How does Dual “Rural Imprint” of Senior Executives Affect Corporate Debt Financing?

Based on the analysis framework of imprinting theory, this paper empirically studies the impact of senior executives’ rural experiences on corporate financial leverage, debt maturity structure and debt cost. This paper finds that the rural experience can bring two imprints to senior executives, namely cognitive imprint and ability imprint. Firstly, senior executives’ rural experience can reduce the financial leverage and long-term debt of enterprises by reducing the risk appetite and overconfidence of senior executives. Secondly, senior executives’ rural experience can reduce the cost of debt by increasing earnings quality and corporate social responsibility of senior executives’ company. Thirdly, the effect of senior executives’ rural experience on reducing the cost of debt is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises with difficulty in financing.