IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v62y2024ipbs1544612324002733.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The veil of secrecy: Family firms’ approach to ESG transparency and the role of institutional investors

Author

Listed:
  • Arduino, Francesca Romana
  • Buchetti, Bruno
  • Harasheh, Murad

Abstract

Our analysis explores the relationship between family ownership and ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) transparency in Italian companies from 2016–2020, employing agency theory, stakeholder theory, and Socio Emotional Wealth (SEW). We find that family-owned firms typically exhibit lower ESG transparency, especially in social aspects, due to priorities like privacy and legacy. Institutional investors (IIs), however, play a crucial role in enhancing transparency, mitigating the usual opacity in these firms. This highlights the importance of IIs in advancing ESG disclosures, providing strategic insights for addressing the transparency challenges associated with family ownership and improving governance practices to narrow the corporate transparency gap.

Suggested Citation

  • Arduino, Francesca Romana & Buchetti, Bruno & Harasheh, Murad, 2024. "The veil of secrecy: Family firms’ approach to ESG transparency and the role of institutional investors," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:62:y:2024:i:pb:s1544612324002733
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2024.105243
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612324002733
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2024.105243?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anna Tilba, 2022. "Appearance or substance of Stewardship and ESG reporting? The challenges of translating ‘commitment’ into tangible outcomes," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(5), pages 1015-1032, July.
    2. Erhemjamts, Otgontsetseg & Huang, Kershen, 2019. "Institutional ownership horizon, corporate social responsibility and shareholder value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 61-79.
    3. Yupei Liu & Weian Li & Qiankun Meng, 2023. "Influence of distracted mutual fund investors on corporate ESG decoupling: evidence from China," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 14(1), pages 184-215, January.
    4. Villalonga, Belen & Amit, Raphael, 2006. "How do family ownership, control and management affect firm value?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 385-417, May.
    5. Amore, Mario Daniele & Pelucco, Valerio & Quarato, Fabio, 2022. "Family ownership during the Covid-19 pandemic," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    6. Tamas Barko & Martijn Cremers & Luc Renneboog, 2022. "Shareholder Engagement on Environmental, Social, and Governance Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 777-812, October.
    7. Lozano, M. Belén & Martínez-Ferrero, Jennifer, 2022. "Do emerging and developed countries differ in terms of sustainable performance? Analysis of board, ownership and country-level factors," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    8. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1986. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 461-488, June.
    9. Habiba Al‐Shaer & Mahbub Zaman, 2018. "Credibility of sustainability reports: The contribution of audit committees," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 973-986, November.
    10. Artie W. Ng & Tiffany Cheng Han Leung & Tao-Wang Yu & Charles H. Cho & Tai Ming Wut, 2023. "Disparities in ESG reporting by emerging Chinese enterprises: evidence from a global financial center," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 14(2), pages 343-368, February.
    11. Chen, Zhongfei & Xie, Guanxia, 2022. "ESG disclosure and financial performance: Moderating role of ESG investors," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    12. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999. "Corporate Ownership Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, April.
    13. Priti Yadav & Anshul Jain, 2023. "Sustainability disclosures and corporate boards: a stakeholder approach to decision-making," Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(5), pages 1027-1047, April.
    14. Sara De Masi & Agnieszka Słomka‐Gołębiowska & Claudio Becagli & Andrea Paci, 2021. "Toward sustainable corporate behavior: The effect of the critical mass of female directors on environmental, social, and governance disclosure," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1865-1878, May.
    15. Murad Harasheh & Roberta Provasi, 2023. "A need for assurance: Do internal control systems integrate environmental, social, and governance factors?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 384-401, January.
    16. Aluchna, Maria & Roszkowska-Menkes, Maria & Kamiński, Bogumił & Bosek-Rak, Dominika, 2022. "Do institutional investors encourage firm to social disclosure? The stakeholder salience perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 674-682.
    17. repec:bla:jfinan:v:58:y:2003:i:3:p:1301-1327 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Finja Lena Kind & Jennifer Zeppenfeld & Rainer Lueg, 2023. "The impact of chief executive officer narcissism on environmental, social, and governance reporting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4448-4466, November.
    19. Yu, Ellen Pei-yi & Luu, Bac Van, 2021. "International variations in ESG disclosure – Do cross-listed companies care more?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    20. Vishal P. Baloria & Kenneth J. Klassen & Christine I. Wiedman, 2019. "Shareholder Activism and Voluntary Disclosure Initiation: The Case of Political Spending†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(2), pages 904-933, June.
