Family Hands, Greener Firms? The Effects of Family Management and Ownership on ESG Performance

ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of family management and ownership on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of Brazilian publicly listed companies. Using panel data from 105 firms listed on B3 between 2010 and 2024, the results indicate that family‐managed firms exhibit a significant negative effect on both aggregate ESG scores and their individual pillars, whereas family ownership exerts no significant effect. These findings remain robust when implementing propensity score matching (PSM) as a robustness check. The study contributes to the literature by disentangling the managerial and ownership dimensions of family involvement and linking them to disaggregated ESG outcomes. By combining socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective with pillar‐level ESG analysis in an emerging market setting, the research uncovers heterogeneous sustainability incentives within family‐controlled firms that have been overlooked in prior studies. These findings offer insights for investors, analysts, creditors, and policymakers in evaluating ESG‐related risks and governance structures in family firms.