executive hometown identity does motivate local executives to promote green innovation, and that when private executives have a hometown identity, they are usually more likely to obtain government subsidies to provide resources to support green innovation. In this process, executives’ corporate- and government-associated capital show a heterogeneous overlap effect, while organizational redundancy provides a guarantee for executives’ green innovation decisions. These findings provide new ideas and insights for the implementation and execution of green innovation in enterprises in the heavy polluting industry.

Possible marginal contributions: (1) Unlike existing studies that explore the driving role of executive heterogeneity characteristics on corporate green innovation from the perspective of value orientation and cognitive level alone, this paper focuses on the factor of executive hometown identity and dissects the impact of executive hometown identity on corporate green innovation from the dual perspective of consciousness motivation and resource acquisition, providing a new perspective for green innovation-related studies. (2) The research design uses panel data of listed companies to test the mechanism of executives’ hometown identity on corporate green innovation, and the findings are more robust. (3) The boundary role of executive social capital and redundant resources is explored from the two perspectives of attention allocation and resource base, which is a useful supplement to existing theories.

2. Theoretical Analysis and Research Hypothesis

Studies on the factors influencing green innovation were more often based on institutional perspectives, exploring the promotion of green innovation by external policies such as environmental regulation [16] and heterogeneous policy instruments on firms [17]. However, these ignored the heterogeneity among enterprises and for enterprises in heavy polluting industries, environmental regulations may lead to increased costs of non-compliance and enterprises tend to adopt strategic governance behaviors rather than actively engage in green innovation [18]. Based on the organizational factors perspective, organizational redundancy [19] and organizational learning [20] are equally important factors that influence corporate green innovation, and with the microcosm of the research perspective, scholars have gradually focused on the important role of executives in the development and implementation of a corporate green innovation strategy from an organizational behavioral decision-making perspective. Previous studies have examined the influence of green value preferences mapped by executive heterogeneity traits on corporate green innovation decisions based on a cognitive structure perspective, mainly in terms of executive gender [21], education [22], professional background [23], and tenure [6]. The above study is somewhat one-sided in terms of using the cognitive structure perspective alone in dissecting executive heterogeneity characteristics that inspire enterprises to engage in green innovation. The implementation of green innovation is not only dependent on executives’ green value preferences, but also on their ability to obtain effective external innovation resources to support the enterprise, a condition that has been overlooked in existing studies. Therefore, this paper explores the relationship between executives’ hometown identity and corporate green innovation and the influence mechanism based on the dual perspective of environmental awareness and resource acquisition.

2.1. Executive Hometown Identity and Corporate Green Innovation

According to upper echelons theory, executives are an important factor influencing the behavioral decisions of the enterprise. Green innovation means that enterprises can achieve energy savings and emission reduction through technology or product innovation [3]. Having a strong sense of motivation as well as resource support is an important prerequisite for enterprises to actively engage in green innovation. This paper, therefore, analyses how executives’ hometown identity affects corporate green innovation from the perspective of conscious motivation and resource acquisition, based on geographical dependency theory and social identity theory.

From the perspective of consciousness motivation, executives have a hometown identity to improve the local natural environment and to establish a continuous emotional bond, showing a strong environmental awareness and promoting green orientation in corporate strategic decision making. Based on geographical dependency theory, there is a psychological dependency between individuals and certain objective environments, which in turn affects their behavior [24]. The hometown usually gathers the individual’s blood and geographical relations, and the individual’s emotions towards the hometown are well stabilized by the constraints of China’s household registration system and traditional culture, so the prominent emotional relations of executives towards the hometown will influence their conscious motivation and internalize into the strategy implementation [25]. Green innovation can effectively control the negative environmental effects of enterprises in heavy polluting industries and benefit the local ecological construction. A strong “hometown feeling” makes executives have a strong desire to give back to their hometown, enhance their sensitivity to the needs of other stakeholders in the region [26], increase their concern for local ecological issues, and stimulate environmental awareness. Awareness is a concrete expression of cognition and is indirectly reflected in corporate strategy through motivation [27], specifically based on pro-social motives. Environmental awareness has raised their awareness of the negative environmental effects on local communities caused by the operation of companies in heavy polluting industries, both as an expression of emotion and as a result of public pressure to promote green innovation [28]. Based on profit motives, executives’ environmental awareness determines whether they see environmental issues as an opportunity or a threat [29,30], and enterprises with executives who see environmental issues as business opportunities are more likely to implement forward-looking environmental strategies [31]. Green innovation requires high upfront R&D investment and has a delay in improving economic performance [32], and managers’ short-term performance preferences may crowd out corporate investment in green innovation [33]. In contrast, hometown identity makes executives more sensitive to environmental issues [34] and more inclined to see green innovation as a business opportunity to meet market demand [35], cutting out short-termism that leads to reduced green investment at the expense of future performance [36].

