Family leadership and CSR decoupling: Founder-descendant differences in socioemotional wealth

Abstract

Founders of family firms differ from descendants, particularly in terms of affective attachment, cognitive identification, and social concern. This study examines how these generational differences between founder-led and descendantled family firms affect corporate social responsibility (CSR) decoupling, which is the gap between stated CSR policies on paper and their actual implementation in practice. While decoupling may yield economic benefits by saving on implementation costs if concealed, it can damage socioemotional wealth if revealed. The findings, based on a sample of 3,576 firm-year observations from large firms in the United States, demonstrate that the relationship between family ownership and CSR decoupling is contingent upon family generation. Family ownership decreases CSR decoupling in founder family firms, while it increases CSR decoupling in descendant family firms. It indicates that family firms perceive the benefits and risks of CSR decoupling differently based on the generation of family leaders.