The why and how of corporate social responsibility in family business: a literature review

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the state of the art of research in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in family business, in order to find potential research gaps and to identify future research directions. We carried out a literature, using most common sources. 80 articles, issued in different journals, from a wide range of fields, were found. The majority of articles are empirical; we didn’t find any literature review on CSR in family business. Research findings show that CSR in family business is a topic that has been analysed since 2003, but the literature is very limited and fragmented. Some authors underline that family business are more socially responsible than nonfamily firms, others suggest that there are not differences between family and nonfamily businesses. Family firms have special links with local community and they have a particular focus on social and environmental issues. Moreover, they have strong ties with their stakeholders, nevertheless some authors underline that family ownership has a negative correlation with employees and the community in relation to CSR performance. In the light of findings of the literature review, we propose that future research should analyse more in depth how the distinctive features of family firms may have an impact on the adoption of CSR practices, as well differences in the CSR approach within different kinds of family businesses.