From the perspective of resource acquisition, hometown identity gives executives an informational advantage in their local social network circles and makes it easier to access government grants as a complementary resource for innovation. Based on social identity theory, group membership is derived from the group perception of “us” versus “them”, and social identity is based on the skewed comparison between the group to which an individual belongs (in-group) and the group to which they do not belong (out-group) [37]. When executives have a hometown identity, their in-group, formed by their relationship with local social networks, gives them an advantage over foreign executives in terms of access to government resources [38]. Green innovation is characterized by knowledge spillovers and environmental externalities, and policy grants have an obvious incentive effect on it [39]. However, government subsidies are mostly granted by municipal or lower government agencies, and due to information asymmetry, there is a situation where the funds are not fully allocated according to the needs of the enterprises [40], and the access to government subsidies is influenced by other informal factors. Based on the cultural foundation of China’s “human society”, local executives have informal ties with local social networks, giving them more access to local policy information [17,20], creating an advantage in accessing government grants and providing complementary resources to support green innovation. Some scholars, such as Deng and Zeng, argue that government–business collusion based on human relations is not conducive to efficient innovation [41], but executives with a hometown identity are less likely to seek rent based on the emotional constraints and supervisory pressures of a tight-knit network of local family and friends, and tend to exploit the positive effects of government subsidies on corporate innovation.

Based on the above analysis, this paper argues that the negative environmental externalities of enterprises in the heavy polluting industries are prominent, and that when executives are based in the same location as the enterprise, they are more likely to be more environmentally conscious, to value their social responsibility in mitigating the negative environmental effects through green innovation, and to view environmental issues as important business opportunities that facilitate green innovation decisions. In addition, the informal relationship between local executives and their local social network circle increases the likelihood that the firm will receive government subsidies, further supporting the implementation of green innovation with complementary resources. Accordingly, this paper proposes the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1. 

Executive Hometown Identity for Corporate Green Innovation.

2.2. Moderating Effect of Social Capital of Executives

Social capital reflects an individual’s social resources and social status [42] and is reflected in an executive’s political affiliation or part-time employment with an external enterprise. On the one hand, the social capital of executives determines their advantage in accessing potential innovative complementary resources in their networks [43]; however, on the other hand, it also affects their focus [44] and weakens their attention to the issue of negative ecological externalities in complex networks of relationships. Therefore, executive social capital influences the relationship between hometown identity and corporate green innovation and the influence is heterogeneous depending on the source of social capital. Based on the existing literature, this paper discusses both executive corporate-connected capital and government-connected capital [45].

The affiliated capital of an executive enterprise means that it is also a director or general manager outside, and the number of concurrently serving increases the opportunity for executives to have access to the knowledge, strategy, and management experience of other enterprises, which may promote investment in R&D [46]. However, the deeper embedding of executives in business networks can lead to a more homogenous access to corporate information [47], which in turn can limit innovation horizons [48,49]. For local executives in particular, the relatively restricted regional scope of their business network of contacts increases the likelihood of path dependency due to the influence of the corporate inherent relationship network [50]. In addition, due to the high managerial nature, limited energy and time [51], business connections increase the motivation and need to earn personal reputation through performance demonstrations in the industry [52], distracting local executives from the negative externalities of their environment and shifting the focus of their attention in strategic decisions towards short-term benefits.

Executive government-associated capital may place a greater “policy burden” on their enterprises, while Pag et al. find that investment in government relationships can have a crowding-out effect on innovation investment [53]. In fact, governments and enterprises are stakeholders in each other, and governments often provide more subsidies to socially responsible enterprises [54], especially when executives have a hometown identity, and their local ecological concerns are internalized in corporate strategies that are highly aligned with government green-oriented expectations [25]. At the same time, local executives are part of the local social network, and their “human connections” help enterprises to be more directly and timely informed of relevant policy directions and to access complementary resources for green innovation, such as people, money, and materials, through lower relational investments [25].

Based on the above analysis, local executives’ corporate affiliated capital will enhance their short-term performance preference and reduce their concern for the local ecological environment, reducing the possibility of corporate green innovation; while local executives’ government-affiliated capital can amplify the advantage of obtaining government subsidies and provide support for corporate green innovation. Accordingly, this paper proposes the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2a. 

Executive corporate-associated capital weakens the positive contribution of hometown identity to green innovation.

Hypothesis 2b. 

Executive government-associated capital strengthens the positive contribution of hometown identity to green innovation.

2.3. Moderating Effects of Organizing Redundant Resources

The implementation of a corporate innovation strategy is inevitably influenced by its internal unused resources [55]. Green innovation is the behavior of environmental responsibility in advance, which belongs to the category of corporate social responsibility to a large extent and is more vulnerable to the influence of redundant organizational resources. Research findings suggest that abundant redundant resources can effectively mitigate competition for resources among corporate projects [56], improve corporate ability to adapt to external environmental uncertainty [57], and support the implementation and execution of executives’ green strategy orientation. Specifically, rich cash, credit lines, and other non-sinking redundant resources that invoke greater flexibility can stimulate managers’ initiative and risk-taking [58] and further amplify local executives’ green strategy preference to achieve corporate energy efficiency and emission reduction through technological innovation, while reducing internal constraints and resolving internal resource conflicts, allowing enterprises to engage in green innovation with greater confidence. In contrast, sinking redundant resources such as idle production equipment and semi-finished product inventories have been deployed in corporate operations and, embedded in specific contexts, can act as buffers against uncertain environments [59], increasing the inclusiveness of high risks to green innovation [60], while the reallocation of sinking redundant resources can enable rapid investment to shorten innovation time when an enterprise adopts a green innovation strategy.

Based on the above analysis, this paper argues that redundant resources, as an innovation strategy backup, can enable executives with green strategy preferences to be more comfortable with green innovation while providing resources to support the innovation process. Accordingly, this paper proposes the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3a. 

