When Time Horizons Align: CEO Temporal Focus Congruence and Corporate Carbon Emission Performance

As climate-related risks pose a serious threat to corporate economic activities, a growing number of firms are recognizing the need to take action to address climate change. Drawing on the attention-based view and legitimacy theory, we investigated how CEO temporal focus congruence influences corporate carbon emission performance and the moderating role of CEO power. Analyzing a sample of 2191 Chinese A-share manufacturing listed firms from 2010 to 2022 and employing polynomial regression with response surface analysis, we find that congruence between CEO past and future focus enhances carbon emission performance more effectively than incongruence, and this effect is more pronounced when CEOs are highly focused on both the past and the future. Moreover, CEO power reinforces the positive effect of CEO temporal focus congruence. These effects are particularly pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, high-tech firms, and eastern China. Our findings contribute to the literature on temporal focus, the attention-based view, and corporate sustainability by highlighting the importance of CEO temporal cognition in shaping corporate responses to climate change.