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Purpose – This chapter explores the m+eaning and significance of family business social responsibilities (FBSRs) using a metasystem approach, placing emphasis on the role of the family.

Design/Methodology/Approach – We employ a revelatory case study to investigate the complexity of family business (corporate) social responsibility. The main case, a German shoe retailer, is supplemented by other case illustrations that provide additional insights into FBSR.

Findings – To fully understand social responsibility in a family firm context, we need to include social initiatives that go beyond the actual family business as a unit. This FBSR connects family members outside and inside the business and across generations. As FBSR is formed through individual and family-level values, its character is idiosyncratic and contrasts the often standardized approaches in widely held firms.

Practical Implication – Family businesses need to go beyond the business as such when considering their engagement in social responsibility. Family ownership implies that all social initiatives conducted by family members, regardless if they are involved in the firm or not, are connected. This includes a shared responsibility for what family members do at present and have done in the past.

This paper explores corporate social responsibility in family businesses. In particular, the research investigates family businesses in relation to a wide variety of constituent or stakeholder groups. It reports the preliminary results of focused interviews with 42 small and medium‐sized Dutch family businesses. The data obtained from content analysis suggest that a mix of corporate social responsibility perspectives, help to explain the nature of relationships with, and behaviors toward, various constituency groups. The family character of the business most frequently impacts employee, client, and supplier relationships. Statistically significant interaction effects are reported for the following moderator variables: generation of the owner; company tenure in the community; community size; company size; and inclusion of the family surname in the business name. Interaction effects were also tested for industry type and gender. The paper also outlines some practical implications of the findings and suggests directions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the distinctive elements of CSR communications that characterize the communications models of family businesses in the Italian wine industry, and to compare them with nonfamily businesses.

Using a case study approach, a sample of large and medium companies practicing corporate social responsibility was identified. The content of their websites was examined using content analysis and text mining (correspondence analysis techniques and word association analysis using the T-Lab software).

The analysis indicates that the ownership structure nature makes a difference in the online CSR communications process. The cultural identity in both family and nonfamily businesses is founded on intangible factors such as tradition; however, being a family business is a fundamental driver in the online CSR communications process, no longer forming a bond among players in the wine industry, but rather linking with other wine family businesses.

One limitation of this work is the small size of the investigated sample. An added value it contributes is its focus on the Italian wine industry. The paper provides the essential elements that family and nonfamily wine businesses should consider in customizing their CSR communications with the brand’s specific details.

The authors highlighted the similarities and differences of family and nonfamily wine businesses in terms of their online CSR communications. The authors also observed how the family wine business identity, in its multidimensional construct, has common factors with what we call “familiness.” This research could establish a starting point for further work within this important sector.

Inspired by increasing public interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the intensified focus of research on family firms (FFs) over the past few decades, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the existing literature on CSR in FF through a citation analysis.

This paper overviews the structure of research on CSR in FF, identifying influential publications, authors, and key lines of discussion. The authors identified the underlying sample through a systematic, keyword-based literature search of seven databases. Starting with this sample, the authors analyzed a database of 4,342 references of 3,025 different sources cited in the 63 articles.

The findings show that the cited literature on CSR in FF is widespread, confirming that the research field has great heterogeneity. The authors identified the most-cited researcher as Luis R. Gómez-Mejía (University of Notre Dame, USA), with 93 citations. The average author in the group of the 22 most-cited authors (with a three-way tie for 20th-most-cited author) counts 45.45 citations in the sample of 13.95 different sources. Because the citations mostly refer to journal articles, the authors further investigated the particular journals of publication. The 20 most-influential journals cover 45.28 percent of all citations, with the Journal of Business Ethics being the most influential (6.38 percent of all citations). Within the 3,025 different sources cited in the whole sample, the publication by Dyer and Whetten (2006), which is titled “Family firms and social responsibility: preliminary evidence from the S&P 500,” is the most-cited (29 citations in 46.03 percent of the analyzed 63 peer-reviewed journal articles).

The authors conclude with a call for more research on CSR in FF (especially qualitative case studies). Moreover, as scholars of North America and Western Europe dominate the current landscape of research, the authors would like to encourage scholars from other countries and cultures to provide insights from their countries.

The purpose of this study is to explore the drivers for proactive workplace social performance in family firms through a configurational approach. Comparative research on family versus non-family firms and workplace social performance has produced mixed results. Consequently, several calls have been made to account for family business heterogeneity to understand better how family involvement in the business affects the workplace social performance. The authors respond to these calls by exploring the governance antecedents that can catalyze family firms’ workplace social performance.

