The mediating effect of ethical codes on the link between family firms and their social performance

This article brings together research on social performance, codes of ethics and family firms. Using a panel dataset composed of 547 internationally listed companies for the period 2002-2010, we test empirically whether the use of formal ethical codes could be a reason to explain the differences between social performance in family and non-family firms. We empirically show that family firms tend to present a lower social performance than non-family firms, and the use of formal ethical codes mediate such relationship.