Executive Green Cognition, Corporate Green Transformation, and Sustainable Green Innovation

As China advances its low-carbon transition, understanding how managerial environmental attention is associated with the green technological activity of firms is increasingly important. Using 20,478 firm-year observations for Chinese A-share listed firms from 2016 to 2023, this study examines the associations among disclosed executive green attention, disclosed corporate green transformation orientation, and subsequent green patenting activity. Executive green attention is derived from annual reports, whereas corporate green transformation orientation is derived from annual reports or separately issued responsibility-related reports, depending on availability. Green patent applications are used to capture patent-based environmental innovation activity. The empirical analysis employs firm and year fixed-effects models, firm-clustered bootstrap tests, alternative variable measures, additional industry-by-year and province-by-year fixed effects, and pollution-intensity heterogeneity analyses. The results show that disclosed executive green attention has no statistically significant total or conditional direct association with subsequent green patenting. However, it is positively associated with disclosed corporate green transformation orientation, which is in turn positively associated with green patenting activity. The significant bootstrap coefficient product provides evidence that is consistent with an indirect association through transformation-oriented disclosure, but does not establish causal mediation. The pollution-intensity analysis indicates that the cognition–transformation association is weaker among pollution-intensive firms, while neither the transformation–patenting association nor the overall indirect association differs significantly between the two groups. These findings highlight the relevance of transformation-oriented corporate disclosure to connecting managerial environmental attention with subsequent green patenting, while underscoring the disclosure-based and associational nature of the evidence.