Four essays on family businesses and corporate social responsibility

Resumen

The number of studies in the literature about family firms has been increasing, along with concerns on how these companies develop relationships associated with corporate social responsibility (CSR). Thus, the aim of the current PhD dissertation is to analyze how family influence can affect companies’ CSR performance. Consequently, the study was divided into four chapters focused on investigating the relationship of family business and CSR, as well as the effect of different moderators on such a relationship. The first chapter comprises a scientometric analysis about the association between family business and CSR, based on 95 studies published from 2003 to 2020. The second chapter comprises a meta-analysis aimed on testing the influence of family involvement on CSR performance, based on a sample of 56 empirical studies. The third chapter investigates the moderator role played by national institutions in the relationship of family firms and environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. To that aim, 51 countries and 3,991 firms were analyzed to investigate the effect of national institutions on the performance of each ESG dimension, in separate. The fourth chapter analyzes the moderating effect of family businesses environment on firms’ ESG performance within and emerging and growth-leading economies (EAGLEs). Results evidence the progress of studies on the topic over the years, as well as the role played by stakeholder’s theory, agency and socio-emotional wealth in studies about the relationship of family firms and CSR. Besides, family involvement moderators, such as companies’ size and type, as well as other moderators associated with business context, such as countries' culture, were observed in CSR performance. The current dissertation has also shown that family firms score differently in each dimension of ESG performance. In fact, they get the best results in corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate environmental performance (CEP), but they also get the worst results in the governance dimension (CGP). Therefore, the current dissertation highlights the importance of conducting the individual analysis of all ESG dimensions in order to identify the circumstances in which family firms can prioritize a given dimension at the expense of another. Furthermore, this research reveals that the association between family involvement and decisions involving ESG actions can be moderated by circumstances that are intrinsic to their countries, such as national institutions’ influence on countries’ development level. These circumstances can enhance the results of the analyzed dimensions, as seen in companies located in EAGLEs countries. Thus, the herein presented investigation may help managers, stockholders, advisors, among other stakeholders, to better understand how the family management model enhances actions associated with CSR and ESG performance.