Top Management Background and Corporate Green Energy Investment

This paper evaluates the association between top management academic background and the extent of corporate green energy investment. The approach is quantitative and data collection was from the sustainability reports of twenty companies from the FTSE/JSE Responsible Investing Index. Using a cross-sectional data, findings from a linear regression analysis show a significant association (at a p value of less than 0.001) between top managements’ academic background and percentage of green energy investment within the sample of companies. Therefore, within the limits of this study, the findings provide a clue to show that managers’ academic background may have an influence on the level of corporate green energy investment. This paper opens an agenda for a follow-up research to expand the length and breadth of this research area to find out the most likely group of top managements’ academic discipline that may favour more green energy investment. It contributes to the literature on corporate green energy investment by initiating the idea of relating green energy investment with top managements’ background.