    21. James J. Chrisman & Jess H. Chua & Reginald A. Litz, 2004. "Comparing the Agency Costs of Family and Non–Family Firms: Conceptual Issues and Exploratory Evidence," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 28(4), pages 335-354, July.
    22. Mercedes Alda, 2019. "Corporate sustainability and institutional shareholders: The pressure of social responsible pension funds on environmental firm practices," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 1060-1071, September.
    23. Wan, Yang & Hong, Ziyi & Liu, Wenqing & Cui, Jiashuo, 2023. "Executives’ education: A catalyst for enhanced ESG disclosure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    24. Shane S. Dikolli & Mary Margaret Frank & Zhe Michael Guo & Luann J. Lynch, 2022. "Walk the talk: ESG mutual fund voting on shareholder proposals," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 864-896, September.
    25. Ronald C. Anderson & David M. Reeb, 2003. "Founding‐Family Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from the S&P 500," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1301-1328, June.
    26. Huang, Qiping & Li, Yongjia & Lin, Meimei & McBrayer, Garrett A., 2022. "Natural disasters, risk salience, and corporate ESG disclosure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Svenja Jarchow & Christoph Kaserer & Henry Keppler, 2023. "Family firm performance in times of crisis—new evidence from Germany," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(3), pages 543-580, September.
    2. Liu, Qigui & Luo, Tianpei & Tian, Gary Gang, 2015. "Family control and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 220-245.
    3. Hoje Jo & Maretno Harjoto, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Firm Value: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 351-383, October.
    4. Adhikari, Hari P. & Sutton, Ninon K., 2016. "All in the family: The effect of family ownership on acquisition performance," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 65-78.
    5. Bouzgarrou, Houssam & Navatte, Patrick, 2013. "Ownership structure and acquirers performance: Family vs. non-family firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 123-134.
    6. Markin, Erik T. & Skorodziyevskiy, Vitaliy & Zhu, Lina & Chrisman, James J. & Fang, Hanqing “Chevy”, 2022. "Lone-founder firms in China: Replicating Miller et al. (2007) in a different context," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4).
    7. Henrique Castro Martins & Cristiano Machado Costa, 2020. "Does control concentration affect board busyness? International evidence," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(3), pages 821-850, September.
    8. Joanna Ho & Feng Tian & Anne Wu & Sean Xin Xu, 2017. "Seeking Value Through Deviation? Economic Impacts of IT Overinvestment and Underinvestment," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 850-862, December.
    9. Imad Jabbouri & Rachid Jabbouri, 2021. "Ownership identity and firm performance: Pre‐ and post‐crisis evidence from an African emerging market," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 5963-5976, October.
    10. Wang, Liang & Qi, Jiahan & Zhuang, Hongyu, 2023. "Monitoring or Collusion? Multiple Large Shareholders and Corporate ESG Performance: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    11. King, Roger & Peng, Winnie Qian, 2013. "The effect of industry characteristics on the control longevity of founding-family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 281-295.
    12. repec:dau:papers:123456789/9552 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Morck, Randall & Deniz Yavuz, M. & Yeung, Bernard, 2011. "Banking system control, capital allocation, and economy performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 264-283, May.
    14. San Martin-Reyna, J.M. & Duran-Encalada, Jorge A., 2012. "The relationship among family business, corporate governance and firm performance: Evidence from the Mexican stock exchange," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 106-117.
    15. Isabel Abinzano & Pilar Corredor & Beatriz Martinez, 2021. "Does family ownership always reduce default risk?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 4025-4060, September.
    16. Eugster, Nicolas & Wang, Qingxia, 2023. "Large blockholders and stock price crash risk: An international study," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    17. Belot, François & Ginglinger, Edith & Slovin, Myron B. & Sushka, Marie E., 2014. "Freedom of choice between unitary and two-tier boards: An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(3), pages 364-385.
    18. Haw, In-Mu & Ho, Simon S.M. & Hu, Bingbing & Wu, Donghui, 2010. "Concentrated control, institutions, and banking sector: An international study," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 485-497, March.
    19. Hsin-Yi Chi & Tzu-Ching Weng & Guang-Zheng Chen & Shu-Ping Chen, 2019. "Do Political Connections Affect the Conservative Financial Reporting of Family Firms?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-20, October.
    20. Anaïs Hamelin, 2013. "Influence of family ownership on small business growth. Evidence from French SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 563-579, October.
    21. Lucía Garcés-Galdeano & Martín Larraza-Kintana & Carmen García-Olaverri & Marianna Makri, 2016. "Entrepreneurial orientation in family firms: the moderating role of technological intensity and performance," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 27-45, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate governance; ESG disclosure; Family firms; Institutional investors;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:62:y:2024:i:pb:s1544612324002733. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.