Family involvement, familiness and capacity for responsible engagement of family businesses: proposal for a conceptual framework

Abstract

The topic of social responsibility of family businesses is currently receiving increasing attention. The literature provided to date generally mobilizes the concept of socio-emotional wealth (SEW), to distinguish family businesses from others. However, to refer to SEW as the only determinant of the behavior of the family business is very reductive. This concept does not take into account, on the one hand, the discretionary power enjoyed by family owners and managers, and on the other hand, the ability to achieve desired results. Indeed, the angle of view based on the SEW largely obscures a characteristic, which made a large consensus, namely the familiness. Despite the apparent importance of familiness as a resource that differentiates family businesses from non-family businesses, studies analyzing its effect on the responsible engagement of family businesses remain very rare. Our objective in this conceptual paper is to examine the links between familiness, as a set of resources and skills, due to family involvement, and responsible business behavior. Part of a new vein of family business research, which postulates that the pursuit of SEW represents only the aspect of behavior relating to will, and clearly ignores the aspect of ability.