Abstract: How intergenerational inheritance affects corporate green innovation transformation has been an important issue in family business governance research. This paper examines how young heirs' inadequate managerial authority affects green innovation of family firms. Using data on Chinese Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed family firms for the period 2009-2021, this paper finds that young heirs' inadequate managerial authority, resulting in their difficulty in gaining support, has restrained family firms' green innovation. The findings still hold after mitigating endogeneity and a series of robustness tests. The mechanism test shows that the negative effect is mainly achieved by increasing the young heir' myopia preference and aggravating the corporate uncertainty. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of young heirs' inadequate managerial authority on family businesses' green innovation is more pronounced in regions with a weaker environmental regulation intensity, in areas with a lower public awareness of environmental protection, in entrepreneurial family firms, in firms that have more intra-family conflicts, and in the stage of the parent-child co-governance. Economic consequences analysis shows that the effect of young heirs' inadequate managerial authority on family businesses' green innovation has brought about a significant loss of corporate sustainable development performance, manifested in the undermining of both economic value and environmental performance. This paper enriches the existing research on green innovation in family firms from the perspective of the young heir's inadequate managerial authority, and provides empirical evidence and managerial insights on how family firms should optimize intergenerational inheritance plans, improve corporate green innovation and enhance the quality of economic development.

Key words: family firm, young heirs' inadequate managerial authority, green innovation, managerial authority