*Article* **Executive's Environmental Protection Background and Corporate Green Innovation: Evidence from China**

**Xiyan Bai \* and Chan Lyu \***

School of Business, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao 999078, China **\*** Correspondence: 2109853gbb30007@student.must.edu.com (X.B.); chlyu@must.edu.mo (C.L.)

**Abstract:** Green innovation is crucial to the sustainable development of corporates. The executive's environmental protection background has an impact on their comprehensive skills, value orientation, management style, and behavioral patterns, thus playing an important role in corporate green innovation strategy. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between executives' environmental protection background and corporate green innovation and its boundary mechanisms. Using data of A-share listed companies in China from 2007 to 2021, this relationship was empirically investigated using Stata analysis software and the establishment of a fixed-effects analysis model. Based on the upper echelons theory, this study finds that executive environmental protection background positively affects corporates' green innovation. The above positive relationship persists when measures of green innovation and alternative regression models address robustness. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating role of the external environment and internal organizational factors (i.e., media attention and board independence). This study concludes that media attention and board independence positively moderate the positive relationship between executives' environmental protection background and green innovation. The study contributes to the upper echelons theory and provides new insights into green innovation in emerging economies.

**Keywords:** green innovation; environmental protection background; media attention; board independence
