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This study investigates whether and how customer firms’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance impacts suppliers’ green innovation quality using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2022. We find that customers’ ESG performance facilitates suppliers’ green innovation quality through green learning and corporate competition. Additional tests indicate that customers with stickier customer–supplier relationships and a more central position in the supply chain network than peers enhance suppliers’ green innovation quality. After categorizing whether customers engage in greenwashing, we determine that those adherence to green principles, genuinely promote suppliers’ green innovation quality. Finally, we find the above effect ultimately enhances suppliers’ environmental performance. This study provides valuable insights for supply chain companies into collaboratively achieving sustainable development.

Based on the data of Chinese listed family firms from 2008 to 2016, we investigate the impact of family involvement on firm innovation and the moderating effect of family member composition. The results show that increased family involvement significantly reduces R&D investment intensity and the number of patent applications. With the increased richness of the kinship of family members involved in management, the negative impact of family involvement on patent applications is weakened, but family member composition does not have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between family involvement and R&D investment intensity. Further analysis shows that the number of invention patent applications decreases as the degree of family involvement increases, but family involvement has no significant effect on utility model patent and design patent applications. Family member composition has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between family involvement and invention patent applications. The results have value as a reference for exploring how family involvement affects firm innovation and can also help the actual controller to take effective measures to optimize family member composition and improve the innovation performance of family firms.