Non-sinking redundant resources reinforce the positive contribution of hometown identity to corporate green innovation.

Hypothesis 3b. 

Sinking redundant resources reinforce the positive contribution of hometown identity to corporate green innovation.

The theoretical model was constructed based on the above literature review, as shown in Figure 1.

3. Research Design

3.1. Sample Selection and Data Sources

At the end of 2011, China issued the National Environmental Protection “12th Five-Year Plan”, which emphasizes the reasonable control of total energy consumption and imposes higher constraints on the ecological governance responsibilities of relevant enterprises, and the disclosure of energy consumption data of micro enterprises has gradually gained attention. Therefore, this paper selects A-share-listed companies in the heavy polluting industry in China from 2013 to 2020 as the sample, and treats the sample as follows: (1) exclude ST and *ST companies; (2) exclude companies listed after 2013; (3) exclude companies with missing data, and, finally, obtain 728 observations. The data on R&D investment were obtained from the annual reports of companies, which were mainly disclosed in the “development expenditure” account in the consolidated balance sheet, the “administrative expenses” account in the notes to the financial report, and the “other cash flows paid in connection with operating activities” account. The data on energy consumption is obtained from the CSR report, the corporate environmental report and the environmental information disclosure section of the sustainability report, and is collected and collated manually; the data related to executives is derived from the annual reports of companies manually collated and supplemented by media tools such as China Securities Journal, Flush Finance, Sina.com, Sina Finance, China Research Data Service Platform, and succession announcements. Other relevant data is obtained from the CSMAR database. In addition, all continuous variables are winsorized in order to eliminate the influence of extreme values on the study results. This paper uses regression analysis as well as stepwise regression to test the main effects as well as the mechanism paths.

3.2. Variables Selection and Measurement

3.2.1. Explained Variables

Green innovation (GTI): Green innovation refers to technological innovation that complies with objective ecological and economic rules, achieves energy saving and emission reduction, reduces the negative externalities of production and operation on the ecological environment, and thus achieves the goal of environmental protection, focusing on the improvement of the efficiency of energy saving and emission reduction. The measurement of green innovation is mainly based on three perspectives: input perspective, including research and development funds and technological transformation inputs; output perspective, including the output of green products, the total number of green technology patents; and so on [61,62]. Considering that the green innovation of enterprises includes both input decisions and the effect of energy saving and emission reduction, this paper adopts the ratio of R&D input to energy consumption as a measure of green innovation, and the larger the ratio, the higher the degree of green innovation of enterprises.

3.2.2. Explanatory Variables

Hometown identity (LOCAL): In the Chinese corporate scenario, the chairperson of the board and the general manager constitute the most important senior echelon [13], and the chairperson of the board, as the top decision maker, is responsible for steering the major strategic direction of the enterprise and deciding on the hiring of the general manager; thus, the main part of this paper explores the hometown identity of the chairperson of the board. The presence of hometown identity is indicated when the chairperson’s home province is the same as the province where the enterprise is located and is recorded as 1; otherwise, it is 0 [14]. In addition, the regressions are validated in robustness tests using the consistency of the general manager’s home province with the location of the enterprise as a proxy variable for executive hometown identity.

3.2.3. Moderating Variable

Social capital: Social capital is a reflection of an individual’s social resources and social status, and is divided into corporate-connected capital (CC) and government-connected capital (PC) according to the source of social capital. Drawing on existing research, CC is measured by the number of external part-time directors or general managers of the chairperson of the board; PC is measured by the chairperson’s government experience, and is classified according to the level of the current or former NPC deputies or CPPCC members as central, provincial, municipal, county and district, township, and below, and is assigned a value of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, respectively. The value assigned is 0 [63].

Redundant resources: The redundant resources are the potential internal resources that can be deployed and used in the process of strategy implementation, and are classified as non-sinking redundant resources (HDS) and sinking redundant resources (ADS) according to the existing literature. In this paper, the current ratio is used to measure non-sinking redundant resources, and the expense-to-income ratio (operating expenses + administrative expenses + financial expenses)/sales revenue is used to measure sinking redundant resources [64,65].

3.2.4. Control Variables

The corporate size (SIZE), corporate age (AGE), business capability (TAT), dual job (DUAL), executive age (GG_age), executive education (GG_edu), and executive tenure (GG_ten) were selected as control variables. The larger the enterprise, the longer it has been on the market, and the more capable it is, the more powerful it is to innovate; however, on the other hand, this type of enterprise is not conducive to innovation decisions because of its complicated organisational structure and inertia. The combination of the two positions gives executives greater autonomy in making innovation and organizational change decisions, which increases their ability to take risks and thus promotes green innovation activities. Secondly, at the individual executive level, studies have shown that the age and education of executives are important factors influencing the green strategy of enterprise. The variables are defined as shown in

Table 1. Variable definition table.

