CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN FAMILY FIRMS - STATUS QUO AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Motivated by the high relevance of family firms (FFs) for the economies of almost every country in the world and by the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), especially for such firms, we conduct a systematic literature review within the fields of management and business research in order to define current knowledge about and relevance to CSR in FFs to foster a deeper understanding of, as well as to contribute to the necessary restructuring of the research field. This systematic literature review is based on a sample of 64 peer-reviewed journal articles found through a systematic, keyword-based literature search of seven databases. Findings show that academic interest in CSR in FFs has increased within the last ten years, that there are several differences and similarities between FFs and non-family firms (NFFs) in terms of CSR, a lot of different characteristics influencing CSR in FFs, and that CSR activities have several outcomes for FFs (e.g., increased employee commitment, positive impacts on financial performance). We conclude with a broad array of potentially fruitful research implications, amongst others further research on CSR in FFs, especially long-term studies of the outcomes of CSR and studies dealing with more than one country (so that findings may be comparable and generalizable), as well as further qualitative studies. Keywords corporate social responsibility (CSR), family firms (FFs), systematic literature review

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