Employees’ innovative behavior is a vital source for promoting the sustainable survival and development of enterprises. Innovation is a complicated and high-risk mental process, where in each stage employees’ innovative attitude and behavior will be affected by the varying behaviors of their direct leaders. Therefore, exploring the intricate relationship between leadership behavior and employees’ innovative behavior is necessary. Based on social exchange theory, this study builds a cross-level moderation model to investigate the impact of ethical leadership on employees’ innovative behavior and the mediating role of organization-based self-esteem and the moderating role of flexible human resource management. On the basis of a questionnaire survey of 146 supervisors and 365 subordinates in the mainland of China, the empirical results show that: (a) Ethical leadership positively affects employees’ innovative behavior significantly; (b) Organization-based self-esteem has a partial mediating relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ innovative behavior; and (c) flexible human resource management plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between organization-based self-esteem and employees’ innovative behavior, and it also positively moderates the mediating effect of organization-based self-esteem on the relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ innovative behavior. The findings reveal the internal mechanism and boundary condition of ethical leadership influencing employees’ innovative behavior, which provide a reference for enterprises to encourage employees to innovate, and have important practical significance for employees to actively pursue innovative activities in the workplace.

In response to escalating global ecological and environmental challenges, this study examines the impact of carbon information disclosure on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance to encourage corporate transition toward pollution reduction and carbon mitigation, thereby contributing to the practical advancement of the “dual carbon” strategy. Based on a hierarchical regression analysis of manufacturing listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2009 to 2023, the findings reveal that carbon information disclosure significantly enhances corporate ESG performance. Mechanism tests reveal that green technology innovation partially mediates the relationship between carbon information disclosure and ESG performance, while environmental regulations, media attention, and market competition exert positive moderating effects on this relationship. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that carbon information disclosure exerts a pronounced positive effect on ESG performance for high-tech, heavily polluting, and eastern enterprises. This research expands the understanding of the value of carbon information disclosure and provides theoretical foundations and practical insights for enterprises pursuing sustainable development.