Variable Type	Variable Name	Variable Codes	Variable Description
Explained Variables	Green Innovation	GTI	The ratio of R&D input to energy consumption in enterprises.
Explanatory Variables	Hometown Identity	LOCAL	1 if the chairman’s home province is the same as the corporate home province, 0 otherwise.
Moderating Variable	Corporate-associated Capital	CC	Total number of enterprises where the chairperson is also an external director or managing director.
	Government-associated Capital	PC	The chairperson is or has been a deputy to the National People’s Congress or a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and is assigned a value of 5 to 1 according to the level of the institution they are serving, and 0 if they have not served.
	Non-sinking Redundant Resources	HDS	Current ratio, ratio of current assets to current liabilities.
	Sinking Redundant Resources	AS	Expense-to-income ratio, the ratio of (operating expenses + administrative expenses + financial expenses) to sales revenue.
Control Variables	Corporate Size	SIZE	The natural logarithm of a corporate operating income.
	Corporate Age	AGE	Natural logarithm of the number of years a enterprise has been listed.
	Operating Capacity	TAT	Total asset turnover ratio, operating income to total assets.
	Two Jobs in One	DUAL	1 for the chairperson who is also the managing director, 0 otherwise.
	Executive Age	GG_age	Natural logarithm of the age of the chairperson.
	Executive Education	GG_edu	The highest qualification of the chairperson is 5 for doctoral students, 4 for master’s students, 3 for undergraduates, 2 for junior colleges, and 1 for secondary schools and below.
	Executive Tenure	GG_ten	Number of years of chairperson

.

3.3. Model Construction

In order to test the above hypothesis, the following model is constructed in this paper.

$${\mathrm{G}\mathrm{T}\mathrm{I}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}={\mathsf{\alpha }}_0+{\mathsf{\alpha }}_1{\mathrm{L}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{A}\mathrm{L}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}+{\mathsf{\alpha }}_2{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{l}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}+{\mathsf{\epsilon }}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}$$

(1)

$${\mathrm{G}\mathrm{T}\mathrm{I}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}={\mathsf{\alpha }}_0+{\mathsf{\alpha }}_1{\mathrm{L}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{A}\mathrm{L}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}+{\mathsf{\alpha }}_2\mathrm{C}\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{P}\mathrm{C}+{\mathsf{\alpha }}_3{\mathrm{L}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{A}\mathrm{L}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}\times {\mathrm{C}\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{P}\mathrm{C}+\mathsf{\alpha }}_4{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{l}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}+{\mathsf{\epsilon }}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}$$

(2)

$${\mathrm{G}\mathrm{T}\mathrm{I}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}={\mathsf{\alpha }}_0+{\mathsf{\alpha }}_1{\mathrm{L}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{A}\mathrm{L}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}+{\mathsf{\alpha }}_2\mathrm{H}\mathrm{D}\mathrm{S}/\mathrm{A}\mathrm{S}+{\mathsf{\alpha }}_3{\mathrm{L}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{A}\mathrm{L}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}\times \mathrm{H}\mathrm{D}\mathrm{S}/\mathrm{A}\mathrm{S}{+\mathsf{\alpha }}_4{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{n}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{l}}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}+{\mathsf{\epsilon }}_{\mathrm{i},\mathrm{t}}$$

(3)

GTI stands for corporate green innovation and LOCAL stands for executive hometown identity; CC and PC stand for executive corporate-connected capital and government-connected capital, respectively; HDS and AS stand for organizational non-sinking redundant resources and sinking redundant resources, respectively; i, t stand for enterprise and year, respectively. Model 1 is to test the relationship between executive hometown identity and corporate green innovation. If α₁ is significantly positive, hypothesis H1 is verified; model 2 is to test the moderating effect of executive social capital and determine whether hypothesis H2a and hypothesis H2b are valid according to the positive and negative values of α₃ and significance; model 3 is to test the moderating effect of redundant organizational resources, and also determine whether hypothesis H3a and hypothesis H3b are valid according to the positive and negative values of α₃ and significance.

4. Empirical Analysis and Results

4.1. Data Description

Table 2. Descriptive statistics.

Variables	Observations	Average	Standard Deviation	Minimum	Maximum
GTI	728	1.795	3.750	0.000	30.420
LOCAL	728	0.592	0.492	0.000	1.000
CC	728	2.385	3.971	0.000	26.000
PC	728	1.313	1.917	0.000	5.000
HDS	728	1.358	1.510	0.168	29.640
AS	728	0.156	0.129	0.012	0.607
SIZE	728	23.520	1.499	20.230	28.720
AGE	728	2.787	0.378	0.693	3.367
TAT	728	0.733	0.415	0.144	3.281
DUAL	728	0.111	0.315	0.000	1.000
GG_age	728	4.002	0.126	1.609	4.317
GG_edu	728	3.780	0.842	1.000	5.000
GG_ten	728	3.607	1.120	0.693	5.464

reports the results of the descriptive statistics. The results show that: (1) The mean value of corporate green innovation was 1.795, with a maximum value of 30.420, indicating an overall low and uneven level of green innovation among enterprises in heavy polluting industry. (2) The mean value of executive hometown identity is 0.592, indicating that 59.2% of the chairperson of the sample enterprises have hometown identity. (3) The mean values of executive corporate-affiliated capital and government-affiliated capital are 2.385 and 1.313, respectively, indicating that it is common for executives of enterprises in the heavy polluting industry to hold outside appointments and that executive government-affiliated capital is a relatively scarce resource for enterprises. (4) The mean values of organizational non-sedimentary redundancy resources and sedimentary redundancy resources are 1.358 and 0.156, respectively, indicating that enterprises in the heavy polluting industry attach less importance to redundancy resources.

