To examine how clean energy technology companies, achieve sustainable clean energy development, the present study proposes a new model that uses the upper echelons theory to describe how Chinese-specific environmentally responsible leadership (CERL) of chief executive officers (CEOs) influences a company's adoption of green innovation strategy (GIS) via the intermediary role of the environmental organizational citizenship behavior (EOCB) of top management teams (TMTs).
The multilevel curve model is used to analyze a survey of 50 CEOs and 150 TMT members collected three times in 6 months, and the results of the analysis support all the hypotheses. The results have three important contributions to the energy and environment field. First, the present study is the first to propose CERL, and CERL can not only promote the development of environmental leadership in the Chinese environment but also achieve the goal of sustainable clean energy operations. Second, the present study employs a specific model to demonstrate how TMTs’ EOCB can transform companies’ strategic formulations into GIS through the CERL of CEOs. Finally, the present study addresses the cultural gap through CERL, so it makes a significant contribution to the energy and environment field from a cultural dimension.
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