The Corporate Social Responsibility of Family Businesses: An International Approach

Gérard Hirigoyen (1) , Thierry Poulain-Rehm (2)

1 IRGO - Institut de Recherche en Gestion des Organisations
2 CEREGE [Poitiers] - Centre de recherche en gestion [EA 1722]

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 " .

Mots clés: family business; corporate governance; human resources; social responsibility; stakeholders

Domaines: Economies et finances

Gérard Hirigoyen, Thierry Poulain-Rehm. The Corporate Social Responsibility of Family Businesses: An International Approach. International Journal of Financial Studies, 2014, 2014, pp.240 - 265. ⟨10.3390/ijfs2030240⟩. ⟨hal-01382070⟩