Family Firms' Corporate Social Performance: A Calculated Quest for Socioemotional Wealth

This study investigates the engagement of family firms in corporate social responsibility. We first compare their corporate social performance (CSP) to non-family firms. Then, following recent evidence on the heterogeneity of family firms, we examine two factors that may influence CSP within family...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2018-03, Vol.148 (3), p.511-525
Main Authors: Labelle, Réal, Hafsi, Taïeb, Francoeur, Claude, Amar, Walid Ben
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business and Management
Business Ethics
Companies
Comparative analysis
Cultural differences
Education
Ethics
Families & family life
Family owned businesses
Governance
Heterogeneity
Management
Owners
Philosophy
Quality of Life Research
Social responsibility
Stakeholders
Studies
Wealth
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study investigates the engagement of family firms in corporate social responsibility. We first compare their corporate social performance (CSP) to non-family firms. Then, following recent evidence on the heterogeneity of family firms, we examine two factors that may influence CSP within family firms: the level of family control and the governance orientation of the country in which they operate. This research is based on a theoretical framework which considers both agency and socioemotional wealth (SEW) influences on family firms CSR engagements. Overall, we find that family firms exhibit lower CSP than non-family firms. But when focusing on family firms, our analyses show a curvilinear relationship between family control and CSP. At lower levels of control, family owners invest more in social initiatives to protect their SEW. Beyond a threshold level of control that we estimate at 36 % in our sample, economic considerations prevail over SEW and social performance starts decreasing. We also find that family firms operating in stakeholder-oriented countries are more attentive to social concerns than those operating in more shareholder-oriented countries.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-015-2982-9