This article critically reviews and meta-analyzes the environmental performance of family firms. Using a sample of 40,910 firms covering a 12-year period, we conclude that the average effect of family involvement on environmental performance is negative, albeit small. This negative effect is more pronounced in primary studies that measure environmental performance via the environmental operational practices adopted and in those that define family business using the family ownership and management criteria. Our findings suggest that from an agency perspective, and compared with nonfamily firms, the negative view of the environmental performance of family firms prevails over the positive view.

本文批判性地回顾和荟萃分析了家族企业的环境绩效。使用涵盖 12 年期间的 40,910 家公司的样本，我们得出结论，家庭参与对环境绩效的平均影响是负面的，尽管很小。这种负面影响在通过采用的环境运营实践来衡量环境绩效的主要研究中以及在使用家族所有权和管理标准来定义家族企业的研究中更为明显。我们的研究结果表明，从代理的角度来看，与非家族企业相比，对家族企业环境绩效的负面看法优于正面看法。