4.2. Relevance Analysis

The results of the correlation analysis are reported in

Table 3. Correlation analysis.

Variables	GTI	LOCAL	CC	PC	HDS	AS	SIZE
GTI	1
LOCAL	0.007	1
CC	0.107 ***	0.002	1
PC	0.270 ***	−0.060	0.067 *	1
HDS	0.426 ***	−0.042	0.097 ***	0.161 ***	1
AS	0.603 ***	−0.163 ***	0.062 *	0.238 ***	0.416 ***	1
SIZE	−0.261 ***	−0.138 ***	−0.295 ***	−0.062 *	−0.379 ***	−0.457 ***	1
AGE	−0.034	0.009	−0.226 ***	−0.219 ***	0.013	−0.038	0.242 ***
TAT	0.045	0.106 ***	−0.039	−0.084 **	−0.021	−0.383 ***	0.309 ***
DUAL	0.054	0.036	0.045	−0.167 ***	0.063 *	0.046	−0.108 ***
GG_age	0.148 ***	−0.055	0.179 ***	0.324 ***	0.047	0.097 ***	−0.016
GG_edu	−0.167 ***	−0.077 **	−0.089 **	−0.118 ***	−0.124 ***	−0.038	0.304 ***
GG_ten	0.124 ***	0.070 *	0.191 ***	0.206 ***	0.087 **	0.161 ***	−0.233 ***
Variables	AGE	TAT	DUAL	GG_age	GG_edu	GG_ten
AGE	1
TAT	0.074 **	1
DUAL	0.054	0.057	1
GG_age	−0.164 ***	−0.018	−0.067 *	1
GG_edu	0.061 *	−0.032	−0.069 *	−0.145 ***	1
GG_ten	−0.094 **	−0.030	−0.067 *	0.330 ***	−0.135 ***	1

Note: * p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.

. In particular, executive hometown identity is positively but insignificantly correlated with corporate green innovation, possibly due to possible bias in the results of the analysis of the relationship between executive hometown identity and corporate green innovation without taking into account other important influencing factors. Executive corporate-connected capital and government-connected capital have a positive and significant impact on corporate green innovation, and non-sinking redundant resources and sinking redundant resources also show a positive impact on green innovation. In addition, the control variables were all correlated with the explanatory variables, indicating that the control variables were selected with some explanatory strength.

4.3. Analysis of Regression Results

Regressions were conducted using a fixed effects model based on the Hausman test results, controlling for year, and the regression results are shown in

Table 4. Regression analysis results.

Variables	GTI
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)
	Full Sample	Full Sample	Full Sample	State-Owned	Private	Full Sample	Full Sample
LOCAL	0.476 ***	0.603 ***	0.474 ***	0.349 *	1.195 **	0.566 ***	0.630 ***
	(2.985)	(3.478)	(2.906)	(1.959)	(2.117)	(3.614)	(4.068)
CC		0.024
		(0.884)
LOCAL × CC		−0.071 **
		(−2.089)
PC			−0.005	−0.002	−0.466 **
			(−0.141)	(−0.040)	(−2.528)
LOCAL × PC			−0.005	0.002	0.348 *
			(−0.095)	(0.034)	(1.778)
HDS						−0.439 ***
						(−4.354)
LOCAL × HDS						0.623 ***
						(5.499)
AS							−2.605 **
							(−2.246)
LOCAL × AS							8.243 ***
							(7.140)
SIZE	0.725 ***	0.765 ***	0.729 ***	0.424 **	0.855 ***	0.675 ***	0.687 ***
	(4.756)	(4.991)	(4.745)	(2.177)	(3.884)	(4.527)	(4.619)
AGE	−1.995 ***	−2.028 ***	−1.985 ***	−2.309 **	−4.419 ***	−2.668 ***	−1.972 ***
	(−3.139)	(−3.195)	(−3.113)	(−2.342)	(−5.050)	(−4.219)	(−3.192)
TAT	−1.016 ***	−1.092 ***	−1.030 ***	−1.048 ***	−0.755	−1.005 ***	−0.909 ***
	(−4.240)	(−4.523)	(−4.201)	(−3.796)	(−1.493)	(−4.291)	(−3.862)
DUAL	−0.068	−0.048	−0.070	−0.094	−0.776 ***	−0.017	0.021
	(−0.516)	(−0.360)	(−0.523)	(−0.606)	(−3.276)	(−0.132)	(0.164)
GG_age	2.399 ***	2.331 ***	2.441 ***	2.291 ***	6.946 ***	2.169 ***	2.503 ***
	(3.923)	(3.788)	(3.876)	(3.138)	(5.512)	(3.599)	(4.246)
GG_edu	0.096	0.090	0.096	−0.124	1.078 ***	0.095	0.034
	(1.339)	(1.265)	(1.347)	(−1.526)	(6.312)	(1.367)	(0.485)
GG_ten	−0.131 ***	−0.122 ***	−0.129 ***	−0.109 **	−0.454 ***	−0.132 ***	−0.138 ***
	(−3.184)	(−2.955)	(−3.081)	(−2.476)	(−3.767)	(−3.309)	(−3.501)
_cons	−19.516 ***	−21.582 ***	−21.301 ***	−12.070 **	−37.575 ***	−17.268 ***	−20.476 ***
	(−4.751)	(−5.251)	(−5.024)	(−2.193)	(−5.136)	(−4.228)	(−5.177)
Year	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control
N	728	728	728	538	190	728	728
R2	0.184	0.191	0.184	0.131	0.631	0.225	0.249

Note: * p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.

