Family firms are ubiquitous and play a crucial role across all world economies, but how they differ in the disclosure of social and environmental actions from non-family firms has been largely overlooked in the literature. Advancing the discourse on corporate social responsibility reporting, we examine how family influence on a business organization affects CSR reporting. The arguments developed here draw on institutional theory, using a rich body of empirical evidence gathered through a content analysis of the CSR reports of 98 large- and medium-sized Italian firms. The grounded theory analysis informs and contextualizes several differences in the type and content of corporate social responsibility reports of family and non-family firms. Our findings show that in comparison to non-family firms, family firms disseminate a greater variety of CSR reports, are less compliant with CSR standards and place emphasis on different CSR topics. We, thus, contribute to the family business and corporate social responsibility reporting literatures in several ways, offering implications for practice and outlining promising avenues for future research.

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: A Content Analysis in Family and Non-family Firms

In recent years, the correct representation of environmental performance has become increasingly important. In light of this, in the academic field, numerous researchers have examined the level and quality of environmental disclosure. However, in the context of studies relating to the determinants of environmental disclosure, little attention has been paid to the role of environmental innovation. This study, in the context of voluntary disclosure theory, aims to fill this important gap through the analysis of the impact of environmental innovation on the level of integrated environmental information disclosed by companies and the analysis of environmental performance as a mediating factor in this relationship. The results show a positive relationship between environmental innovation and integrated environmental disclosure. In addition, they show that environmental performance represents a mediating factor in this relationship. However, complementary analyses show that responsible firms adopt silent strategies in their environmental integrated disclosure policies in order to limit the knowledge by external users of the different environmental actions implemented.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/11/1/29/pdf

Are Environmentally Innovative Companies Inclined towards Integrated Environmental Disclosure Policies

This paper uses a sample of 1243 international firms for the period 2013–2017 to analyse the effect that a greater presence of women in management teams has on business behaviour in relation to labour and human rights, and the mediating role of improved performance in these rights on corporate transparency. The results show that gender diversity in management teams is positively associated with performance in relation to labour and human rights, and that such a performance acts as a mediating factor by fostering a higher disclosure of information regarding these issues. The findings therefore seem to indicate that the presence of women in management teams acts as a driving force for enhanced social responsibility.

/pdf/labour-practice-decent-work-and-human-rights-performance-and-4j1asayge0.pdf

Labour Practice, Decent Work and Human Rights Performance and Reporting: The Impact of Women Managers

Recent research shows the existence of a selective corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure strategy that creates a gap between CSR disclosure and actual performance. These CSR decoupling practices compromise the credibility of CSR reports and have triggered a demand for the adoption of credibility enhancement mechanisms, such as adherence to the global reporting initiative (GRI) reporting guidelines, and the external assurance of CSR reports. The effectiveness of such mechanisms is not clear, however. This paper draws on legitimacy theory and addresses the issue of symbolic versus substantive use of assurance, and compliance with GRI reporting standards, by analysing their effect on CSR decoupling using an international sample of 1,939 companies (15,219 observations from 2002 to 2017). Analysis of a sub-sample of 708 firms (3,730 observations from 2011 to 2017) also shows that the application of GRI guidelines and the specific characteristics of the assurance provider—accountant, experience and specialisation—reduce CSR decoupling practices. The results provide researchers, managers, assurance providers, investors, stakeholders and regulators with additional insight into the value of the external assurance of sustainability reports and have important managerial and policy implications.

Assurance of corporate social responsibility reports: Does it reduce decoupling practices?

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/sd.2246

The drivers of the integration of the sustainable development goals into the non-financial information system: Individual and joint analysis of their influence

This paper aims to analyse the behaviours related to the decoupling of the disclosed information on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability, deepening these practices’ knowledge within family businesses. For this purpose, we defined decoupling as a gap between social responsibility performance (internal actions) and disclosures (external actions). For a sample of 33,809 observations for the period 2011–2019, corresponding to 5029 companies, 19% being family firms, our empirical evidence supports that family firms present a less wide gap between performance and disclosure, confirming the prevalence of socioemotional wealth dimensions in the decision-making of these companies. In firms without controlled shareholders, the quality of nonfinancial reporting could be understood as ambiguous, understanding that the most useful CSR information is found in the reports of family-owned companies.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/11/1/30/pdf

Family Firms and Coupling among CSR Disclosures and Performance



Sustainability has become strategic since companies are aware that they must make a positive contribution to society and the environment in which they operate. At the same time, alliances have been formed and pacts have been made among nations to attempt to solve the social, economic and environmental problems that today's society faces. This is the case of the UN's 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This action plan entails the development of different initiatives to help face the challenges of this century, which have increased notably with the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this study is to carry out an analysis of Spanish companies' commitment to the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs and verify what types of activities they propose to ratify their commitment in an uncertain period for firms. For a sample of 100 observations of Spanish firms in 2020 and 2021, we evidence that SDGs 4 (Quality education), 8 (Decent work and economic growth), 9 (Industry, innovation, and infrastructure), 13 (Climate action) and 17 (Partnerships for the goals) have been adopted by many companies, which have presented initiatives, projects and programmes to achieve their goals. Commitment to the SDGs had a positive evolution in 2021, i.e., firms created economic value, protected the environment and contributed to greater social well-being. Our results show companies' preferences in terms of stakeholders as their SDGs' actions focus on women, older people, young people, workers and trade unions, local governments and researchers in issues related to climate change. The paper contributes with a global assessment of companies' initiatives and helps to determine the impact of uncertain environments on business commitments to the 2030 Agenda.



Tania Azevedo

Papers

Family Firms and Coupling among CSR Disclosures and Performance

Spanish business commitment to the 2030 Agenda in uncertain times