Research on the Influence of Background Characteristics of Executive Teams on ESG Performance of Firms

This article first reviews the development process and research status of ESG, pointing out that there has been less attention paid to the impact of executive teams on corporate ESG performance in existing studies, while studying the impact of executive team background on corporate ESG performance has important theoretical and practical significance. This article starts from two aspects: the overseas background and academic background of the executive team, and uses empirical research methods to examine the impact of the background characteristics of the executive team on the ESG performance of enterprises.This study found that firstly, the larger the proportion of executive members with overseas backgrounds, the better the ESG performance of a company. The research results indicate that overseas experience and experience can influence executive behavior and make decisions that are beneficial for the ESG performance of the company. Secondly, the larger the proportion of executive members with academic backgrounds, the better the ESG performance of the enterprise. The research results indicate that the academic background of the executive team can significantly improve their learning and information collection abilities, thereby making them more proficient in ESG related decision-making, and thus having a positive promoting effect on the ESG performance of the enterprise. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of overseas and academic backgrounds of executive teams on ESG performance is more pronounced in state- ii owned enterprises, when the external legal environment of the enterprise is more perfect, and when the proportion of executive shareholding is higher. Further research has found that the overseas background of the board of directors also has a positive impact on the ESG performance of enterprises. In addition, this study found that the improvement of ESG performance by the overseas background of the executive team is mainly reflected in the two dimensions of ESG society and governance, while the improvement of ESG performance by the academic background of the executive team is mainly reflected in the two dimensions of ESG environment and society. This article starts with the latest business philosophy of enterprise ESG performance, examining the impact of executive team background characteristics on enterprise ESG performance, enriching research on the economic consequences of executive team background characteristics, and expanding research on the influencing factors of enterprise ESG performance. The research conclusions of this article contribute to a deeper understanding and understanding of the scenarios in which background characteristics of executive teams may play a role, and also contribute to a deeper analysis of the possible influencing factors of ESG performance in enterprises. The research conclusions of this article have certain practical guiding significance for the construction of ESG system and the formation of executive teams in Chinese listed companies.