. The regression coefficients of LOCAL and GTI in column (1) are significantly positive at the 1% level, indicating that executive hometown identity significantly promotes corporate green innovation and H1 is supported. In other words, executives’ hometown identity makes them highly concerned about local natural environmental issues and have the advantage of accessing government subsidies, which promotes the motivation and implementation of green innovation by enterprises. The coefficient of LOCAL × CC in column (2) is significantly negative at the 5% level, indicating that executive enterprise-associated capital weakens the promotion effect of hometown identity on corporate green innovation, and H2a is supported. Local executive corporate connected capital enhances their short-term performance preferences and homogeneity of information access, which is detrimental to the development and implementation of green innovation. Column (3) has a positive but insignificant coefficient for LOCAL × PC, and H2b is partially supported, possibly due to the influence of the nature of property rights. State-owned enterprises are more involved in the government’s decision-making objectives and constraints due to their special property rights, while private enterprises see innovation as an important way to make profits and lack the internal drive to reduce the negative environmental effects of innovation, when the role of government-controlled resources brought by executive government-associated capital is more prominent [66]. In order to test this conjecture, the regression of model 2 on the grouping of property rights, column (4) and (5), the coefficient of LOCAL × PC for the Chinese-owned enterprises sample is insignificant while the coefficient of LOCAL × PC for the private enterprises sample is significantly positive, indicating that the positive moderating effect of private corporate executive government-associated capital between hometown identity and green innovation is significant. In addition, the PC coefficient in column (5) is significantly negative, suggesting the previous logic: executive government-associated capital has a crowding-out effect on green innovation R&D, but executives with hometown identity are more likely to obtain government subsidies and play a positive role in government subsidies, thus masking the crowding-out effect of relationship investment on green innovation R&D. The coefficients of LOCAL × HDS in column (6) and LOCAL × AS in column (7) are both significantly positive at the 1% level, indicating that both non-sinking redundant resources and sinking redundant resources have a positive moderating effect in the relationship between hometown identity and green innovation, and H3a and H3b are supported. This indicates that redundant resources further stimulate local executives’ green strategy preferences and provide grounded resource support for corporate green innovation implementation.

In order to show more clearly the moderating effect of executive social capital and organizational redundancy in the relationship between executive hometown identity and corporate green innovation, this paper divides the high and low groups based on the mean plus or minus one standard deviation of the moderating variables, and constructs the moderating effect plots of corporate associated capital, government associated capital, non-sinking redundant resources and sinking redundant resources, as shown in Figure 2a–d. Among them, the graphs of the moderating effect of executive government-associated capital are constructed with the private enterprise sample, and the graphs of the other moderating effects are constructed with the full sample.

4.4. Robustness Tests

In order to verify the reliability of the results, this paper adopts the following methods for robustness testing. (1) Lag period test: considering the possible time lag of managers’ decisions or implementation effects, the values of the dependent variables are regressed again with a one-period lag. (2) Independent variable replacement.: in addition to the chairperson, the general manager is also an important component of the senior echelon, responsible for the day-to-day management of the company and influencing the company’s strategic decisions. Therefore, the main effect is regressed again on whether the general manager’s place of origin is the same as the location of the enterprise as a proxy variable for the executive’s hometown identity. (3) Controlling for environmental regulation: the Porter hypothesis suggests that environmental regulations will force enterprises to reduce energy consumption and pollution through innovation in production technology and products. Considering the special characteristics of heavy polluting industries, the green behavior of enterprises is inevitably influenced by local environmental regulations, so it is necessary to test whether the positive relationship between executive hometown identity and enterprise green innovation holds under any environmental regulation conditions. The environmental regulation index was constructed based on the regional industrial wastewater emissions per unit of output value, industrial SO₂ emissions per unit of output value and industrial soot emissions per unit of output value [67,68], and the main effects were grouped into high and low environmental regulation groups based on the median. (4) Instrumental variables method: considering the possible endogeneity problem in this paper, whether the location of the enterprise is a special economic zone (EOC) was selected as an instrumental variable for the two-stage regression [14]. In China, between 1979 and 2010, seven special economic zones (SEZs) were established in the mainland, namely Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Xiamen, Hainan, Horgos and Kashgar. On the one hand, SEZs are “hubs” for scientific and technological talent, influencing the proportion of executives who identify with the region’s hometown; on the other hand, the concept of SEZs was first proposed by Deng Xiaoping in 1979, and their establishment is clearly not relevant to the implementation of green innovation by enterprises in the sample period. In addition, the instrumental variables were tested for weak identity and the regression F-statistic was greater than 10, rejecting the original hypothesis of weak instrumental variables and indicating that the selection of instrumental variables was appropriate. (5) Propensity value matching method (PSM): to avoid the problem of self-selection, that is, enterprises in the heavy polluting industry that focus on social responsibility fulfillment are more inclined to hire entrepreneurs with higher local reputation, the experimental and control groups were divided according to whether the executives had hometown identity, and 1:1 proximity matching was conducted with covariates such as corporate size. The average intervention effect (ATT) of individuals in the intervention state was significant, and the standardization error between the experimental group and the control group was basically less than 10% after covariable matching, that is, there was no significant difference in the mean value of covariables, and the matching balance was acceptable, and then the matched samples were regress again.

