Firms’ Environmental Commitment and Environmental Protection: Is Family Involvement a Catalyst for True Environmental Responsibility?

The adoption of a proactive environmental protection behaviour involves a cultural predisposition on the part of the organisation and also attitudinal readiness of its members to adhere to and implement such behaviour. This predisposition should be translated into an organisational commitment to this behaviour. Eventually, this organisational commitment should be translated into actual actions to protect the environment, such as reducing energy consumption, reducing waste, preserving natural resources, and protecting biodiversity. The aim of this research is to study the relationship between environmental commitment and environmental protection in the specific case of family businesses. We closely examine, through a sample of 182 Moroccan family businesses how environmental commitment impacts actual environmental protection. We also investigate whether there is a moderating effect of the family influence — operationalised through family involvement in ownership and management — on the relationship between these two variables. The findings show that a firm’s commitment to environmental concerns exerts a positive influence on its actual environmental protection actions. Additionally, the involvement of family members in the firm, both in ownership and management, appears to positively impact these environmental protection actions. The findings also substantiate the presence of a significant moderating effect attributable to family ownership. Therefore, the more a firm’s ownership is in family hands, the more the firm’s environmental commitment actually translates into concrete environmental protection.