The socially responsible performance in family firms: moderators and consequences on tax aggressiveness and earnings management
[ENG] This research examines the determinants and consequences of corporate social responsibility performance in family firms. Concretely, it has two closely related objectives. First, to examine how family firms behave towards social and environmental performance considering governance and environmental aspects as contingency factors. Second, to examine how corporate social responsibility impacts on tax avoidance and earnings management practices and how, family ownership and management could moderate these relationships. This research makes use of an international sample for the period 2006-2014 and proposes several regression models for panel data. The evidence reported is as follows. First, the results support family firms behave towards corporate social responsibility, aiming to preserve their socioemotional wealth. Moreover, the socially responsible behavior of family firms is greater: (i) under the large presence of family members on the management team and family directors on the board of directors (governance factors) and (ii) in munificent contexts (environment factor) Regarding the second objective, two main evidence is reported. On the one hand, social and environmental performance is negatively related with tax avoidance so that firms with a greater socially responsible performance show a lower tax saving practices. However, this negative relation is lower in family-owned firms, what suggests that despite the fact that family firms show a greater socially responsible behavior aimed to preserve their socioemotional endowments, family ownership is positively associated with tax avoidance practices. On the other hand, evidence is opposite by examining earnings management practices. At this respect, social and environmental performance is positively related with earnings management; firms with a greater socially responsible performance show a higher discretionary behavior by promoting actions that mask the real financial and economic performance of the firm. But, again, this positive relation is lower – moderated - in family-owned firms, mainly because of the fact that family firms show a greater socially responsible behavior aimed to preserve their socioemotional endowments and are negatively associated with earnings management practices.
Contabilidad financiera, Teoría fiscal, Organizaciones internacionales, Familia y parentesco, Responsabilidad social corporativa, Family firms, Corporate social responsibility, Corporate governance
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