Table 5. Robustness test regression results.

Variables	(1) Lag Period Treatment	(2) Variable Substitution	(3) Control of Environmental Regulation		(4) Instrumental Variables Approach		(5) PSM
	GTI	GTI	GTI	GTI	LOCAL	GTI	GTI
	Full Sample	Full Sample	Strong Environmental Regulation	Weak Environmental Regulation	Phase I Returns	Phase II Returns	Post-Matching Samples
LOCAL	0.310 *	0.870 ***	1.081 ***	0.390 **		0.519 ***	0.789 ***
	(1.926)	(3.850)	(2.758)	(2.322)		(2.769)	(2.670)
EOC					−0.712 ***
					(−7.112)
_cons	−15.119 ***	−17.410 ***	−12.380 *	−33.658 ***	3.675 ***	−19.854 ***	−22.431 ***
	(−3.402)	(−4.247)	(−1.815)	(−6.187)	(3.963)	(−4.797)	(−2.793)
Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control
Year	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control
N	637	728	364	364	728	728	352
R2	0.148	0.192	0.127	0.382	0.115	0.177	0.171

Note: * p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.

reports the regression results from the robustness tests described above, and the results show that the main conclusions are still valid.

5. Mechanism Testing

The aforementioned theoretical analysis suggests that there are two paths for executives’ hometown identity to promote corporate green innovation. Firstly, hometown identity enables executives to build emotional ties with the local natural environment, enhancing their environmental awareness and internalizing it into corporate strategies to promote green innovation. Second, hometown identity enables executives to form informal connections with local social networks, making it easier for them to grasp the direction of local policies and to gain access to government subsidies, thus providing resources to support corporate green innovation. To verify whether the above paths exist, this paper uses executives’ environmental awareness (CON) and government subsidies (SUB) as mediating variables, respectively, and tests the above mediating effects according to scholar Wen Zhonglin’s three-step test.

5.1. A Mechanistic Test of Environmental Awareness

This paper uses textual analysis to measure executives’ environmental awareness (CON) and to examine its mediating effect between executives’ hometown identity and corporate green innovation. Individuals’ perceptions or preferences in certain areas are reflected in their behavior or language in social activities [69], and corporate annual reports are a comprehensive mapping of managers’ business philosophy and results. Therefore, the eight terms “energy conservation and emission reduction”, “environmental protection strategy”, “environmental protection concept”, “environmental management organization”, “environmental education”, “environmental training”, “environmental technology development”, and “environmental audit” were selected as authoritative terms that can characterize managers’ environmental preferences, and the total word frequency was used as a metric [70].

Table 6. Regression results of the environmental awareness mediation test.

Variables	(1)	(2)	(3)
	GTI	GTI	GTI
LOCAL	0.476 ***	0.618 **	0.425 ***
	(2.985)	(2.562)	(2.674)
CON			0.081 ***
			(3.091)
_cons	−19.516 ***	−13.589 **	−18.411 ***
	(−4.751)	(−2.185)	(−4.496)
Control	Control	Control	Control
Year	Control	Control	Control
N	728	728	728
R2	0.184	0.049	0.197

Note: ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.

shows the results of the mechanism test with environmental awareness of executives as a mediating variable. Columns (1)–(3) show that executive environmental awareness partially mediates the relationship between hometown identity and corporate green innovation.

5.2. A Mechanistic Test of Government Grants

This paper uses the natural logarithm of the amount of government grants as a measure of government grants (SUB) and examines its mediating effect between executive hometown identity and corporate green innovation. Columns (1)–(3) of

Table 7. Regression results of the government subsidy mediation test.

Variables	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)
	GTI	SUB	GTI	GTI	SUB	GTI	GTI	SUB	GTI
	Full Sample	Full Sample	Full Sample	State-Owned	State-Owned	State-Owned	Private	Private	Private
LOCAL	0.476 ***	0.014	0.474 ***	0.350 **	−0.218	0.373 **	2.220 ***	1.344 *	2.114 ***
	(2.985)	(0.079)	(2.997)	(1.991)	(−1.522)	(2.122)	(5.667)	(1.728)	(5.393)
SUB			0.113 ***			0.106 *			0.079 *
			(3.174)			(1.841)			(1.941)
_cons	−19.516 ***	1.012	−19.631 ***	−10.571 **	5.575	−11.161 **	−31.710 ***	6.163	−32.195 ***
	(−4.751)	(0.221)	(−4.814)	(−2.029)	(1.315)	(−2.143)	(−4.394)	(0.430)	(−4.499)
Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control
Year	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control	Control
N	728	728	728	538	538	538	190	190	190
R2	0.184	0.135	0.197	0.131	0.169	0.138	0.613	0.218	0.622

Note: * p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01.

show that the full sample mediation effect is not significant. Based on the previous analysis, and taking into account the nature of property rights, the special political mandate of SOEs can weaken the advantage of executive hometown identity in obtaining government subsidies, so the mediating mechanism effect of government subsidies is further tested using the SOE sample and the private enterprise sample, respectively. Columns (4)–(6) show that the advantage of SOE executives’ hometown identity in obtaining government subsidies is not significant, and therefore the mediating effect of government subsidies does not exist. Columns (7)–(9) show that government subsidies partially mediate the relationship between private executives’ hometown identity and corporate green innovation. In addition, the results of the group test for the direct effect of LOCAL on GTI in columns (4) and (7) of Table 6 show that the LOCAL coefficient is higher and more significant for the private corporate sample, indicating that private enterprise executives’ hometown identity is more likely to promote corporate green innovation, consistent with the previous logic.

