Do female family directors affect corporate social responsibility in Chinese family firms?

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the relationship between female family directorship and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the specific context of Chinese family firms. It explores the moderating influences of gender inequality, family ownership and economic policy uncertainty. Based on social role theory, we find that female family directorship is associated with a stronger commitment to external CSR engagement than to internal CSR. Moreover, gender inequality and family ownership attenuate the relationship between female family directorship and external CSR, while economic policy uncertainty enhances their impact on external CSR. Overall, we contribute to the literature at the intersection of family firms, female leadership, and corporate social responsibility.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporate social responsibility
• economic policy uncertainty
• family firm
• female directors
• gender inequality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 72372094, 72272090, 72202127]; Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China [No. GD21CGL28]; Guangdong Provincial Key Research Project in Universities [2022WCXTD006].

Notes on contributors

Lihong Song

Lihong Song is a Professor at the School of Business, Shantou University. She is now the vice Director of the School’s Global Chaoshang Research Center and has been a visiting scholar at Lancaster University and Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests are entrepreneurship, strategic management, and family business governance. She has published widely on Chinese family business and entrepreneurship issues in major management journals including Management and Organization Review, Tourism Management Perspectives, Chinese Management Studies.

Wanshi He

Wanshi He is a postgraduate student in business administration at Shantou University Business School. Her research interests focus on family business innovation, entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility.

Likai Zou

Likai Zou is a PhD in business administration from Sun Yat-Sen University (China). He is a lecturer at Shantou University Business School. His current research interests are entrepreneurship and family business management, particularly case studies on family business succession and entrepreneurship.

Menghui Xu

Menghui Xu is a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong Tian LLP, Shenzhen Branch. Her research interests focus on family business innovation and corporate social responsibility.