1046: Family Ownership and the Impact of Motives on Sustainability Practices in SMEs (17616)

Given the lack of studies on the drivers of various sustainability practices within the realm of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this paper aims to enhance our understanding of how family ownership influences the relationship between three groups of motives (moral, relational, and instrumental) and SMEs’ sustainability practices (environmental, social, and governance). We develop a conceptual model and empirically test it using survey-based data from 259 SMEs across different industries. The results indicate that family ownership positively moderates the relationships between moral motives and all three groups of sustainability practices. Contrary to our expectations, no statistically significant moderating effect of family ownership on the relationships between relational motives and the three groups sustainability practices was observed. Finally, family ownership strengthens the relationships between instrumental motives and two groups of SMEs’ sustainability practices, namely social and governance, while its effect on the relationships between instrumental motives and environmental practices is not significant. The study contributes to the existing literature on Socio-Emotional Wealth (SEW) theory by offering a more systematic understanding of how family ownership shapes the relationships between SMEs’ motives and sustainability practices.

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