The Corporate Social Responsibility of Family Businesses: An International Approach

Abstract

This study analyzes the links between listed family businesses and social responsibility. On the theoretical level, it establishes a relationship between socioemotional wealth, proactive stakeholder engagement, and the social responsibility of family businesses. On a practical level, our results (obtained from a sample of 363 companies) show that family businesses do not differ from non-family businesses in many dimensions of social responsibility. Moreover, family businesses have statistically significant lower ratings for four sub-dimensions of "corporate governance", namely "balance of power and effectiveness of the Board", "audit and control mechanisms", "engagement with shareholders and shareholder structure", and "executive compensation".

Does corporate social responsibility affect tax avoidance: Evidence from family firms

“…These authors argue that decisions made within family businesses respond primarily to the preservation of social-emotional endowment, which becomes the reference point for management decisions. There has also been empirical evidence reported of a weaker orientation towards CSR practices among family firms or of the nonexistence of such differences between family and nonfamily firms (Hirigoyen & Poulain-Rehm, 2014). Nonetheless, the traditional view is that family firms are usually characterized by nonfinancial aims, such as identity, reputation, longevity, and the preservation of a positive image in the public domain (Anderson & Reeb, 2003;Berrone et al, 2010;Marques, Presas, & Simon, 2014).…”

Does the Risk of Managerial Entrenchment Affect CEO Dismissal in Family SMEs?

“…Moreover, this family firm definition is frequently used in the recent literature (Anderson & Reeb, 2003;Colot, 2010;Hirigoyen & Poulain-Rehm, 2014). Based on this definition, 318 SMEs can be considered as family businesses, which represents 81.33% of our sample.…”

Performance and Behavior of Family Firms

“…In this Special Issue, Hirigoyen and Poulain-Rehm [28] demonstrate that publicly-traded family businesses in Europe, Asia, and North America do not differ from non-family firms in CSR activities in the forms of human resources (i.e., industrial relations, employment relations, and working conditions), human rights (i.e., freedom of association, promotion of collective bargaining, non-discrimination, equality, elimination of child or any forced labor as well as harassment, and protection of personal data), community involvement, protection of environment, and business relations (i.e., rights and interests of customers, integration of social and environmental standards in the selection of suppliers, and respect for competition rules). The authors also show a negative relationship between family governance and corporate governance practices in terms of the balance of power and effectiveness of board, audit and control mechanisms, engagement with shareholders, and executive compensations.…”