Green innovation in family businesses is a significant yet underexplored area of research, particularly with regard to the influence of dynamic succession characteristics on intergenerational inheritance and its impact on innovation. This study, integrating the social-emotional wealth theory (SEW) and the agency theory, examines 505 Chinese listed family firms spanning from 2011 to 2020. Employing the Difference-in-Differences (DID) method, we investigate how intergenerational inheritance affects green innovation investment over time. Our findings reveal that initially, intergenerational transmission tends to inhibit green innovation investment in family businesses; however, this effect diminishes as the intergenerational process unfolds, indicative of the maturation of the second generation. Notably, we observe that a higher education level among second-generation heirs weakens the inhibitory effect of intergenerational inheritance on green innovation investment. This study addresses a gap in green innovation research by considering intergenerational transmission dynamics in family businesses, thus enhancing our understanding of innovation behaviors within this context. By synthesizing SEW and agency theory, this research offers novel insights into the varying impacts of intergenerational inheritance on firm innovation, shedding light on approaches to reconcile the willingness-ability paradox in family business innovation and promoting effective governance of succession processes.

For a greener society, good corporate environmental information disclosure is crucial. This study empirically examines the influence of media attention and state-owned equity, and their interaction on corporate environmental information disclosure by A-share heavily polluting firms in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2015 to 2019. The results show that state-owned equity can improve the level of corporate environmental information disclosure; however, it mainly affects financial environmental information disclosure. Media attention also improves the level of corporate environmental information disclosure, but only for non-financial environmental information. Moreover, media attention and state-owned equity have a certain substitution effect on environmental information disclosure: a higher state-owned equity ratio weakens the positive effect of media attention on environmental information disclosure. To improve environmental information disclosure, the government must clarify disclosure standards to improve the comparability of environmental information. In addition, media and shareholders can fully leverage their external and internal supervisory roles to promote the environmental responsibilities of firms. Our findings can be useful for further promoting corporate environmental information disclosure and developing relevant policies.