CLAN CULTURE AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN CHINESE FAMILY FIRMS

Abstract

The clan cultural heritage accumulated over thousands of years is crucial for understanding corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviors in Chinese family firms. This paper uses city-level genealogy density data to examine the impact of clan culture on family firms’ CSR behavior. Findings show that clan culture can significantly improve family firms’ CSR behavior, even considering the endogeneity. For the influence mechanism, we find that clan culture’s spirit of solidarity and mutual benefit and moral restraint effect are important influence mechanisms. We also analyze the moderating effects of ultimate shareholder experience, family involvement, and institutional environment on the relationship between clan culture and family firms’ CSR and find that clan culture shows a much larger impact on family firms’ CSR behavior in those firms with higher family involvement, lower government intervention, or whose ultimate shareholder has Cultural Revolution experience or lacks overseas experience.