The Impact of General Manager’s Responsible Leadership and Executive Compensation Incentive on Enterprise ESG Performance

Abstract

This paper takes 101 enterprises in high-tech industries as research samples to investigate the impact of a general manager’s responsible leadership on enterprise ESG performance. The results showed that (1) a general manager’s responsible leadership can promote enterprise ESG performance, and (2) organizational resilience has a mediating effect between general manager responsible leadership and enterprise ESG performance. These conclusions were still robust after a series of validity tests. Further analysis showed that a monetary compensation incentive for senior executives positively regulates the indirect effect of a general manager’s responsible leadership on enterprise ESG performance through organizational resilience; that is, when monetary incentive for senior executives is high, the positive impact of a general manager’s responsible leadership on enterprise ESG performance through organizational resilience is strong. However, the influence of executive equity-based compensation incentive on their relationship is not obvious. The conclusions of this study provide theoretical and practical enlightenment for improving enterprise ESG performance, enrich the research on the intermediary mechanism of organizational resilience on responsible leadership and enterprise ESG performance, and provide intervention and decision-making basis for enterprises, regulators, and other relevant departments. The limitations of this study pave the way for further research directions, incorporating equity-based compensation incentive on promoting responsible leadership to achieve high ESG performance, and allowing for a better evaluation assessment.