How Do Family Firm Ownership and Governance Structures Impact the Digitalization of Business Strategy for Sustainability: A Catalyst or an Obstacle?

ABSTRACT Previous research shows that family businesses are ideal candidates for contributing to the sustainable development of society due to characteristic features such as their transgenerational aspirations. Additionally, many studies suggest that new technologies may be an antecedent to the improvement of companies' sustainability performance. The aim of this paper is to understand how the digitalization of business strategy contributes to improving the sustainability performance of family businesses. Also, recognizing the wide heterogeneity among family businesses, we assess how the ownership and corporate governance structures of the family business condition the relationship between strategy digitalization and family business sustainability performance. We test our hypotheses using the STEP Project Global Consortium database of family businesses from multiple economic sectors around the world. The results obtained confirm that the digitalization of strategy has a direct positive effect on family business sustainability performance, while the moderating effects of ownership and corporate governance structures act in opposite directions: family ownership negatively influences the impact of the digitalization of strategy on family business sustainability performance, but corporate governance structures positively moderate its effect. Our findings suggest that family businesses need to carefully balance ownership dynamics and corporate governance structures to maximize the sustainability benefits of business strategy digitalization. These insights can guide family business members, advisors, and policymakers in creating more effective strategies to enhance sustainability performance.