Dr Ella Xu

This study examines the different impact of ownership on greenwashing. Employing an international sample of family–controlled firms and PSM–matched non–family counterparts, it is found that family businesses are less likely to engage in greenwashing practices. Further analysis of the heterogeneity of this phenomenon on external, institutional, regulatory, jurisdictional and cultural contexts. The findings reflect that family ownership matters, and family firms are more likely to walk the talk compared to their counterparts.

This study explores how firms navigate the growing awareness of carbon emissions when adopting green strategies to maintain legitimacy and reputation. Driven by financial incentives, some firms may project strong environmental performance without implementing actual emission reduction efforts, which leads to carbon-washing. This study focuses on the role of ownership structure in carbon-washing behaviours by comparing family businesses to non-family businesses. Integrating legitimacy and signaling theories with the socioemotional wealth concept, the findings confirm the presence of carbon-washing, revealing that family businesses are less willing to engage in carbon-washing practices than non-family businesses. This study also investigates the drivers of carbon-washing through multiple mechanisms, including ESG reputation, Carbon Emission Trading Scheme implementation, and legal contexts, and further considers the influence of national culture. Our findings challenge the conventional assumption that a high environmental performance rating aligns with genuine carbon emissions reduction, highlighting the nuances of corporate carbon-washing behaviour across the firm-, industry-, and country- levels.

This study explores how the director network (DN) influences corporate digital technology innovation (CDTI) by considering resource and peer effects. Focusing on Chinese listed enterprises, our results reveal that enterprises with higher director network centrality (DNC) achieve greater CDTI. Moreover, peers' CDTI boosts the focal enterprise's CDTI and strengthens the positive effect of DNC on CDTI. Mechanism analysis suggests that DNC enhances CDTI through promoting research and development investment and digitalisation. Furthermore, the effects of DNC on CDTI are confirmed through heterogeneity analysis of non–state–owned enterprises, non–Big4 enterprises, and enterprises in growth and mature stages.

This study examines the mediating effect of R&D investment on the relationship between corporate governance and enterprise value, considering ownership (i.e., family vs. non-family firms) and jurisdictional differences (i.e., common law vs. civil law). Using a multinational sample from 2009 to 2018, this study reveals that R&D negatively and partially mediates the relationship between corporate governance and enterprise value, with a more substantial effect in family firms within a civil law context. This supports the assumption that family firms are more conservative towards R&D investment. This study highlights the need for strategic decision-making to consider ownership differences and legal context in shaping enterprise value.

Purpose: This study investigates effects of corporate governance on the financial performance of family-controlled firms and how these effects differ between common law and civil law jurisdictions.

Design/methodology/approach: This study applies a number of corporate governance measures to the largest 243 publicly listed family-controlled businesses worldwide from 2009 to 2018. The corporate governance measures include board independence, board gender diversity, corporate governance index (CGI) and the percentage of family ownership.

Findings: The empirical evidence indicates that board independence improves financial performance; this positive effect is more pronounced in common law than civil law jurisdictions. Board gender diversity has a negative impact on financial performance under common law but a positive impact in civil law jurisdictions. Moreover, the CGI and family ownership structure are positively associated with financial performance, and no difference is found between the two jurisdiction types. In addition, family ownership negatively moderates CGI in civil law countries only.

Originality/value: This study provides new insight on the relevance of considering jurisdictional differences when examining the effect of corporate governance on performance. The study also addresses important concerns in family business research relating to unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity. Implications of these for research and practice are discussed in the paper.

Purpose: The paper aims to examine the effect of corporate governance (CG) on innovation investment, with consideration of ownership types and legal jurisdictions.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors' empirical analysis is based on a sample of publicly listed family businesses (FBs) from the top-500-list that matched worldwide with non-family counterparts from 2009 to 2018. The study uses a holistic measure of CG to mitigate the conflicting impact of individual CG components found in prior studies. This measure is applied to examine the moderating role of firm ownership type and legal jurisdiction.

Findings: The authors' results demonstrate that CG positively influences innovation investment. This positive relationship is more pronounced in FBs than in non-family businesses (NFBs) and is more prevalent in civil law economies than in common law economies.

Originality/value: The study holistically examines the effect of CG, capturing the combination of all individual governance mechanisms and their influence on innovation investment. The study further shows that comprehensive CG has diverse impacts on innovation investment when considering family control and legal jurisdiction.

This study investigates the mediating effect of corporate social responsibility on the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance and whether this effect varies between family and non-family businesses. Based on a cross-national sample of the 500 largest family businesses matched to a non-family business sample from 2009 to 2018, it has been found that corporate social responsibility partially mediates the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance in the full sample. Further, the mediation effect is stronger in family businesses than in non-family businesses. This supports the conjecture that in their pursuit of socioemotional wealth, family businesses are more likely to implement corporate governance to ensure corporate social responsibility, thus enhancing future firm performance. These findings provide insights for all stakeholders, from business owners to regulators and policymakers, aiming to improve and sustain business performance.