Environmental responsibility of family businesses: a perspective paper

Purpose

This perspective paper explores ongoing research into stimuli that promote environmental responsibility in family business contexts. It also delineates emerging patterns and possible directions for future research within this domain.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors synthesise, critically assess and integrate existing research to make current thinking about the environmental responsibility of family businesses more accessible to a wide range of readers.

Findings

This paper offers a comprehensive overview of multifaceted triggers and sheds light on how they interact and influence the environmental performance of family businesses. The authors delve into family dynamics and values, examining how they enable a business to develop environmental responsibility practices. Simultaneously, the authors emphasise the importance of probing the impact of the macro environment within which family businesses operate, which either might incentivise or challenge their pursuit of environmental responsibility initiatives. The need to design a robust tool to measure the environmental consciousness of familiness, applicable to specific contextual settings, has been identified. Investigating how accounting and control systems act as supportive management tools to enhance the efficacy of overall corporate performance in family businesses is another area for future research. Moreover, examining these dynamics within the unique landscape of emerging economies offers a promising field of exploration.

Originality/value

This article consolidates existing research on the environmental responsibility of family businesses and puts forward potential avenues for future research.