Socioemotional Wealth and Corporate Responses to Institutional Pressures: Do Family-Controlled Firms Pollute Less?

This paper compares the environmental performance of family and nonfamily public corporations between 1998 and 2002, using a sample of 194 U.S. firms required to report their emissions. We found that family-controlled public firms protect their socioemotional wealth by having a better environmental...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Administrative science quarterly 2010-03, Vol.55 (1), p.82-113
Main Authors: Berrone, Pascual, Cruz, Cristina, Gomez-Mejia, Luis R., Larraza-Kintana, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business management
Business structures
Chief executive officers
Companies
Corporate strategies
Corporations
Emissions
Enterprises
Environment
Environmental impact
Environmental management
Environmental performance
Environmental policy
Environmental regulation
Environmental sociology
Families & family life
Family firms
Family owned businesses
Industrial regulation
Institutions
Management science
Ownership
Pollution
Public enterprise
Studies
Wealth
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Summary:This paper compares the environmental performance of family and nonfamily public corporations between 1998 and 2002, using a sample of 194 U.S. firms required to report their emissions. We found that family-controlled public firms protect their socioemotional wealth by having a better environmental performance than their nonfamily counterparts, particularly at the local level, and that for the nonfamily firms, stock ownership by the chief executive officer (CEO) has a negative environmental impact. We also found that the positive effect of family ownership on environmental performance persists independently of whether the CEO is a family member or serves both as CEO and board chair.
ISSN:0001-8392
1930-3815
DOI:10.2189/asqu.2010.55.1.82