Using qualitative comparative analysis, the authors analyze 131 family firms from the STEP survey data.

The authors find two governance configurations that lead to better family business workplace social performance. The first configuration is the combination of 100% family ownership, high family involvement in management and a mix of outside directors and family members on the board. The second configuration is the combination of less than 100% family ownership and low family involvement in management.

The study builds on and extends the nascent work suggesting the integration of agency and stewardship theories. The authors show that these two theoretical approaches are able to not only coexist, but that they can also be complementary in helping to understand the unique workplace social behaviors of family firms.

This paper aims to explore the role of socioemotional wealth (SEW) in family firms’ (FFs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and practices. The authors draw on the notion of “Socioemotional endowment” (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2010), to interpret how the different dimensions of the FIBER model impact on the instrumental, moral or relational motives that push companies toward CSR.

The authors develop an integrated framework that analyzes motives of CSR practices (distinguishing between moral, instrumental and relational ones) and dimensions of FF’ SEW. The idea is that it is not possible to analyze the CSR attitude of FFs without distinguishing among the five dimensions of SEW (family control and influence; identification of family members with the firm; binding social ties; emotional attachment; and renewal of family bonds to the firm through dynastic succession).

The authors posit that FFs are particularly likely to engage in instrumental, moral or relational CSR practices depending on the FIBER dimension that they consider as primary reference point to achieve the goal of preserving SEW. In particular, out of the five FIBER dimensions, relational and instrumental motives appear to be more present in firms’ priority, when they deal with CSR activities.

Most of the literature on CSR and FFs concentrates on the differences between family and non-family firms (non-FFs) in approaching social responsible practices. Instead of debating whether FFs are more or less socially responsible than non-family organizations, the authors add to this literature by arguing that it is much more relevant to analyze which approach family firms (as an heterogeneous group) are more likely to adopt in relation to CSR. In so doing, they contribute to FFs studies on sustainability, by demonstrating that CSR engagement can be differently influenced and interpreted through the five dimensions of the FIBER model.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the extant literature of family firms and corporate social responsibility (CSR), examining the case of West’n Fresh, a regional Western Australian family firm. Moreover, in adopting stakeholder theory (ST) the firm’s involvement in and resulting benefits from CSR are investigated.

In-depth telephone and face-to-face interviews with three members of the firm, including one of its two owners, were further complemented through onsite observations and secondary data from the firm’s website and media reports.

Entrepreneurial CSR emerges as a critical element in the family firm’s business philosophy, whereby through innovative practices the ownership is able to create a balance between the firm’s financial objectives and socially responsible initiatives. In particular, the development of food products creates business opportunities while at the same time addresses the needs of different consumer groups, in particular, aged care individuals. These findings have alignments with the four theses of ST; for instance, the recognition of various stakeholder groups by the firm’s ownership, and the initiatives to improve their quality of life clearly suggest associations with normative thesis.

Although the field of family entrepreneurship has grown significantly, many under-researched aspects of this discipline remain. For instance, family business research, including on CSR conducted in Western Australia, a state with a very strong economic significance, and with multiple links to the outside world is very limited.

The purpose of this paper is to understand values of family firms, which have progressed to the second or third generation and to reveal similarities in basic values of the firms, which have continued to be successful.

The research was realized with family members taking place at top management level in ten family firms applying a half‐structured interview method. Interview notes have been supported with observations from visits to firms and some firms, documents to be reviewed.

The research finds that family values are rather traditional hand, which the value of business are innovating. The researchers comment on this phenomenon not like paradox but a synergistic construct. In the other side, the founders are dominant factors in the formation of values of the family firms and the second generation voluntarily continues this effect.

This research reached important findings showing that some sets of values are determinant in continuity of family firms and showing the critical role of founders in this process. So, while the researchers form questions of the research to be developed on the interaction of family and business dimensions or form the action plan of executors who will provide professional support to family firms, that they should focus on values must be seen important. In the other side, to reveal these values taking shape in life period of family firms is only possible with deep researches.

Family firm literature is a late developing literature. However, many more questions concerning these kinds of firms await strong answers. Especially, to understand values of family firms is quite important in understanding strategic visions and continuity problem. In addition, there is need for numerous comprehensive studies on cultural values of family firms to clarify problematic of the family firms profiting the examples which come from the different country. This study can be demonstrated that traditional family values and innovative business values create a synergy rather than a paradox and an advantage in business continuity. Probably, this situation is associated with the cultural context.