Based on regulatory focus theory and the behavioral theory of the firm, we empirically examine the impact of top management teams’ environmental regulatory focus on corporate green innovation preferences and its boundary conditions using data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2022. Results show that environmental promotion focus boosts firms’ preference for substantive green innovation, while environmental prevention focus inhibits it. Additionally, positive environmental performance feedback weakens the effect of promotion focus and mitigates the negative impact of prevention focus. Negative feedback, on the other hand, strengthens the positive influence of promotion focus and exacerbates the negative effect of prevention focus. Further analysis reveals that positive feedback has a stronger moderating role in non-heavy-polluting industries, while negative feedback is more influential in heavy-polluting industries.