Climate Policy Uncertainty and Corporate Green Strategy Adjustment: A Perspective on Hiring Executives With Environmental Experience

Abstract

ABSTRACT The complexity of climate change has led to increasing climate policy uncertainty, which has become a significant external challenge for businesses. Based on the dynamic capabilities theory and using a sample of Chinese A‐share listed companies from 2007 to 2022, this paper explores the impact of climate policy uncertainty (CPU) on the hiring of executives with environmental experience from a human resource perspective. The study finds that as climate policy uncertainty rises, companies tend to view executives with an environmental background as strategic human resources possessing policy interpretation and green technology identification capabilities. As a result, firms are more likely to hire such executives to maintain and enhance their dynamic capabilities. Additionally, the study reveals that climate policy uncertainty influences the hiring of executives with environmental experience through increased climate concern among internal shareholders and enhanced external analyst tracking. Economic consequence tests show that by hiring executives with environmental experience, companies can effectively secure government environmental subsidies and improve green innovation levels in the context of external climate policy uncertainty. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impact of climate policy uncertainty on the hiring of executives with environmental experience is more pronounced in high‐carbon emission industries and “ownerless” firms, influenced by regulatory intensity and governance structure differences. This paper enriches the application framework of dynamic capabilities' theory in the context of green transformation, while also providing practical insights for companies to optimize human resource strategies to enhance environmental adaptability under the backdrop of climate policy uncertainty.

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