Abstract:

Firms are the core carriers of social and economic wealth， the main requesters of natural resources， and the most critical factors of economic development and environmental protections. The urgent of achieving sustainable development and improving the environment has prompted firms to undertake their environmental responsibilities. Thus， how to promote corporate to fulfill environmental responsibilities has become a practical problem that needs to be solved urgently. In this paper， the impact of environmental protection background executives and their power distribution on corporate environmental responsibility performance is examined. The manually collected data about executives’ professional background and the latest power measurement method are used， and the data of listed companies in China’s A-share heavy polluting industries from 2006 to 2019 is drawn on. The results show that environmental protection background executives significantly promote the level of corporate environmental responsibility performance， the higher environmental protection background executives’ power in the top management team， the higher the level of corporate environmental responsibility performance. The effect of environmental protection background executives and their power on corporate environmental responsibility performance is different within enterprises that adopt different environmental strategies， the positive effect is more significant in enterprises that adopt defensive environmental strategies. This study is helpful to optimize the allocation of power distribution of top management team， promote enterprises to fulfill environmental responsibility， and accelerate the development of an ecological civilization.

Key words: environmental protection background, top management team, power distribution, corporate environmental responsibility