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Executive characteristics have a significant impact on corporate decision-making, corporate sustainable behavior, and stock market performance, which may influence the corporations' sustainable development in the long run. The role of returnee talents in the corporate sustainable development has received extensive academic attention. Using data of Chinese A-share listed companies over the period of 2008-2018, we find that there is a negative relationship between executives' foreign experience and stock price synchronicity. We also prove that corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a significant mediating effect on the relationship between returnee executives and stock price synchronicity. The returnee executives tend to pursue long-term sustainable activities and improve CSR engagement quality, thereby reducing stock price synchronicity. Our extended analysis reveals that the benefit of returnee executives is more pronounced for non-SOEs and for firms located in regions with a low degree of marketization. This study has some implications for the Chinese firms in relation to their CSR information disclosure behavior, and it gives suggestions to strengthen capital market efficiency for the sustainable development of corporations., Competing Interests: QT is employed by Shenzhen Branch of China Telecom Corporation Limited. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Gao, Zhao and Tian.)

While past studies have enriched our understanding of the impact of returnee executives on firm market strategy and outcomes, we know relatively little about the relationship between returnee executives and firm nonmarket strategies. Grounded in upper echelons theory, this study explores the relationship between returnee executives and corporate philanthropy, the latter of which is an important nonmarket strategy in emerging economies such as China. Using data on publicly listed Chinese companies from 2010 to 2017, we find that the proportion of returnee executives is negative related to corporate philanthropy. We also find that this negative relationship is strengthened by executive ownership, but weakened by corporate prominence and political connections. Our study makes important theoretical contributions to strategic leadership research, upper echelons theory, and the literature of corporate philanthropy. The managerial implications are also discussed., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021.)