The Impact of Senior Executives’ Military Experience on Corporate GTFP

The influencing factors of corporate GTFP are a topic of considerable interest in the academia, but they are mainly limited to discussing the impact of formal institutions on corporate GTFP. Although a small amount of literature has studied the impact of clan culture, Confucian culture, and social trust on corporate GTFP based on informal institutions, they have ignored the factor of senior executives’ military experience. To fill this research gap, using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2011 to 2021, this article studies the impact of senior executives’ military experience on corporate green total factor productivity (GTFP). The results show that senior executives’ military experience has a significant positive impact on corporate GTFP. Further research shows that the positive impact of senior executives’ military experience on corporate GTFP is more significant in regions with imperfect formal institutions. The test of mechanism effect shows that R&D investment is an important channel for executives’ military experience to promote corporate GTFP. For the first time, this article examines the impact of informal institutions on corporate GTFP from the perspective of senior executives’ military experience. The research contributions of this study are as follows: it enriches the literature on the economic consequences of senior executives’ military experience and the influencing factors of corporate GTFP and has enlightenment and reference significance for improving the corporate GTFP.