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Family Ownership and Corporate Environmental Responsibility: The Contingent Effect of Venture Capital and Institutional Environment

Author

Listed:
  • Zhu Zhu

    (Department of Management, Feliciano School of Business, Montclair State University, 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA)

  • Feifei Lu

    (SILC Business School, Shanghai University, 99 Shangda Road, Shanghai 200444, China
    Department of Management, School of Business, University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia)

Abstract

As scholars and policy makers pay more attention to the environmental impact of economic activities, more focus has been placed on the corporate environmental responsibility (CER) of family firms, which accounts for the majority of businesses in both developed and developing countries. Using a sample of 4714 private enterprises across 23 provinces in China, the current study examines the effect of family ownership on CER investment, as well as the moderating effects of venture capital investment and local institutional development. Results show that concentrated family ownership leads to lower CER spending, however, when venture capital investment comes from developed markets, the negative relationship is reversed. In addition, the marketization level of the province in which a family firm is headquartered mitigates the negative relationship between family ownership and CER investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhu Zhu & Feifei Lu, 2020. "Family Ownership and Corporate Environmental Responsibility: The Contingent Effect of Venture Capital and Institutional Environment," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-18, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:13:y:2020:i:6:p:110-:d:365646
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    2. Jacint Balaguer & Ana Cuadros & Jose García-Quevedo, 2023. "Does foreign ownership promote environmental protection? Evidence from firm-level data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 227-244, January.
    3. Gourene, Grakolet & Hamouda, Samia Mansour & Brixiova, Zuzana, 2024. "Trend in Energy Intensity and Carbon Performance in North Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 16854, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Buccella, Domenico & Fanti, Luciano & Gori, Luca, 2022. "‘Green’ managerial delegation theory," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(3), pages 223-249, June.
    5. Wenzhen Mai & Nik Intan Norhan Binti Abdul Hamid, 2021. "The Moderating Effect of Family Business Ownership on the Relationship between Short-Selling Mechanism and Firm Value for Listed Companies in China," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-20, May.

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