Sustainability and Environmental Behaviour in Family Firms: A Longitudinal Analysis of Environment‐Related Activities, Innovation and Performance

Abstract

Environmental behaviour plays an important role as concerns the public image and performance of firms, as well as for the achievement of sustainable development in society. This study investigates the behaviour of family firms regarding environment-related activities, innovation and performance. Opposing goals are found to impact environmental behaviour of family firms, in particular the trade-off between family firms' risk awareness and their aim of achieving socioeconomic wealth. We find that family firms initially lag regarding environment-related activities, beneficial product, process and organizational innovations and performance. Yet, family firms catch up and show overall less volatility compared with other firms. Overall, we thus observe a convergence process between family and non-family firms, which ultimately enables the two types of firm to achieve similar outcomes in terms of environment-related activities, beneficial innovations and performance.

A comparison of family and nonfamily small firms in their approach to green innovation: A study of Italian companies in the agri‐food industry

“…With regard to theoretical implications, this study answers to the call for additional research on the environmental behavior of family firms with regard to environmental innovation and performance (Doluca et al, ) and on the innovation management behavior of family firms from a small business perspective (Sciascia et al, 2015). Thus, this study contributes to the current discussions on family firms' uniqueness with regard to both environmental management and innovation management from a small firm perspective.…”

“…Huang et al () found that family firms achieve lower financial performance from green product innovation than their nonfamily counterpart. Doluca et al () found that environmental‐related performance of family and nonfamily firms are similar in the long run. Ardito et al () found that the involvement of a family firm in the development of joint green patents increases the patent value.…”

“…The authors highlighted that little is known about this topic so far and found that family firms initially lag with regard to environmental activities, green innovations (product, process, and organizational), and performance, but reach nonfamily firms later, displaying a more stable behavior over time. Despite making a relevant first step in advancing knowledge on the topic of green innovation in family firms, in the study of Doluca et al (), no focus is done on the antecedents of green innovation and (except than distinguishing it in product, process, and organizational) on the green innovation, in terms of how it is viewed by entrepreneurs/managers, the innovation process characteristics, and related challenges. Further, firm size can play a key role in determining the innovation management behavior of firms and previous studies called for additional research on the relationship between family involvement and innovation management from a small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) perspective (Sciascia et al, 2015).…”

Mindfulness, socioemotional wealth, and environmental strategy of family businesses

“…First, our study offers evidence that mindfulness in protecting SEW, specifically in the identification of family members with the firm and binding social ties, provides a rich endowment that develops appropriate capabilities to produce sustainable products and processes. We enrich the literatures on organizational mindfulness, SEW in family firms, and their sustainable practices (e.g., Berrone et al, ; Block & Wagner, ; Doluca et al, ; Good et al, ). Our findings illustrate the importance of capabilities when integrating MSEW and sustainable products and processes.…”

“…The mediation analysis discloses new insights in the debate over whether family firms are more environmentally active and socially responsible. Prior research (e.g., Berrone et al, ; Calza et al, ; Doluca et al, ; Uhlaner, Berent‐Braun, Jeurissen, & de Wit, ) has only examined the relationship by linking ownership forms with environmental and corporate social responsibility performance. Our findings show that a mediator such as firm's capabilities could bring inconsistencies to their results.…”