6. Conclusions and Discussions

Based on geographic dependency theory and social identity theory, an econometric model was developed to empirically examine the impact of executive hometown identity on corporate green innovation and the moderating effect of executive social capital and organizational redundancy resources on this impact, using a sample of listed companies in the heavy polluting industry in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2013 to 2020. The study finds that: (1) executive hometown identity significantly contributes to green innovation among enterprises in the heavy polluting industry, and is more pronounced among private enterprises. The internal mechanism is that local executives take local ecological issues more seriously and are more environmentally conscious, which is internalized in their corporate strategies to promote green innovation; the hometown identity of private executives also leads to informal ties with the local social network circle, which makes it easier for them to obtain government subsidies as a resource support for green innovation based on the advantage of information access in the network circle. (2) Excessive executive corporate affiliation capital increases the short-term performance preferences of local executives and the homogeneity of information access, weakening the role of hometown identity in promoting green innovation. In contrast, executive government-associated capital strengthens the role of hometown identity in promoting green innovation; however, the strengthening effect is only reflected in private enterprises. As executives have a greater preference for green strategies due to their hometown identity and a high degree of overlap with the government’s environmental orientation, executive government-associated capital has a superposition effect, bringing more government-controlled resources to support green innovation. In contrast, state-owned enterprises, based on their special property rights, are responsible for environmental protection, social responsibility, and other policy tasks that to a certain extent enhance the rigidity of the implementation of green innovation, and the advantages of access to resources extended by local executives’ government-associated capital are not prominent, and the superposition effect is diluted. (3) When the redundant resources of the organization are sufficient, the initiative and risk-taking of executives are further stimulated, while the resource conflicts between projects within the enterprise are alleviated, and the enterprise can carry out innovation activities with greater confidence, thus strengthening the promotion of green innovation by executives’ hometown identity.

6.1. Theoretical Contributions

Existing studies have examined the influence of green value preferences mapped by executive heterogeneity traits on corporate green innovation decisions based on a cognitive structure perspective, mainly in terms of executive gender, education, career background, military experience, and tenure. The above-mentioned study is one-sided in that it only looks at executive heterogeneity from the perspective of cognitive structure to inspire green innovation. The implementation of green innovation is not only dependent on executives’ green value preferences, but also on their ability to obtain effective external innovation resources to support the enterprise, a condition that has been overlooked in existing studies. Therefore, the theoretical contributions of this paper are: first, instead of exploring the driving role of heterogeneous characteristics of executives on corporate green innovation from the perspective of value orientation and cognitive level alone, this paper focuses on the factor of executives’ hometown identity and explains the influence of executives’ hometown identity on corporate green innovation from the dual perspective of consciousness motivation and resource acquisition, providing a new perspective for green innovation-related research. Second, the research design uses panel data of listed companies to test the mechanism of executives’ hometown identity on corporate green innovation, and the findings are more robust. In addition, the boundary role of executives’ social capital and redundant resources is explored from two perspectives of attention allocation and resource base, which is a useful supplement to existing theories.

6.2. Practical Contributions

The following management insights are obtained based on the findings of this paper. First, for enterprises in heavy polluting industries: to ensure that executive decisions are in line with the corporate green strategic goals, one of them should consider geographical factors when selecting and hiring executives. Preference should be given to local managers under the same conditions, in order to play a positive role of executive hometown identification on corporate green innovation. Second, the social capital of executives should be identified and differentiated. Control local executives’ enterprise-linked capital, excessive external concurrent appointments of local executives may lead to their original environmental attention distraction, resulting in enterprises leading to corporate green strategy derailment. Private enterprises should make full use of the advantages of executive government-linked capital, especially to encourage local executives to actively expand government-linked capital, and to follow closely and study local environmental policies, which can help to obtain government subsidies as resource support for green innovation. Third, take full advantage of organizational redundancy. Redundant resources have a revitalizing effect on green innovation, and the redundant resources at the disposal of local executives should be enhanced to help optimize and rationalize the allocation of redundant resources and tilt them toward green innovation projects.

6.3. Limitations and Future Research

This study still has some limitations that need to be addressed in future research. First, this paper measures corporate green innovation by the ratio of R&D investment to energy consumption, expecting a comprehensive perspective to reflect more intuitively the motivation and effectiveness of corporate green innovation. However, the level of energy consumption data disclosure needs to be improved, which leads to the reduction of sample size. Future research can increase the sample size or expand to other industries for verification as the level of corporate information disclosure continues to improve. Secondly, executive hometown identity is a variable that reflects individual psychological characteristics. In this paper, the hometown identity of executives is measured by whether the province where the chairperson of the board of directors is from is the same as the province where the enterprise is located, ignoring individual heterogeneity. In the future, the measure of hometown identity of executives can be more finely divided in terms of degree. Third, the intensity of hometown culture varies across regions. Future research can examine whether the hometown identity of executives in different regions has a differentiated role in promoting corporate green innovation practices.