Succession in family business and environmental investment: the moderating role of external environment

After more than 40 years of opening the door to the outside world, Chinese family firms have developed rapidly, but also caused the problem of serious environmental pollution. The solution to the problem stems inevitably from the innovation in environmental protection technology. This means the environmental investment of family firms determines whether the enterprise can maintain sustainable development. However, Chinese family firms have been going through a critical period of intergenerational succession. This study aims to use the data of Chinese Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed family firms from 2013 to 2020 to study the relationship between intergenerational succession of family enterprises and environmental protection investment. We also examine the moderating role of the two different types of external environment – the government and the market. The regression results of the Tobit model of the full sample and subsample show that succession has a significant positive impact on family business environmental investment, and this impact is more significant in companies whose successors have overseas experience. Environmental regulation will strengthen the positive impact of succession on corporate environmental investment, while market competition will weaken it. Based on the findings, we also discuss policy recommendations. These findings are of great significance to the green and sustainable development of family firms.